The federal government is revisiting criminal legislation passed in 2014 that bans profiteering from prostitution, and anti-human trafficking advocates are concerned that the sex-trade law could be gutted and prostitution legalized.
The federal Justice Committee is calling witnesses to testify on Bill C-36, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act. The law, passed by the Harper Conservative government, aimed to reduce the demand for and incidence of prostitution. It penalized those who bought sex, but not those who sold their own sexual services, regarding them as victims who are often trafficked into the sex trade.
“A pro-prostitution group is really putting a lot of pressure on MPs and everybody to eradicate this particular bill,” Smith told The Epoch Times.
“I don’t think they’re going to be successful. And it’s not every Liberal [who supports legalization]. On the all-party human trafficking committee, there’s a lot of people who don’t want to get rid of it.”
“That’s the law we don’t want to lose, and Canadians don’t realize how close this is for us losing it,” Peters said in an interview.
“The sex industry would be normalized, commercialized, institutionalized. In other words, there would be brothels on every corner. We share the longest border with the United States. We would be America’s brothel … [and] become the world global sex tourism destination.”
In 2015, then-candidate Bill Morneau, who later became Liberal finance minister, said there was “no disagreement” that Bill C-36 should be repealed. In a 2018 motion, the Young Liberals of Canada called for prostitution to be legalized.
In July 2020, B.C. MP Hedy Fry said changes to the legislation were originally slated in the Liberals’ first term but were delayed by other priorities. In the same month, Amnesty International Canada asked Justice Minister David Lametti to stop enforcing prostitution laws during the COVID-19 pandemic, which did not occur.
Web-Savvy Predators
Peters says she was first motivated to combat human trafficking as a teacher 40 years ago, noting that her city had a “kiddy stroll” even then. She says Bill C-36 is virtually unenforced in B.C. because funds aren’t allocated to educate police or dedicate resources to its enforcement.“There’s software now that will change the face and the voice of a perpetrator. I had a case not long ago where a 15-year-old girl thought she was talking to a 16-year-old-boy, and it didn’t take long to hook her in. And it wasn’t a 16-year-old boy. It was a 32-year-old man and he was part of a trafficking ring,” recalls Smith.
“They agreed to meet in a park. Unfortunately, there were three men there, and she was taken to a hotel where she serviced men the whole weekend. And they threatened her that if she said anything that her family would be harmed, and her siblings would be harmed.”
“Why it’s so important is when a city licenses a business, the girls then are told, ‘You’re going to a business the city licences,’ and they think it’s safe. They think it’s legitimate, and it’s not. The last girl I pulled out was 13 years old. And it’s a big business. The average human trafficker earns on the average $280,000 per victim per year,” she said.
“It was a body rub parlour. We got word of where she was because a trafficker was running five or six girls, and I just went in and got her. … She’s back with her family now, and she’s in rehabilitation, but it takes a long time to recover from their ordeal.”
Regardless, Smith’s efforts have solicited some complaints too.
‘Toxic Culture’
Winnipeg dealt child sex exploitation another hit last December when the Manitoba court of appeal overturned Scott Christopher Alcorn’s 15-month sentence for giving a 16-year-old girl alcohol in exchange for sex, and instead sentenced him to five years behind bars. Alcorn had been “convicted of one count of obtaining sexual services for consideration from a person under the age of 18.”Alcorn, 39 at the time he committed the crime in 2015, knew the girl was underage. She was dealing with health issues, trauma, and addiction and had lost her sister to suicide two years earlier. The owner of the house where they had sex was later charged for filming their encounter.
“It was an indigenous girl. She was underage. And she killed herself. I mean, if Canadians aren’t going to wake up to this, I don’t know what it’s going to take,” Peters said.
“And it’s not just indigenous that will be impacted in their communities. It will be new migrants. Asian women fill the massage parlours. LGBTQ are targeted. Disabled youth are targeted. Any girl or boy under age 14 will be targeted for the sex industry.”
Peters says the sex trade does not empower women, and “a toxic culture” would flourish if sex work was endorsed by lawmakers.
“People would say, well, sex work is fine as somebody’s personal choice. But give me two minutes with that person, I‘ll convince them otherwise. So if I meet with a member of Parliament, which I do all the time, I say, ’You really want to fully decriminalize prostitution, and so you want to wipe out indigenous [people]? You want to do that in Canada?' Well, then they backtrack really fast,” she said.
“And if we fully normalize the sex industry, does that mean that police officers when they have time off can go buy sex with prostitutes? Does that mean the military whenever they travel all over the world ... can buy a prostitute and not be charged? Does that mean our politicians can buy prostitutes whenever they want? Does that mean our high schools can have career fairs and have prostitution as a career choice? This is what it would turn into.”
