Thank you, Madam Chair.
I am happy that you raised the question of consent. I do not believe that there is a relationship between consent and human trafficking or prostitution generally.
I would like clarification. Some women say—I do not know whether they are in the minority or the majority—that they go into prostitution as a personal choice. Some groups, like the Stella group, fiercely demand the right to prostitution.
What do you think of that? Is prostitution really a right? Is it really an option?
On the other hand, people say that women do it to survive. There has been a great deal of discussion about this. It has been said that it is a matter of poverty, among other things. Are we not indirectly getting the message that it's a job like any other?
A person who crosses the border to work in a field on a farm—because the pay is higher in Canada than somewhere else—does so to survive. It's been said that when there is incredible poverty in a given country, these women cross the border, are lured and are victims of trafficking, which is very different from what they thought at the outset.
Is this line of argument contributing to this stream of thought—which Stella advocates—to the effect that it is an option, and that because they are poor, they chose to come here to engage in prostitution?