Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's really nice to be back and to see the members around the table studying this very important topic. As you know, I spent 11 years, four months, and 59 seconds in the House of Commons and passed the two bills, Bill C-268 involving mandatory minimums f

Justice committee  I think there are many Internet web crawlers that identify victims of human trafficking over the Internet just by looking at what's on the net. We live in a different world now. It's the world of the Internet. People say that it's all underground, and I can tell you that in a way

Justice committee  I talked about the webcrawlers that police officers use and people like that. They try to intercept things, but there are too few resources in my opinion right now to intercept in a really effective way. Diane mentioned the Winnipeg Police Force, Peel Regional Police. They're get

Justice committee  There are definitely things that can be done. I had a case in Toronto where a 12-year-old was held in a room for a whole week. Suspicions were all around that particular room because men kept going into it. I asked the cleaning lady whether there was something going on there, a

Justice committee  I suspect it is.

Justice committee  You need [Inaudible] the consequences.

Justice committee  No. I've worked over 2,332 files. I have them in my foundation. However, that's over many years, and anything that I know about I report immediately to the police authorities in the province where it occurs. The fact of the matter is that we need to have formal data-gathering of

Justice committee  I totally agree with what Diane says. One of the reasons that I think we have to be aware of is it is very hard for families and for victims to come forward. The way stats are taken, you really need—just what I said earlier—work together to get those stats really clear. When you

Justice committee  Yes; we all do.

Justice committee  Diane, do you want to speak?

Justice committee  I highly recommend it. Any awareness like that, whether it be the LGBTQ community or whether it be girls or boys, making the public aware of what is happening is extremely important. It's very powerful. Using media to do that is huge. I think it has an impact on potential people

Justice committee  Here's what I've seen. Imagine a cute guy who a young girl is really interested in. This is in River Heights, Winnipeg, which is upper middle class, where the girls are going to a sports event at the community centre in the summer. The parents give them cellphones. They take care

Justice committee  I'm sorry; would you give me the first question? I was just listening to Mikhaela.

Justice committee  I think data collection has to be a big part of it. The strength of the national action plan was in providing programs for victims of human trafficking—education, things like that. It wasn't centred so much on data collection as it was on that aspect of it. I think we haven't arr

Justice committee  Thank you very much. It's an honour to be here.