Thank you, Madam Chair.

Committee members, I would like to start by acknowledging that we are on unceded territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation, and that indigenous and Inuit women and girls have borne, and continue to bear, the brunt of trafficking for sexual exploitation in Canada.

Concertation des luttes contre l’exploitation is a feminist organization that works with female victims of sexual exploitation to provide alternatives to women seeking to exit prostitution.

We have been in operation since 2005. We welcome and support more than 200 women and their families annually. Most of the women attending our organization are between the ages of 24 and 35. Twenty-five percent of them are women from ethno-cultural minorities, and a vast majority live in extreme poverty. As such, poverty is both a factor of entry into prostitution and a barrier to exiting this environment. Therefore, reducing poverty among women should be one of the key areas in combatting trafficking for sexual exploitation. If Canada had a guaranteed, viable minimum income, fewer women and girls would enter the sex industry and they would be less likely to be victims of human trafficking.

Today, we will focus on the issue of preventing trafficking for sexual exploitation and on support for women and girls who have been victims of this form of violence. We appreciate that this committee has decided to specifically focus on the issue of trafficking for sexual exploitation. This is a wise choice; we will get back to that later.

Although Canada passed legislation on human trafficking in 2005 and on criminalizing the purchase of sexual acts in 2014, Canada continues to treat these two crimes as though they were distinct. This is a mistake and certainly explains why our efforts to suppress this form of violence against women and girls are stagnating.

We would like to propose three major changes to the government's approach to suppressing trafficking for sexual exploitation.

First, as set out in the Palermo protocol and as the United Nations General Assembly reiterated last December, governments must “intensify their efforts to prevent and address, with a view to eliminating, the demand that fosters the trafficking of women and girls for all forms of exploitation and in this regard to put in place or enhance preventive measures, including legislative and punitive measures to deter exploiters of trafficked persons, as well as ensure their accountability.”

Addressing demand is the key tool in suppressing trafficking. All the countries that have adopted a socio-legal model criminalizing the purchase of sexual acts have seen a significant decline in trafficking for sexual exploitation on their territory.

Canada has similar legislation, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, or PCEPA, which criminalizes the purchase of sexual acts in Canada. However, it is not properly implemented. There are many inconsistencies and seldom any prevention, for example, messaging for those who purchase sexual acts, who are the root of the problem.

Second, we know that a majority of women in the sex industry would like to exit. The research shows that such is the case for 80% to 95% of the women interviewed. However, they do not have access to the assistance and support they need, including access to income, access to housing, access to status where necessary, access to education or work, and psychosocial support. The equality model, also known as the Nordic model, which has been adopted by some countries, such as Sweden, Iceland, Norway, France and Ireland, together with legal and social tools to change the behaviours of those who use paid sex acts, provide more security and protection for women, who are the victims.

It is recommended that the Government of Canada follow the lead of France, for example, and work to define or implement a support program for exiting prostitution. Such action would be consistent with the two pieces of legislation that we have.

Third, commercial sexual exploitation is the most taboo form of violence against women and girls. Trafficking for sexual exploitation is intimately tied to equality for all women.

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