ARNOLD VIERSEN’S BLUNDER

The Honorable Member of Parliament Arnold Viersen has been under fire since asking NDP MP Laurel Collins if prostitution is an area of work she has considered.  The comments arose out of a parliamentary debate regarding the tragic murder of 22-year-old Marylene Levesque in a Quebec City hotel room.  As you might expect, Viersen was immediately interrupted by a chorus of heckling.  But let me suggest that the daring query wasn’t offside.

Levesque’s alleged killer is a 51-year-old medium-risk parolee who had been given permission by a case worker to visit a prostitute.  The case is shocking on a variety of levels, and anytime the Parole Board is party to violence in the community, Public Safety Canada and the Minister responsible, MP Bill Blair in this case, must provide answers.

Marylene Levesque (22)

              Marylene Levesque (22)

Viersen, being a long time advocate against sexual violence and human trafficking, wasn’t about to sit this one out.  Climate change activist Collins, in contrast, was clearly out of her depth on the discussion, but she jumped in, regardless.  Diverting blame, she went on the offensive by attacking 2014 Bill C-36; legislation that actually made it a crime for the Parole Board to permit an offender to see a prostitute.  Ironically, Collins condemned the very thing that should have prevented Levesque’s violent death.  It didn’t because laws were broken!  She claimed Bill C-36 criminalized women in prostitution and prevented them from taking precautions.  In fact, the opposite is true.  The Harper Conservatives have been the only government to pass legislation to protect exploited persons from criminal responsibility.

Collins, didn’t stop there.  She went on to repeat the old but dangerous mantra, “Sex work is work.” It argues that normalizing sex industry activities, and removing the stigma from who participate in it, will somehow keep “sex workers” from harm.  It won’t, and that’s why it’s dangerous, but that’s the narrative.  And if she really believes it -that women should be able to navigate a career in prostitution without loss of dignity or social status, she shouldn’t have a problem with Viersen’s question.  From her view, the question must be considered on par with asking if she had ever thought of studying medicine.  Anyone finding Viersen’s question inappropriate, in that context, must grapple with their own contempt for women in the sex industry.  The MPs who did, Collins included, have called into question their own ability to speak to the issue.

If Viersen was smart to ask the question, then what was his blunder?  Though he outfoxed his opponents across the isle, he caved to pressure for an apology.  In doing so, he forfeited a golden opportunity to call out those who had just displayed such ignorance and hypocrisy.  The bright point in this story, however, is that Arnold Viersen didn’t hesitate to run the gauntlet to acknowledge a precious life lost and, perhaps, prevent the next one from being taken.  For that, he has earned my respect.

MINOR-AGE SEX TRAFFICKING IN ONTARIO: Getting it Right

In February 2018, I had the privilege in accompanying Kelly Franklin, from Farmtown Canada, and MPP’s Laurie Scott and Jeff Yurek to speak at the Ontario Legislature, Queen’s Park.  The event was a press release to raise concern about the challenges in accessing funding and licencing for treatment facilities for minor-aged victims of sex trafficking.  My message was edited for time and content.  The following is the uncut version of my speech.

Advocating for child sex trafficking victims, at Queen’s Park, Toronto, 2018.

Advocating for child sex trafficking victims, at Queen’s Park, Toronto, 2018.

The human rights crisis of minor-age sex trafficking is on the rise in Ontario because we have been ill-informed and too slow to respond.  Despite a dramatic increase in arrests of human traffickers, the problem remains because the demand for paid sex goes largely unchecked.

Sex trafficking is an industry that is predicated on gender violence.  The greatest risk factor is, simply, being a girl.  The perpetrators are men who pay for access to the bodies of young victims.  They destroy countless young lives in this province, and the lack of intervention is shameful.

