Good morning, Madam Chair and hon. members. I am very happy to be with you today.
Since 2016, I have led a criminology firm that does research, designs prevention tools and offers counseling and forensic expertise services. In the area of human trafficking, I am fortunate to have the opportunity to meet with victims, but also with traffickers and pimps. This gives me a comprehensive view of the phenomenon I will be speaking to you about today. I am going to focus on trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
In Canada, human trafficking is largely an internal phenomenon. A majority of the girls who are exploited are Canadians who are moved from province to province or city to city. That is the most common form of trafficking in Canada. Nonetheless, there are obviously also non-Canadian women.
Before going more deeply into the subject during the question period, when I will be very happy to answer your questions, I would like to use the five minutes I have right now to address a few very powerful and widespread myths that somewhat obscure our vision of sexual exploitation.
One of the myths we encounter a lot these days is that the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act makes prostituted individuals criminals and makes the practice itself more dangerous. To summarize, people say that targeting the purchase of sexual services would be a bad thing. In my opinion, that is completely false.
That act, which I believe is a modern one, is based on the right to live with dignity and equality, and rests on the principle that no one may buy a human being. In reality, the act protects prostituted individuals by giving them a new status, as victims. This means that they may report a situation to the police. Unfortunately, some victims do not do that, and not because they are afraid of the police. That is another myth: people think that prostituted individuals are afraid of being treated like criminals. That is false, because this act has expressly decriminalized solicitation. Before, it was the act of solicitation that was considered to be criminal. That is no longer the case now.
In Canada at present, we have a modern law that places us in the ranks of countries that most respect human rights. Under this law, it is the pimps and "prostitutors" who are regarded as criminals.
The prostitutors are the ones who determine what will be put on the market. That is exactly the thing: it is a market that operates like all other markets, based on supply and demand. In Canada at present, the market is composed of teenagers and young adults. A majority of prostitutors are men, but we should mention that not all men use prostituted women. It is estimated that between 11% and 12% of men in the country have been to a prostituted woman at least once. So it is not all men. It is wrong to think that a lot of men do it. It is certain men who go to prostituted individuals.
These prostitutors create a market that the pimps supply for them. Here, it is a market composed of teenagers and young adults. Between the ages of 12 and 22, a person is considered to be a very good commodity. Starting at 23, 24 or 25, it's still okay, but someone over the age of 25 is considered to be too old, in the market. That is the situation in the market.
I will conclude by raising a very important point: we have to strengthen the law we have put in place, to enable the police to do investigations. It is extremely difficult at present to conduct investigations.
I am going to stop there, but I will have other points to discuss with you afterward.