Amy Hamm: Trudeau Liberals soft on sex work

Women are being trafficked, their bodies abused and sold every day in Justin Trudeau’s Canada. Does he even care?

A decade after the passage of Canada’s Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA) — a law that, in part, makes it illegal to purchase, but not sell, sex — a crowd of more than 150, including Alberta Lieutenant Governor Salma Lakhani, gathered in a hotel ballroom in Edmonton early November for a somber, but hopeful, celebration of the milestone. It is good legislation that recognizes sex buyers as predators and sellers as their prey. Unforgivably, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government — which took office one year after the law received royal assent — has since granted funding to pro-prostitution groups that undermine the spirit and intent of the law designed to protect women and communities. While it is still illegal to purchase sex, our current government appears sympathetic to the enormous pressure from Canadian lobby groups to change this.

The day was also a celebration of the launch of When Men Buy Sex, Who Really Pays?, a book about the devastating effects of Canada’s sex trafficking industry by two of the country’s most prominent advocates for trafficked women, Andrea Heinz and Kathy King.

Heinz escaped prostitution after seven hellish years. King’s daughter Caralyn, 22, had resorted to sex work to support her addictions. She was taken from the streets of Edmonton in 1997, her lifeless body found discarded in a field a week later. To this day, the murder of Caralyn Aubrey King remains unsolved.

Both women argue that in order to end human trafficking and prostitution in Canada, we first must put an end to the demand for paid sex. They estimate there are two million sex buyers — also known as johns — currently in the country.

Demand from johns will not wane, however, in self-declared “male feminist” Justin Trudeau’s Canada. It will never happen under any party that supports sanitizing and re-branding prostitution as “sex work.” Because sex work is not work — it is exploitation. It is dangerous. It is immoral. And yet, despite the preponderance of evidence to show that this is the case and the law of the country, the Liberal Party funds charities like PACE, a group that glorifies prostitution as an empowering choice for women and argues that the “current laws that criminalize sex work increase harm toward sex workers.”

Are they getting their policy direction from the pimp lobby? Or from the CEO of OnlyFans? Have they ever listened — in earnest — to the women whose lives have been shattered by prostitution?

Several survivors spoke at the Edmonton gala. Their horrendous stories — bravely shared — were no doubt a punch to the gut of all those in attendance.

Juanita Murphy was born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, to a heroin-addicted father who introduced her to the drug and later became her pimp. “Being junkies together was family love,” Murphy said, her voice cracking. “From the day I was born, I was told I had a goldmine between my legs… I have riches that solidify my place within the family. I was the lucky one,” she said. She has forgiven her family and now works with the non-profit CEASE to raise awareness about family exploitation in Canada’s sex-trafficking industry.

Sarah Glen, once a single mother, entered prostitution within Edmonton’s licensed brothels to escape severe poverty and domestic violence. A dark irony, considering the abuse and violence that prostitution entails. She spoke of the countless times she told herself she would leave after one more john used her body — but how she could never claw her way out of debt.

“Poverty was the sole determinant of my so-called ‘career choice,’” Glen said. Among the johns who abused her were a dentist, who took care of her and her children’s teeth in exchange for sex, a rancher who would stock her freezer with meat when she couldn’t afford to feed her children, and a mechanic who enabled her to have a drivable car — a necessity for any single parent in Edmonton.

“In their minds, I was rented property. And for their help, I owed them more than just my body: I owed them my soul,” Glen said. She eventually fled Alberta to get away from the johns, who were wont to become violent with her if she did not let them have their way.

“The entire prostitution system is grounded in a core belief that women are less than: that they’re a product for men to consume, something to be used and abused — especially when we’re at our lowest,” said Glen.

These women escaped. So many of our women don’t.

Our government admits that they do not — and cannot — know the full extent of our human trafficking problem, as victims “are generally isolated and concealed from the public, and many may experience barriers or be unwilling to report to authorities for various reasons, including a general distrust of authorities, feelings of shame, fear of consequences, language barriers, or a lack of human rights knowledge.” Regardless, our police forces encounter hundreds of cases of trafficking annually — most often involving young women and girls.

Prostitution is subject to the economics of supply and demand. We know that demand for women’s bodies by johns vastly exceeds the number of women who would sell their bodies willingly. Supply gaps, naturally, are filled by trafficked women and girls.

Criminalizing the purchase of sex — as Canada has done with the PCEPA — stigmatizes johns and thereby reduces demand. With less demand, there is less pressure to provide supply, and there is less human trafficking.

Heinz and King believe that Canada can further reduce demand for prostitution if our government stops trivializing its harms to women, children, and communities. Their fight is arduous and discouraging.

In a conversation with National Post, Heinz suggested a federal election could help: “Canada remains a safe place to sexually exploit a woman. The failure of this Liberal government to take any meaningful action on the problem of commercial sexual exploitation in Canada cannot be overstated. Trudeau’s government — through the Women And Gender Equality (WAGE) Ministry — funded ‘sex work’ organizations who lobby government to completely decriminalize all aspects of the sex industry. We have a well-drafted law already in place. All Canadians need is a leader willing to work with it,” said Heinz.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government legislated PCEPA. Would a future Conservative government under Poilievre finally take the law seriously?

The lives of countless women and girls hang in the balance.

National Post