Premier Wynne and Attorney General Naqvi, Ontario trails behind other provinces in providing legislation to protect vulnerable young people from exploitation.  In 2002 Bill 86, Rescuing Children from Sexual Exploitation Act, was intended to protect trafficked minors.  Without the legislation, police and child protection workers were greatly limited in their ability to intervene.  With a change of government in 2003, Bill 86 was mothballed, and eventually tossed into the trash by the then Premier on News Years Day, 2013.  After all these years, nothing has changed.

In 2014 the federal government finally gave the provinces effective tools to address illegal sex industry activities with the Protection of Communities and Vulnerable Persons Act (Bill C-36).  While these new criminal code provisions largely focus on prostitution activities, their greatest potential is to significantly cut the volume of human trafficking in Canada.  The effectiveness is conditional on aggressive enforcement against the purchase of sexual services.

Ms. Wynne, you evidently have a soft spot for the patrons of this violent criminal industry.  The day after these new federal protections came into force you held a press conference to discourage Ontarians from abiding by the laws, and police from enforcing them.  As a result, sex trafficking continues, unabated, in this province, and impacts untold numbers of minor-aged victims.

Mr. Naqvi, when you were about to take up the portfolio of Attorney General, I was called to your office to provide guidance for Ontario’s 2016 Strategy to End Human Trafficking.  I insisted that that you take steps to reduce the inflow of new sex trafficking victims.  Because that did not happen, the demand for girls remains high and the industry is booming.  To make matters worse, I’ve discovered that police agencies are being actively discouraged, by your Crown Attorneys, from charging sex buyers.  Mr. Naqvi, your so-called plan to end human trafficking won’t even slow it down.  Instead, you’ve created a make-work project that ensures police and social workers will have an endless supply of broken girls and women to rescue and restore.

Ms. Wynne and Mr. Naqvi, you were given a golden opportunity to protect Ontario’s young and vulnerable from human sex trafficking.  Your failure to do that has resulted in an unacceptable human toll.  The June 7th general election will bring new opportunities to address this important human rights issue.  Whatever the political landscape, from that point on, I hope and pray we will have learned from our negligence, and, as a province, finally get it right.

The 20 REASONS Girls Enter and Stay in the Sex Industry

20 Reasons Pic

From communities across Canada, untold numbers of young women* are involved in escorting, street walking, exotic massage, stripping and pornography. These common activities of the domestic sex industry strip away “human dignity” and have a “disproportionate impact on women and children”.** Despite the resulting extreme emotional and physical toll, many young women will remain in the industry for a very long time. It can be truly devastating for family and friends to watch this happen, and it can also be confusing to understand why the girls don’t just come home. In the end, most make it out alive, but none remain unscathed. The damage inflicted can be severe.

In this age of the “hook-up culture“, many young people have adopted a casual view of commercial sex. As a result, more kids from functional homes are participating in sex industry activities, than ever before.  While there may be a lack of obvious precursors for some, it’s important to note the likelihood of involvement exponentially increases when additional factors are present. Understanding the roots of vulnerability is invaluable, whether safeguarding young people from exploitation or helping them escape it. Ethnicity, socioeconomic status and neighbourhood demographics do have some bearing, but the following risk indicators are applicable to young people from any community:

  • Female adolescent
  • Absent or inattentive father
  • Neglect or parental dysfunction
  • Parental substance abuse/addictions
  • Abuse: emotional, physical or sexual.
  • Depression or other mental health issues
  • Social difficulties/lack of stable peer relationships
  • Developmental challenges
  • Use of drugs/alcohol by the young person
  • Estrangement from family, including homelessness and foster care

Young men are also commercially sexually exploited, but less frequently. Their experiences are not the same.  To begin with, physical differences render the girls more vulnerable to the violence that so often occurs. But male minds may also serve as a defense. Young men do not experience the same loss of self-determination as their female counterparts, and will more easily remove themselves from sex industry activities when they feel it is time to do so.

Many young women entering the sex industry are introduced to it by traffickers who use coercion to exploit them for their own gain. Others may enter without that level of duress, but once a female is exposed to the sex industry, she faces an exponentially greater risk of human trafficking. While pimps often pose as “boyfriends” or “agents”, most are, in fact, human traffickers.

