Status of Women Committee on May 1st, 2023

[Tiana Sharifi]

There are digital platforms like OnlyFriends and TikTok, where the hashtag “sugar baby” has 1.5 billion views, and the normalization of self-exploitation and even prostitution digitally is being referred to now as “influencing”. So I will just say that we're seeing a shift in language and kids being groomed by themselves through these platforms into trafficking.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much.

We're now going to pass it over to Lori.

Lori, you have two and a half minutes.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Qujannamiik, Uqaqtittiji.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I will ask my question again of Ms. Timea Nagy—and this one I think is a bit of a bigger question because it's about refugees and migrant groups. I wonder if you could share with us what factors may contribute to an elevated risk of trafficking for undocumented and other refugee and migrant groups.

[Timea E. Nagy]

Thank you so much. It's a great question.

The elevated factors are how vulnerable they are, why they are in the country and what kind of vulnerability they have, just like every victim. Every single victim has one thing in common: What was the thing that they were so desperate for? Whether it's a 13-year-old Canadian girl or a migrant worker who comes over from Jamaica, why did they make such a big change that they want to come to Canada and leave their family behind, to work four or five months, sleep in a bunker, not seeing their family, only to make money? What is their desperation?

The factor that increases their chance of being trafficked is the fact that they're vulnerable, period. Why they're vulnerable could be for many different reasons. The problem is that once they are here, that makes it even worse for them because they don't have a support system; they don't know the law, they don't know whom to call, they might not even speak the language. And they're also terribly afraid of being deported, because once you've made it here—it is very difficult to get here—you don't want to go back because you were sold that dream that you could potentially fix your family's financial crisis, get the money for your mom's cancer medication, and the list goes on.

That's a very short answer.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Could you provide testimony to this committee? With the report that will come out, we hope to see better protections for people, for individuals specifically in this area. Knowing what these elevated risks are, would you provide recommendations to make sure that we know in what ways we can help make those systemic changes that you were calling for earlier?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Timea, we're coming to the end, so if you could make it brief, then we can have a plan of action on how we want to get the recommendations from you as well.

Go ahead, Timea.

[Timea E. Nagy]

On that note, I can put it in writing. I think there's literally no way of doing that effectively in 10 or 20 seconds.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Timea, that's why I thought I'd interrupt first, because I know, with all of the expertise in your head right now, I can't imagine trying to get.... We're starting with the first split of hair.

This is the end of our first panel. We are going to be suspending for a few minutes because the next panellists are all online, so we're going to do sound checks.

Thank you very much to our witnesses. Thank you so much Timea, Tiana, Linda and Jeanne for bringing forward all of your testimony today.

We're going to suspend for about a minute and a half.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I call this meeting back to order.

Welcome to our panellists for this next round.

I would like to welcome Cathy Peters, who is here to testify as an individual. From the Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation, we have Kathleen Quinn, the executive director. From the Aboriginal Women's Action Network, we have Fay Blaney, the lead matriarch.

I'm going to pass it over to Kathleen Quinn for the Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation for five minutes.

Cathy, I know somebody in our IT will start working with you.

Kathleen, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Kathleen Quinn, Executive Director, Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation]

Good afternoon, members of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. Thank you for this invitation and this opportunity.

I will begin my comments with three recent news stories from Edmonton.

The first is from April 26. A man accused of trafficking two 15-year-old girls faces 34 charges, including trafficking, procuring, advertising, material benefit, possession and distribution of child pornography, sexual assault and other charges. Police believe there are two other girls he was attempting to lure into the sex trade.

The next article is from April 5: “Man gets 6-year sentence for sex trafficking 2 Edmonton teenage girls”. The article stated that the judge said he “considered the vulnerability of the 16 and 17-year-old girls—both of whom came from poor families”. The trafficker “psychologically coerced, verbally abused and intimidated” the girls. Listening to one of the victims, the judge stated: “She was worried he would come after her family if she didn't keep working for him.” The article said, “The girl was also offered cocaine, which she began taking before every instance of being trafficked....For five months, the girl met with a 'steady stream' of men. She said she was required to engage in many sexual acts that she didn't want to”.

The next article, from February 23, is about a man charged with human trafficking of vulnerable Edmontonians. The staff sergeant of our ALERT law enforcement, human trafficking, counter-exploitation unit stated that the trafficker would “lure these women to hotels by offering drugs, food and a place to stay, then exploit them and force them into the sex trade, even taking them [throughout] the province”. Police suspect there could be up to 20 other young women exploited. The charges included trafficking, procuring, advertising material benefit and sexual assault. All three traffickers are young men—21, 22 and 37—and a fourth person charged is a 19-year-old young woman. She goes to court in May.

