Mr. Speaker, recently ECPAT International released a study showing that Canada is a prominent child sex tourism destination with indigenous women and children being especially vulnerable.
This report also reveals that the Internet allows sex traffickers to easily advertise their victims online, often through the website backpage.com. In April, Toronto police arrested two sex traffickers who forced a 16-year-old girl into prostitution. In May, three more sex traffickers were arrested in Toronto after trafficking a 17-year-old girl. Both girls were featured in ads on backpage.com. Since 2013, the Toronto police have investigated 359 sex trafficking cases. In each of these cases, every single girl was advertised on backpage.com. This is a reality in other cities across Canada as well.
The previous Conservative government ordered Craigslist to end similar ads in 2010, and they complied.
I urge the Liberal government to demand that backpage.com stop allowing victims of sex trafficking to be advertised in cities across Canada.