Traffickers exploit their victims for the profits, and sometimes, to gain notoriety amongst their peers.  In contrast, the reasons girls enter and stay in the sex industry are much more numerous and complex. Below is a list of 20 common reasons why girls go into the sex industry and/or don’t come home.  All 20 may not apply to any one person, but at least a few probably will. Every point on the list is a common tactic used by pimps to lure or trap their prey, and each point is marked with a HTV, indicating that it relates to HUMAN TRAFFICKING VICTIMS.

Half of the list also applies to girls who may not be human trafficking victims, but are ensnared nonetheless. Entering the sex industry may be the result of a last-resort decision in a desperate situation, or a response to its enticement by a young person feeling lost. Even for girls without a pimp, exiting can be a great challenge. Points that are applicable to those WITH OUT A PIMP are marked with WOP.

Magnifying Glass Haystack

Fast Money:  HTV WOP  A great deal of money can be made quickly in the sex industry. Young women may be motivated by pressing financial needs, or simply be drawn by its seductive lure. Once a girl is entrenched in the sex industry, low paying jobs seem untenable. The draw of fast money can remain with her even when her pimp takes the money away as fast as she brings it in.

Glamour:  HTV WOP  For someone entering the sex industry, fancy clothes, expensive gifts and fast cars create a convincing illusion of a glamourous lifestyle. This can more powerfully affect those from low income homes.

Intrigue:  HTV WOP  The sex industry is often fast paced and unpredictable. Those involved may frequently experience an adrenalin rush. This tends to be habit forming, with the desire to repeat the behaviour. As drama and danger become part of their normal world, peace and quiet may become boring or uncomfortable.

Validation:  HTV WOP  Girls who are starved for validation, especially from fathers, may feel an emotional need is being met through sex industry activities. Although the men they will encounter are self-serving, their brief attention may feel comforting. For some, this is a primary reason to remain in the sex trade.

Counterfeit Love:  HTV  The most common approach utilized by Canadian traffickers is the illusion of love.  Attention, affection and gifts are all part of the ploy. Trapped girls often view their trafficker as a boyfriend, long before they realize he is their pimp.

False Promises:  HTV  Traffickers commonly motivate girls with promises that can be as simple as a gift or special treatment; or it can be a tale about a happy future that doesn’t involve “working”. Younger girls and those with developmental challenges are especially vulnerable to such tactics by the pimp.

Brainwashing:  HTV  Traffickers often manipulate or force their victims to reject family, and to distrust police and social workers. Typically, a pimp will frequently tell his girls they are inadequate of without him.

Isolation:  HTV  A trafficker usually restricts contact between his victim and their family members, friends or others who might advocate for them. The trafficker may also move her from place to place to keep her detached and to prevent her from making new connections with others. This enforced isolation makes it easier for the trafficker to control his victim.

Drugs and Alcohol:  HTV WOP  Use of drugs/alcohol was previously mentioned a risk factor because it puts young people in risky situations with diminished inhibitions and little ability to protect themselves from predators.  But such behaviour can also lead to an addiction that drives the need to make “fast money”. Even for non-addicts, self-medication often becomes a means of coping, once in the sex industry. A trafficker may use drugs to increase a girl’s capacity for abuse (to be less resistant to client’s demands and/or to work longer hours) or to strengthen his control over her through dependency.

Accusations/Blame:  HTV  Traffickers constantly shift blame onto their victims. As a result, girls often blame themselves for what they have been involved in, regardless of their level of complicity.

Shame:  HTV WOP  Young women may feel great shame and guilt about their involvement in the sex industry.  Traffickers leverage these emotions to strip away all confidence and self-respect from their victims.  It becomes easy for them to believe that they are somehow lesser than others.