This has to stop on all angles. I have to ask, what is the missing piece in these three news stories? Who is invisible? I suggest that the invisible are those men who search the Internet or city streets seeking to pay for access to the bodies of girls, women and gender-diverse persons. Their actions create the market for those who turn to trafficking, be they individuals or organized crime. Sex trafficking is a business where traffickers make money because there are consumers demanding the product they sell.

The human trafficking detectives tell me there used to be 2,000 ads per day on LeoList in Edmonton. Now there are 5,000 ads. They are becoming more explicit in the photos and the descriptions of sexual acts.

I spent Saturday with men arrested in police operations for attempting to purchase sexual services. It’s called the sex trade offender program. The men learn about Canada’s laws, the dynamics of the sex economy and sex trafficking. They hear from a man who is a former sex buyer. The last session is spent listening to two women who suffered sexual exploitation and a mother whose daughter is one of the murdered women of Edmonton, whose murder has not yet been solved after 25 years.

On Thursday I met with an indigenous woman who suffered exploitation. She said part of her educational mission now is to focus on men’s mental wellness so that they no longer participate in sexual exploitation of girls, women and gender-diverse persons. She had just come from educating staff at Enbridge, which does a lot of the pipelines in our Alberta communities.

I suggest that one of the biggest steps we could take in preventing sex trafficking would be to increase law enforcement stings and offer sex buyer accountability programs that educate and build empathy so that men no longer participate. Plus, we could then channel the money that they pay to come to these programs into healing and transitional programs.

In Alberta we are soon to launch our office to combat trafficking in persons, which was inspired by listening to survivors who presented to the Alberta task force. Youth-serving agencies have created the southern Alberta coordinated community response model to work with sexually exploited youth. There are two young women, called safety network coordinators, who work with the ALERT detectives. One position is funded by Public Safety and another by ALERT. In April, law enforcement officers from Canada came together to share expertise and challenges. This was called the Maddison session, named after a young woman who died as a consequence of sex trafficking.

These initiatives and others that we're working on in Alberta are guided by listening to the experiences of those who survive and who say, “We want to be part of creating the future.”

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

We're now going to move over to the Aboriginal Women's Action Network with birthday girl Fay Blaney.

Fay, you have the floor.

[Fay Blaney, Lead Matriarch, Aboriginal Women's Action Network]

Thank you.

I'm with the Aboriginal Women's Action Network. It is 26 years old, and it is a feminist group of indigenous women. Up until very recently, we were just a volunteer group with no office and were organizing out of our homes.

In our commemoration project, we held a five-day group with survivors. They were all elders, and it was such an eye-opener for us to learn what these women had gone through.

We also held a group with Inuit women in Montreal because we noted that there was a breaking news story about Inuit women dying there and no one caring. There were so many deaths that were going unnoticed, so we went there to be in solidarity with Inuit women who were on the streets of Montreal.

AWAN has been involved in the Women's Memorial March, the ground zero for the Pickton massacre. We also had intervenor status in the Cindy Gladue case as well as the charter challenge against the PCEPA law. I just wanted to offer that.

We already know that indigenous women and girls are very much overrepresented in sex trafficking in Canada. There are many reports that say around 50% of trafficking victims are indigenous women and girls. Considering that we're only about 4% of the population, we are vulnerable and easy targets due to our marginalized status both in our own communities and in society at large. I would say that's an indicator of how successful the colonization project has been with respect to the diminished status of indigenous women in our own communities.

I won't cite stats, but you do know from the national inquiry that there's rampant violence not only historically but also currently, and there's ongoing rampant violence against indigenous women. We experience probably the highest rates of sexual abuse originating out of intergenerational trauma in the residential schools, as well as in the child welfare system. In this province, about 55% of the children in care are indigenous. I note that it's about 85% or 90% in other provinces across this country.

There was a report released in 2016 in B.C. by the representative for children and youth, citing a study of reported cases of sexual abuse in foster homes that close to 70% of victims were indigenous girls, and another 12% indigenous boys. So it's extremely high. We're being sexually abused as children. We're targeted as adults. Sherene Razack has written quite eloquently about how we're viewed as being sexually available.

Contributing factors today are the systemic racism, the grinding poverty, the utter lack of services, the lack of culturally relevant services and the lack of educational opportunities.

I don't know how much time I have left, but I wanted to move on to what I would like to see happen.

We are a part of the women's equality...I forget our name. We took intervenor status, so you have that on the record. I advocate for an equity model. I would like to see the criminalization of pimps and johns. I would like to see better adherence to the PCEPA law by the police.

