Thank you, Madam Chair.
Doing our tour really opened my eyes, because I wasn't aware of the situations across this country and how dangerous human trafficking has become.
I mentioned this to the Peel police, and they said they didn't have a lot of support. A lot of the safe houses said the same thing, that there are just no funds. I'm working on a bill that I want to present to make sure we seize the assets of users and perpetrators, and then those funds can be used to help the victims. We owe it to these victims to help them. I think if we penalize the users and the perpetrators, that will put a stop to it, and hopefully we won't have to see these children going through this.
I met with Timea Nagy. She's having an event this Thursday in Toronto with the police. She told me about how she worked with the Peel police from Sonia's riding and about the wonderful job they're doing on understanding the difference between human trafficking and prostitution.
I'm going to support this. I think we have to support this, because if we look at the whole picture, I can't remember the numbers exactly, but I believe that 98% of people who are trafficked are women. I could be wrong so don't quote me on that.
If we're the status of women committee, we owe it to these women and these girls and these young children to help them. I think we should proceed. That's just my opinion, and I'll wait to hear from everyone else.