Violence/Torture:  HTV  Violence is occurs frequently in the sex industry. It may be used to physically overpower the victim or achieve submission by pain compliance and fear. When perpetrated by a client, the control is temporary, but traffickers may use violence to bolster a lengthy exploitative relationship.

Emotional Abuse:  HTV WOP  While emotional abuse might seem less violent than physical abuse, it can have an even deeper impact by eroding and ultimately breaking down the will of a victim. While more of a factor for trafficked girls, the impact of the emotional abuse inherent in the industry will also impact those without pimps.

Threats:  HTV  Traffickers often threaten their victims using a variety of techniques. Threats may range from physical violence to publically exposing the victim with pornographic images. When the threats directed at the victim become ineffective, a trafficker may threaten violence against her family members.

Trauma Bonds:  HTV  Victims often develop a sense of dependency on their abusers and develop a deep loyalty to them. This happens when extreme abuse and control is alternated with affection, praise, or simply providing the necessities of life. Pimps sometimes call this “dogging” a victim; psychologists describe the phenomena as “trauma bonds” or “Stockholm Syndrome”.

Debt Bondage:  HTV  Traffickers may demand repayment of supposed debts relating to living expenses, drugs/alcohol, purchased clothing/gifts or any number of things. Additionally, “leaving fees” are often levied for a victim who wants to sever ties with her trafficker.

Controlled Movements:  HTV  While it’s rare in the Canadian context, human trafficking victims can be kept in locked rooms and escorted anywhere they go. However, it’s quite common that the movements of a trafficked person will be closely monitored. Traffickers may not always be present, but they may use electronic devices or task one victim with watching another very closely

Normalization:  HTV WOP  Over time, this subculture will begin to seem normal. Whether or not they have been trafficked, young women inside the sex industry often become acclimatized to it.  Obvious signs of that happening will be seen in the way they speak, and also their body language. They may view their experience as one of utter defeat, or they may think they are achieving significant success in this underworld. Either way, the “square world” (outside the sex industry) will quickly become a foreign culture where life is too cumbersome. Girls and women in this position may feel that exiting the sex industry is not worth the trouble.  

Fear of Rejection:  HTV WOP  After becoming involved in the sex industry, many young women feel they are not “like other girls”, and that when people look at them, “they will know”.  They believe that their reputation will always precede them and that rejection will be a major obstacle to rebuilding their lives.

Lack of Options:  HTV WOP  Young women wishing to leave the sex industry often believe nobody would want to give them a chance.  They may not feel they can return to the home environments they left, it’s unlikely they have trusted friends who they can turn to for help, and they are probably unaware of community resources that are equipped to assist them in their transition out of the sex industry.

 

Girls who enter the sex industry may bear some measure of culpability in their own demise. But before we disown them, it’s important to examine the full picture and look at the possible reasons for their behaviour. By understanding why they entered the sex industry and what keeps them there, we can formulate a more effective response.  The above list is meant to help give clarity to those seeking to help end the exploitation of a daughter, a friend, or a client.  With the appropriate support, the possibility of exiting and recovery becomes much more realistic. While the past cannot be undone, there is always hope for future achievements. And there is great joy in seeing a young person experience healing, and embracing life as a survivor.

* Adolescent girls are most at risk for entry into the sex industry. With that in mind, I use the terms “girls” and “young women” throughout this document. This information is also very applicable to women, but may be less pertinent to preadolescent children.  

** Taken from the preamble to Canada’s prostitution legislation, Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, 2014.

Click for a printable copy of THE 20 Reasons.

 

Article Supports Pimps & Johns

Re: Sex trade workers stunned by killing, Oct. 31st 2017, The National Post.

Josie NatPostAs an advocate for exploited girls and women, I was deeply saddened to read about the recent killing of London’s Josie Glenn; and more so, because reports suggest she was a victim of sex industry violence. Because exploited women are so often overlooked, I appreciate The National Post shining the spotlight on this tragedy. At the same time, I’m deeply concerned that the article gives voice to an organization whose efforts may, in fact, endanger women like Glenn.