On social services, there have been many overdoses. Again, these are overrepresented by indigenous people. We need improved social supports for people who are caught in prostitution. I think it's pretty clear that there's not a big distinction between trafficking and prostitution. I advocate for a guarantee livable income.

Finally, and especially, I would really like to see the demand be addressed that the equality of women be seen as an important issue.

I forgot to mention that in terms of social services support, I would really like to see more exiting programs for indigenous women who have been prostituted across this country.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much, Fay.

What we're going to do now...I have to suspend for a couple of seconds. We want to make sure that Cathy's sound is okay.

I'm going to suspend.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I call the meeting back to order. Welcome back.

Cathy has microphone issues, so we're going to go to our two remaining witnesses today.

What I'm going to do is pass it over to Michelle Ferreri for our first round of questioning for six minutes.

Go ahead, Michelle.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all of our witnesses, and to our first round of witnesses, too. It's been very powerful. Quite frankly, some of the testimony we've heard today has been shocking as we continue our study on human trafficking and what we can do as a nation to mitigate this fastest growing crime in the world.

If I can, I'll start with Madam Quinn.

I was really curious, interested and intrigued as we heard from a former witness who was actually a survivor of human trafficking about the role of men and what we could be doing in educating men. It's very fascinating to learn that most of the traffickers and pimps suffered their own level of abuse. Hurt people hurt, as we've heard many times in our world. We know this.

What can we offer in terms of supports from a young age for men who may be growing up in compromised or vulnerable situations?

What do you see as our role, other roles or your role, as an organization that is working with survivors and victims in addressing men?

[Kathleen Quinn]

Thank you for that really important question. It's truly appreciated.

I would like to say that one thing we do through the sex trade offender program is ask the men to fill in their adverse childhood experiences. It's an overview of what things can happen in childhood that might lead to actions and health issues in their lives. We find that at least 40% to 45% have had some significant adverse childhood experiences. Others have not. That's where we can get a better handle of, let's just call it misogyny, patriarchy and attitudes towards girls and women. It gives us a basis to move forward in terms of education.

I think it's really important to educate about consent and what that truly means everywhere. The other thing that's important is to really look at what we ask of boys and men in our society.

I live in Alberta. We have a resource-based economy. We take men away from their families and their communities. They work in camps. Sometimes the work itself can be very mind-numbing, and they look for ways to fill the voids, the loneliness and, maybe, relationships that have broken because they are away for so long. We need to look at ways to work with the different corporations and the camps and see how we can turn around what has become unhealthy behaviour, including sexual addiction, gambling addiction, drug addiction and alcohol addiction. Shift that into a healthier masculinity.

I'm very encouraged that there are young men who are leading this way and talking about what it means to be healthy and positive males, and not engage in toxic behaviour.

I'm encouraged that we're having more conversations. We need to bring this out and not normalize using girls and women to fill their own gaps in their lives.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you for that.

Yes, I think we definitely need a lot more data on those predetermining factors of healthy masculinity. I think there's still a lot of work to be done around that. You don't know what you don't know. Sometimes, in a lot of these incidents, men don't know. They've been surrounded by whatever environment, and I think there's a social responsibility to help redirect and try to improve it. I guess that would be my word.

[Kathleen Quinn]

Thank you. I agree.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you.

If I can, I'll move to Ms. Blaney, the birthday girl.

We've had a couple of witnesses testify here. Quite frankly, it was quite confusing. I will be honest with you. I will quote some of them.

This was Elene Lam of the Butterfly: Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network, who said, “The terms “human trafficking” or “sex trafficking” are useless and confusing.”

Do you agree with that statement, Ms. Blaney?

[Fay Blaney]

No, I don't agree with her. I don't understand why she would say such a thing.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

I'm sorry; Chair. How much time do I have?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You have one minute

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Okay, thank you.

I'll go back to Ms. Blaney.

We've heard a lot about the incidence of murdered and missing indigenous women and indigenous women being far more targeted. We know it's going to take generations to restore a lot of the trauma. I believe seven years is the number of blood trauma.

What do you think, from an indigenous perspective, we can do to help our young indigenous boys—staying on that theme of young men—with healthy relationships? Do you do any work in that field?

[Fay Blaney]

I am starting a sexual violence program here in Homalco First Nation. I'm primarily focused on women and girls, but I know that there is an utter lack of programs and services for men and boys.

When men want to come forward and be forthright and honest about what they've been through and what they're doing as offenders, there's no support. If you come forward and say something, the entire community will try to drive you out.

That's what happened during the TRC. There was no support in place. Women were disclosing, and men were being removed and sent to jail.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much, Fay. I hate interrupting as you're giving the testimony. I really do apologize.

We're now moving over to Anita Vandenbeld.

Anita, you have six minutes.