Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for the question. Given that we often work together on the issue of human trafficking, I would like to congratulate her on what she has done to improve the Criminal Code regarding this matter.
If I understand the question correctly, how these people operate can vary greatly, depending on whether they belong to a street gang, are a member of organized crime, or are even independent traffickers who have absolutely nothing to do with any criminalized groups. They always manipulate the victim, often through modelling agencies. Sometimes they go and recruit the girls directly at night clubs or in schools, anywhere, really.
Things happen in stages. First there is the honeymoon period, when the criminal tells the victim that she will make lots of money, that he is there for her, that he loves her. She might even believe that her abuser is actually her boyfriend. It is very complicated. Then there is the breaking-in period, when she is beaten, raped by 15 men in a row in a seedy apartment. The abuser tortures her and takes away her ID. All of this happens not in some other country but right here in Canada. The victim is sexually assaulted. Her family is threatened and she is told that if she escapes, the abuser will get her little sister.
I have met many victims. People involved in these trafficking rings have told me their stories. I will never forget the car on its way from Montreal to Quebec City with a 12-year-old girl in the back seat and a 16-year-old girl in the front. Four years later, that 16-year-old, now 20, told me that she could hear the 12-year-old crying in the back because they were on their way to Quebec City to live in a seedy duplex where criminals kept the people they forced into the industry.
Let us never forget one thing. The reason 12-year-old kids are being sold in Quebec is that men are buying. That is another problem we have to tackle. Members of Parliament must have the courage to deal with prostitution in Canada. We need a law—just one—stating that it is a crime to buy sexual services in Canada. I hope that the day will come when we have the political courage to attack the johns, because if there are no johns, there will be no prostitutes.