Thank you for your presentation today. It is very insightful, albeit I realize that you had to get through it very quickly.
There are a couple of things I want to ask you about. The first is on the source of this phenomenon--human trafficking. You mentioned, certainly, the critical issues around economic disadvantage, the vulnerability of women. We've discussed in this committee trying to keep it within the Canadian example, realizing that it is impossible in Canada to try to effect some kind of change in terms of economic disadvantage in other parts of the world.
However, we have not seen any evidence or any testimony that would suggest.... We recognize that there will always likely be, as long as we have society, people who will want to seek economic advantage. They'll want to be mobile so they can take advantage of economic and/or job opportunities in other parts of the world, and we'll deal with a level of vulnerability in our society.
Having said that, we have seen no evidence to suggest that while these people will, regrettably, more than the average, fall into becoming victims of this.... In fact, the source of this phenomenon is really the demand for it. In other words, we have had no real evidence to suggest that even if economic disadvantage was completely cured, as whimsical and as noble as that might be, it would take away the demand for prostitution or sexual slavery, which ultimately exists to feed a certain demand within society.
Could you comment on that?