Melanie, Deanna, Holly, Faith, Shayna, Megan.
Bonjour. Aaniin. Boozhoo. Hello, Madam Chair and House members.
My name is Tiffany Pyoli York and I'm the anti-human trafficking coordinator and public educator for Sudbury and Area Victim Services. I'm also the chair of the anti-human trafficking coalition in greater Sudbury.
I'm here to speak about human trafficking through the victims' and survivors' voices, which I have been entrusted to share. I brought a ribbon with the names of victims and survivors and those who didn't survive whom I've encountered over the past two years.
Jasmine, Alicia, Ivory, Summer and Heaven.
I can spend my five minutes sharing the accolades for the amazing work that we've done in Sudbury and surrounding areas, but more importantly, I'm here to ask for more, because the people deserve more.
Our women, girls and gender-diverse people deserve more than a common shelter bed where they wonder if the person next to them is coming to retrieve them for their trafficker. They deserve more than 20 counselling sessions. After all the atrocities and abuses that they've endured, they shouldn't have to give up their pets.
These may seem like small, trivial things to those who have stability in their lives, but to the person who is finally able to exit human trafficking, those are the things that can help a person move into rehabilitation from the most heinous life instead of returning to it, which they often feel is their only option, due to the guilt and shame from the abuses they have suffered.
Tina, Marissa, Madison, Joanna, Brandy.
I'm asking you, as change-makers for our country, to share the voices of our women, girls and gender-diverse people who are screaming out for ongoing assistance, because human trafficking and its aftermath don't go away. It's not a matter of a simple rescue; it's ongoing medical and dental care. It's ongoing support for prolapsed uteruses from sexual assaults. It's painful implant surgery as a result of knocked-out teeth. It's ongoing therapy and supports for when the time comes that a victim and survivor's pimp is released from jail.
An average police investigation for human trafficking in Sudbury takes 360 days before charges can even be laid.
Chloe, Drew, McKenna, Jesse, Patricia.
Drugs can only be sold once, whereas a human being can be sold over and over again.
Human beings are not to be discarded, yet the correlation between missing and murdered indigenous girls, women and two-spirited people is too stark to ignore. Tomorrow, on the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit People, effect change and do your part to stop human trafficking. Stop our sisters from being stolen and return our loved ones to their homes.
Ashlee, Hannah, Steph, Alex, Kim.
The four school boards in Sudbury have agreed to an anti-sex-trafficking protocol in which every student from grade 7 to grade 12 will receive the very same preventive education and empowerment messaging. At Sudbury and Area Victim Services, our hope is to share the resources that we have created and to have all-party agreement and support for a national protocol for all Canadian students to receive the same anti-human-trafficking preventive education and empowerment messaging as the Sudbury model.
Stats Canada shared that the highest rates of human sex trafficking occur in Nova Scotia, Ontario and Saskatchewan, which is an illustration that this is a national issue from the Prairies to the Maritimes and in every town and city in between.
Kya, Mackenzie, Ashley.
Do four to five years change a person?
In four years, a trafficker may be released from jail on the very same day that a victim and survivor's child starts kindergarten. In four to five years, a survivor may be starting a nursing school placement on the very same day that their trafficker is released from jail. In four to five years, a survivor may be graduating from rehab on the very same day that their trafficker is released from jail. In four to five years, a victim may have died from suicide because they couldn't face a world where their trafficker was free.
Please take this into account when you consider the minimum sentencing for the heinous crime of trafficking in persons, whether that be sex trafficking, labour trafficking or the trafficking of organs.
Thank you.