Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to stand in the House today to speak in support of Motion No. 153, sponsored by my friend and colleague, the member for Kildonan—St. Paul. Indeed, it was a privilege to be in the House this afternoon to hear the interventions by the other members, the member for Abbotsford, the member for Laval, the member for Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe and the member for London—Fanshawe. It appears the motion will receive a great amount of support from all members.
It comes as no surprise that the hon. member brings this motion before the House. Members may know that she is a committed advocate for measures to combat this heinous, degrading and, unfortunately, growing phenomenon across the world.
As a member of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, I have joined the member for Kildonan—St. Paul and all committee members in hearing the very compelling and often heart-rending testimony brought before the committee this past fall.
The motion is very timely. In the not too distant future, we expect that the committee's comprehensive report on human trafficking will be presented to the House for its consideration. It is my hope that the report will provide the House with the kind of evidence and recommendations that it needs to support the very essence of this motion before us today, which is to condemn the human trafficking of women and children across international borders for sexual exploitation and to adopt a strategy to combat the trafficking of persons worldwide.
Over the course of the testimony the committee heard this fall, it became very clear that human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation had become a scourge on modern humanity, a form of slavery that numbers many more human beings today than at any time during the 19th century.
It is estimated that there are between 700,000 and up to 4 million victims of human trafficking each year. Why the wide difference? Trafficking is an illegal underground activity conducted largely by elements of organized crime and international networks which profit from these activities. Reliable measurement is difficult and in some cases impossible due to the clandestine nature of this crime.
Some accounts suggest that profits from trafficking and the closely related forced prostitution that flows from it are rivaling that of the drug trade. Victims originate from areas of the world that suffer from poverty and lack of economic opportunity. Trafficked victims are often tricked by their sponsors and left to believe that they will be pursuing a new life in a prosperous country where they will be able to make some money and support themselves and their families.
It is only when they arrive at their destinations that they discover the brutal truth. They end up in brothels and body houses in cities of developed countries, including Canada. They are expected to turn up to 20 tricks a day for months on end to allegedly pay of their debt. They acquire diseases like HIV-AIDS and become subjected to an underworld of drug and alcohol abuse. When they are no longer marketable by their pimps, they are discarded to live with their addictions, their lives shattered and ruined.
The example I have just described is tragic enough to imagine for an adult woman, but when we consider that the large majority of these victims are young women and children, the magnitude of this problem is hard to stomach, the urgency for action even greater.
This was a small glimpse of a cycle that began with the most genuine of human expressions, which is to improve one's lot in life and to one's family, yet it ends in such a despicable way, an inhuman way, so criminals can profit.
How do we deal with trafficking in persons? The Palermo protocol, established by the United Nations, defines this phenomenon. This protocol was signed by Canada and ratified in May of 2002.
There are some important attributes to this definition of which we need to be mindful. It speaks to the very means that traffickers use to lure their victims. It establishes that the victims of these crimes are in fact victims even though consent may be given. It establishes that trafficked persons should no longer be considered criminals, that they need to be afforded protection from their sponsors. Last, it establishes a link between sex trafficking and prostitution, where the incidence of trafficking in persons abounds in jurisdictions where prostitution is less criminalized.
We heard in the standing committee this fall that up to 90% of trafficking in persons was for sexual exploitation, so I am glad to see this motion puts its focus there. One of our witnesses, Victor Malarek, a Canadian investigative journalist, described how “foreign women from destitute lands make up the vast majority of women in the sex trade”.
In places like Germany and the Netherlands, where prostitution is legalized, it is not the Dutch and German women, he said, who are lining up to enter the trade. No, nearly 80% of the sex workers in those countries come from destitute countries. There is no doubt that the incidence of laissez-faire prostitution laws allows this kind of criminality to flourish.
When we consider the issue of trafficking in persons, we will come to consider three important pillars: the protection of victims, the prevention of trafficking, and the prosecution of criminals. Each is important in the fight against this crime.
Let us consider for a moment our laws on citizenship and immigration and how we identify potential victims at our borders, or actual victims in our communities, and how we support them after the fact. Let us consider the role of law enforcement agencies. We know it becomes critical to this work in detecting and protecting victims and prosecuting criminals.
On that note, there are historical perceptions, regrettably, that exist within the law enforcement community. I do not mean this as a criticism, but these perceptions exist and must be overcome. These perceptions suggest that prostitutes, because of the category they are in, are in fact involved in criminality.
We know different.
To this end, Canada's law enforcement community is ready to meet the challenge, but they may need additional resources and training. On that note, just a month ago the member for Kildonan—St. Paul and I had the opportunity to meet with the Deputy Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police and discuss those matters in my very riding. He reiterated this point.
Other organizations, the social service agencies that work with these vulnerable people, are often the first legitimate contact that victims have with the destination countries. As was mentioned by the member for London—Fanshawe, the victims are mostly fearful of authority and perhaps have come from a country where that is part of their culture. They have come from a position where law and authority are considered to be threatening. In fact, the traffickers, the pimps and so on, have frightened and threatened them with all kinds of measures if they speak with law enforcement.
Therefore, these initial contacts are not easy. When these community agencies are lucky enough to make that contact, the process to get help for the victim and investigate the crime must be handled discreetly, with the victim's safety and protection paramount.
The nature of these circumstances is daunting. Conducting successful prosecutions and protecting victims will undoubtedly be expensive. We saw that in the first charge laid under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act in the case of Michael Ng. It took the Vancouver vice department, a full department, six months, at a cost of a quarter of a million dollars, and that is just one case.
It is for these reasons that when we look at this phenomenon we have to consider that preventing these crimes will probably be more effective in the long run, with better resources expended than the kinds of resources that would be needed to deal with their aftermath.
Canada is a signatory to the UN protocol. We, like other nations that put human rights and civility in the forefront of our public policy, are duty bound to take up this cause and strive to address it here and abroad to the extent that we can.
It will take some study because of the clandestine nature of this activity, so we should act without delay and prevent the suffering of more women and children whose lives become consumed only for the sexual pleasure and profit of others.
I ask and in fact implore all members of the House to support Motion No. 153 to build on the good work of others such as the member for Kildonan—St. Paul, community support groups, law enforcement agencies, and public policy makers here and around the world, to stop this callous and dehumanizing crime, the trafficking persons for sexual exploitation.