The London Free Press, which originally published the story, offered a soap box to one activist on a nihilistic rant, saying “Sex work isn’t what harmed Josie. It was . . . laws/by-laws that make it less safe…Efforts to speak for or de-legitimize sex work continuously puts workers in danger.” The Post, then, amplified the fable, by running the article hours later.

We did, in fact, have some old prostitution laws that arguably created danger in isolated circumstances. But in 2013, those were struck down by the Supreme Court in a challenge called Bedford vs Canada. The man behind the crusade, law professor Alan Young, admitted under oath that unrestricted prostitution doesn’t work, based on the evidence from countries that have tried it. His contention was that Canada’s response to prostitution had been sloppy. The court agreed, and within the year, we came out ahead with laws to reasonably address the harms suffered by this vulnerable segment of society. The cornerstone of the legislation makes it illegal to purchase sexual services. Along with that, is a measured leniency for the providers of sexual services, given that the sex industry is rife with exploitation.

The then, Justice Minister, Peter Mackay, called it a uniquely Canadian approach, but it closely harkens to the so-called Nordic Model that was first adopted by Sweden in 1999. The approach has been strongly credited with not only reducing prostitution, but the rates of sex industry violence and human trafficking, as well.  In spite of that, the Canadian legislation wasn’t so popular across party lines. While the Trudeau Liberals have, so far, done little more than sniff at it, Ontario’s Premier lead an attack on it following its 2014 enactment.  But she later backed off after her own Attorney General verified it’s alignment with our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The media hasn’t been helpful, either. Instead of representing the issue with any kind of objectivity, most outlets daftly promote the same pro-prostitution rhetoric that led to increased crime and violence in places like Germany and the Netherlands.  The only ones who stand to benefit are pimps and johns.

If we’re going to be truly honest about why women and children are being harmed in the sex industry, it’s happening in spite of our upgraded laws. The harm happens because the perpetrators of the violence, the sex buyers, are rarely met with more than a nudge and a wink. Sadly, our society has remained unconcerned for the health and safety of girls and women on the margins.  If that were not the case, enforcement would  have already crippled the industry, and Josie Glenn would likely be alive today.

–BURN AFTER READING–

Her elation was impossible to contain as her former pimp was cuffed and sent off to a federal penitentiary.  But the excitement was less about seeing a bad guy going to jail, and more about closure to a long and painful process. 

Eduarda Court Pic

MET Partner, Eduarda, coordinates the “Stepping Out” mentoring program for young women exiting the sex industry.     www.havenontheq.com

Last summer Men Ending Trafficking began assembling a team to stand with this young lady.  When she bravely took the witness stand last October, we were there to protect, show our support and pray.  We listened as she told the court how she became a victim of human trafficking.  Our hearts sank when she described what it was like, and how it changed her.  Each of us was profoundly impacted by the experience.                             

Her impact statement began with the words “Please Burn After Reading”.  It was not to say she wanted her mental and physical scars to be kept secret, but that she didn’t want to hold onto them.  Daily, she strives to push past impediments that linger from exploitation in the sex industry; that she envisions a day when the remnant of the abuse will be nothing more than ashes at her feet.

Seeing their friend lead away to his punishment provoked a very different response from a dozen men and women whose loyalty remains with the convict.  Clearly, the context of their relationship with the man was something different.  As they left the court room, some hurled obscenities at the young lady whose testimony was the obvious clincher; the very reason a guilty verdict was possible.  The group, then, assembled in front of the courthouse and waited.  Although our young friend had four men and four women by her side, the crown attorney insisted on a police escort to the parking lot.

The incident on the day of sentencing wasn’t the first we had encountered.  But then, threatening behavior seems almost part and parcel of human trafficking trials.  It’s no wonder that testifying under these circumstances so easily results in a sense of failure and re-victimization. But for our young friend, it brought a personal victory that is helping her let go of the past.  –Please Burn After Reading–  

Victim-Witness Poster

MET extends thanks to all those who volunteered their time to surround this brave young lady with much needed support.  We also gratefully acknowledge  partnership from The Haven, White Rose, Sextrade 101, SafeHope Home and Rising Angels.

