Status of Women committee  Thank you. I want to, first of all, address that international question, since our organization does a great deal of work in countries that either have legalized prostitution or they might as well have, because they sure as heck are not implementing their own laws. I've never m

Status of Women committee  I think there needs to be an assumption that amendments to the Privacy Act would be required to allow for this degree of information sharing. That's why, it being outside of government and independent, that link is very key. So unless that link were going to comply with measures

Status of Women committee  I am quite concerned with the additional layer, and that's not just for public expenditure purposes, although that is important. From our perspective, it adds a level of distance between the political accountability.... It is admirable to say we have these reports coming out--eve

Status of Women committee  From what's been publicly released, my understanding is there are several front-line organizations that work directly with victims. These are organizations that have typically done work with people who are here illegally in Canada and who have come to their attention. There appea

Status of Women committee  The most significant thing that can be done is to demonstrate a real commitment to address this issue. It would not only align the front-line governmental workers who meet these trafficking victims and let them know that the government is committed to this and that it's a priorit

Status of Women committee  When we first proposed the office, part of its function was intelligence gathering. This being before the committee, we think it would be a good complement. It allows you to reach out, as you've heard, to non-governmental organizations more effectively, and it would be more activ

Status of Women committee  You're right to frame it as a limited resources question. It would be far more effective to create an office within the government charged with both intelligence gathering and the implementation of programs that will directly help trafficking victims and apprehend offenders. That

Status of Women committee  No problem. Thank you, Madam Chair. Other countries, such as the United States, produce a very thorough assessment of the lay of the land, essentially, and they do so quite effectively. Organizations in Canada, as long as they are treated with respect, to be quite frank, and are

Status of Women committee  I have looked into the Dutch national rapporteur as well, and from what I've been able to tell, it seems that the first couple of reports really are about getting the government used to this sort of process. It didn't appear until the third or fourth report that a true national a

Status of Women committee  Would you like me to address that, raise the office issue?

Status of Women committee  Yes, I have. I've circulated a copy and I understand you'll have a copy of it. It's brief number two from The Future Group. We've tried to be true to the word “brief”. It's only two to three pages and it very succinctly gives you a quick background on this proposal you've heard a

Status of Women committee  I'll be brief, since I think we're almost out of time. It's important to distinguish the types of sex users we're talking about. There are essentially two types. There are the occasional sex users, who are people driving down the street late at night and for whatever reason deci

Status of Women committee  It definitely does, without a doubt. We published a report in 2001, which is also on our website, called “The Future of Southeast Asia”. A section of that report, which you can download, identifies risk factors. Why does this girl or this woman or this young boy end up in human

Status of Women committee  Our experience in looking at this has been that as countries open their borders for the free flow of ideas and free trade, of course, it also opens up the markets for abuse. We haven't seen a direct correlation between free trade and the trafficking industry, though. It doesn't m

Status of Women committee  You're asking what is our source of financing for our organization? It's private funding. We started out by hosting community bake sales and garage sales. Since then we've attracted some donors who have a little bit more money, but our typical donor gives $100. We also were able