Madam Speaker, I want to put on the record a quote from Sandra Wesley, the director of Stella, a Montreal-based sex workers organization. She said:
They identified that this man was a potential danger to women and wasn't ready to have proper relationships with women, but figured that he could then go see sex workers.
She then went on to say, “It really tells us what they think about us.”
There is no question that this is extremely disturbing and it should be looked into. However, underlying this question is another issue, and that is the safety of sex trade workers. They are out there, at risk. What measures do we need to take to ensure that they are recognized as human beings, as individuals, and that their safety is equally important as that of everyone else?
I would invite the member to provide suggestions of what approaches the Conservatives would take other than to say, “We do not recognize the sex trade at all.”