Thank you, Madam Chair.
I am a former inner city high school teacher and private citizen raising awareness about human sex trafficking—sexual exploitation for the purpose of prostitution—in order to stop it.
Prostitution would not exist without trafficking. Prostitution would not exist without buyers. Prostitution everywhere in the world is unequal, unhealthy, unsafe and unfair to women. In regard to any federal policy or law regarding women and girls, the question to ask is, does this practice or industry make women more equal and advance the equality of women and girls, or does it set the equality of women and girls backwards?
Since 2014, when the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act became federal law, I've been doing presentations to politicians, police and the public. I just presented at the Canadian Sexual Exploitation Summit.
The most notorious cases in Canada for human sex trafficking and sexual exploitation are from British Columbia: Amanda Todd, victim; Reza Moazami, trafficker, 23 years in jail; and Robert Pickton, sex buyer and serial killer.
B.C. is an example of PCEPA not being enforced, and the result is that sex buyers and sex traffickers act with impunity. British Columbia has become a magnet for criminals and organized crime. B.C. urban centres have become sex tourism destinations. Sex traffickers are targeting very young girls from 10 to 12 years of age.
Dr. Jacqui Linder, a traumatologist from Alberta, states, “Human trafficking is one of the forms of trauma that when you really understand what people are going through and what is being done to them, it is true evil.”
Survivors tell me that it is easy to get into the sex industry and very hard to get out.
Former MP Joy Smith states that education is our greatest weapon. Her foundation operates the National Human Trafficking Education Centre.
In my brief, I described the current trends contributing to human sex trafficking, and I gave 10 recommendations to stop human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Please read my brief to the federal justice committee of February 2022.
PCEPA focuses on the source of harm: the buyers of sex and the profiteers. The clear statement from Parliament was that girls and women are not for sale. They are full human beings with dignity and human rights.
Repealing this law would be a disaster. With the longest border in the world, Canada would become America's brothel. Indigenous women and girls would be the first casualties.
The reason we have a growing problem with sexual exploitation today is that PCEPA was never consistently enforced across Canada. Police were not trained to enforce it, attorneys general and justice systems had no training about it, and there was no robust prevention education rollout campaign to explain it, so Canadians do not know about it.
The idea that sex work is work is completely contradicted by the preamble in PCEPA, the testimonies you have heard and my 40 years in prevention education.
Men and boys are the key to end sexual exploitation and trafficking, because they are the perpetrators and buyers of sex. They need to be taught that girls have value and worth and that every woman and girl has the right to be free of violence.
Please check out my website at beamazingcampaign.org. It is a one-stop shop on the issue. My book is finished, hot off the presses: Child Sex Trafficking in Canada - and how to stop it. It has the resources and research to stop this in Canada. I have a book for each party, including the Bloc. MP Andréanne, I want to make sure that you get a copy as well.
Thank you very much.