Justice committee  Yes. You are asking two questions; one on prevention and one on what she needs now. On prevention, I would support guaranteed livable income, detox beds, access to treatment, job training and education, and affordable housing. Certainly in my city, I know those are incredibly im

Justice committee  I'm glad you asked me that. I do think that Bill C-36 would address demand. It helps the women by decreasing the market. It's using a really crass economic term, which is one way of viewing prostitution. If there was no market then women would not have to be recruited to be fed i

Justice committee  I'm not sure what you mean by using it as a “threat” to get them away from a pimp. Can you clarify what you're saying?

Justice committee  No. I'm not in support of that.

Justice committee  Okay. Prostitution is a form of violence against women and women should not be penalized for their own exploitation. Rather, those perpetrating and benefiting from it should be criminalized. Just briefly, we're concerned about the loophole in Bill C-36 that the new section 21

Justice committee  Good afternoon. I'm here representing REED, Resist Exploitation, Embrace Dignity, a faith-rooted women's equality-seeking organization that offers support to women in prostitution, provides public education, and addresses the root causes of sexual exploitation. Over the last

Justice committee  I'm actually not familiar with the piece of the report you're speaking of, but I could make a very educated guess. Often it's one way that women are allowed to exit. If I've been recruited in when I'm 14, I've serviced thousands and thousands of men. My pimp has threatened to kil

Justice committee  First, on Rohypnol, I absolutely support that as being part of the bill. I think that will help women, because some women, girls, and boys will be less likely to be drugged and raped. I'm sorry, what was the second question?

Justice committee  It translates to helping the victims because there would be fewer people recruiting them and making money off their bodies. I realize we're talking a lot about drugs today, but I'm telling you that organized crime groups are moving gangs all across this province and across our bo

Justice committee  Yes, I understand what you're saying about being nuanced. The bottom line is that prostitution is always violent, and there's almost always a pimp involved, at least in the beginning, who's making some of money. I might not have gotten this across at the beginning. We're not sa

Justice committee  Not that I know of. The way they handle it right now is that we have a pre-court diversion program for men who are caught buying sex--it's largely men--where they can go through a john school. They pay $500. They're not charged. They don't go before a judge. There's no judging by

Justice committee  Oh sure, yes.

Justice committee  I don't know if they are doing that in Alberta, but they're doing a post-court diversion program. They charge them, so there's some sort of social consequence--they're not locking them up and throwing away the key--whereas here it's a pre-court diversion program. That's the penal

Justice committee  I'm just not familiar with that.

Justice committee  Yes.