Status of Women committee  In a country like Canada, yes, I believe we should all have a basic standard of living and something that can keep people safe.

Status of Women committee  To start with, there's a lot of talk about how to reduce the demand and how we affect that market, because if there's no demand, then there's ultimately no problem, right? Further research is needed. One thing that government could potentially do is to push for further research into the fine balance between enforcement and education, which might have a bigger effect on the demand.

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  That's a difficult question to quantify. As was mentioned, it's so difficult to gather stats and information. It's largely a hidden crime. I can tell you anecdotally that social conditions seem to be deteriorating in many corners. The challenges facing these populations who largely are victimized in the sex industry seem to be more up against it than in the past.

Status of Women committee  Can I have one minute?

Status of Women committee  What I want to say is that I haven't been directly involved in investigations for the last couple of years. I'm glad to see that you have a couple of police officers on the agenda who are currently doing investigations. I'd rather leave the technicalities of the investigations and the policy to them, but what I want to say about this is that in the big picture, I feel we put way too much focus on the importance of enforcement and the role that police can play and not enough emphasis on how we as a society and all the other elements can work together around these issues to improve resilience for women, to help prevent them from being taken into the sex industry in the first place.

Status of Women committee  Yes. It's Sex Industry Slavery: Protecting Canada's Youth. It was published in 2020. The topics I covered and my findings around this resulted in recommendations that are tangible and specific. They're on vulnerability in the sex industry; the intersectional challenges that many women and children face, largely often due to the social conditions they're born into; the indigenous needs; intersectionality; prevention; and collaboration and coordination between agencies.

Status of Women committee  Thank you. First of all, I'd like to thank all of you members of the committee for your public service. I'd like thank all members of the committee and all the witnesses for all the important work you're doing for the status of women and for trafficked women in Canada. Where do I start?