Mr. Speaker, my colleague quoted some sex workers. I wonder if she has heard some of these quotes.
Earlier today, Katarina MacLeod, who was beaten, abused, and raped repeatedly from the age of five, forced into the sex trade when she got a little older, and then worked for 15 years in that business, said that first of all there is no safe place to carry on the sex business, and second, had Bill C-36, the government's new prostitution legislation, been around when she was in the business, there would be no more demand and no more supply
Had that bill been in place, maybe she would be less scarred today.
One of her colleagues, Timea Nagy, a native of Budapest, Hungary, came to Canada 14 years ago as a housekeeper. However, when she arrived, she was kidnapped and forced to work in Toronto's sex industry until, one day, she escaped. She is now a founder of an organization that helps victims of trafficking. She said:
I speak for the hundreds of children and girls I have met and talked to and rescued in the last 14 years who have been and continue to be raped, violated and exploited against their will.
She challenged the idea that prostitution is a profession. She called it “oppression 90% of the time”.
She, too supports Bill C-36. She said women deserve to be protected by this country.
Casandra Diamond, another former prostitute, who operated a brothel, said sex workers should feel safer because of this bill. She said:
I wish Bill C-36 had been in place for me when I needed it.
I wonder if the member would comment.