 

 

A Brotherhood Born In Pain

I studied the four men who sat across from me. With somber faces and heavy hearts each took a turn to speak.  Any one of their stories was a lot to process; complex and convoluted.  Their emotions were raw and their pain unimaginable.  Each expressed the horror that only a parent can know when his daughter is exploited by the sex industry.  While no two stories were identical, a certain brotherhood was beginning to emerge, the kind that develops between those who share similar pain.

There were also women in the circle, mothers who were losing daughters to this evil.  Tonight was the first time they didn’t outnumber the men in the group.  I had not expected this, because commercial sexual exploitation is a crime that usually befalls fatherless girls.  But here was a reminder of the pervasiveness of this dark industry’s tentacles.

I sat back in my chair, not knowing what to say.  For the moment, it seemed that saying nothing was the best response.  This was the stuff of which third world documentaries are made:  films of far-away places like Cambodia, perhaps, or the Philippines.  Our society has come to uncomfortably accept that these abuses have deep roots in poverty-ridden countries, war zones, or at least places that don’t share our Christian heritage.  But the parents at this meeting represented the countless other Canadian families that face such tragedy in relative isolation, shame and despair.    

It was just over a year ago, that parents J & L approached me with their “Parents Hope” vision.  They saw the need for a support group for parents impacted by the sex trafficking of their child.  I had never heard of this kind of group before, but had already been providing individual support for a few parents who I thought might be interested.  After discussing and developing our approach, and networking with other agencies, we began monthly support group meetings in May 2016, at SIM’s national headquarters in Toronto.

Pastoral care, peer support, education and prayer summarizes the Parents Hope approach.  We also work individually with families to help bring an end to the exploitation and encourage the healing of relationships.  While the group continues to gather momentum and its full impact is yet to be determined, the depth of gratitude already shown by more than a dozen parents confirms that Parents Hope is making a difference.

For more information about Parents Hope, please email parentshope22@gmail.com

GARBAGE You Hear About Prostitution Laws

When people start weighing in on prostitution legislation, prepare to hear a lot of GARBAGE. Case in point: Sandeep Prasad penned a Huffington Post article, this week, demanding of the federal government “sex work law reform that culminates in the decriminalization of sex work”. He would have us believe that making it legal to buy sex is the reasonable “EVIDENCE-BASED” response to bringing safety to the so-called “workers” of the sex trade. 
Most men are in Sandeep’s corner; they like the idea of easier access to women’s bodies. Most women aren’t comfortable with that. But the men who are onside with him might have a valid position if there was EVIDENCE to suggest the “workers” would be safer. Well, there is no such EVIDENCE. 
Mr. Prasad simply polishes up the old pro-prostitution rhetoric, and tells us that laws protecting exploited persons are the source of “oppression impacting sex workers’ experiences”. No mention of the men who assume the right to abuse them, by the way.
Internationally, the abundance of academic studies on human trafficking, and related violence in the sex industry, shows a correlation between legal purchase of sex and exploitation. The EVIDENCE only makes a case for discouraging sex trade activities; not encouraging them.  
While the EVIDENCE does not work in Mr. Prasad’s favor, it does support a statement by former Canadian Justice Minister Peter MacKay that called prostitution “inherently dangerous”. Even Alan Young (Bedford vs Canada lawyer who challenged Canada’s old prostitution laws, and won) denies Mr. Prasad’s assertions. In 2013, Mr. Young told the Supreme Court of Canada that legal prostitution has not worked in any other country in the world, and we shouldn’t expect it to reduce violence and exploitation, here. Whether or not Mr. Young actually cares about sex trade violence, what he said was, in fact, EVIDENCE-BASED.
Either Mr. Prasad has little concern for vulnerable women and children in this country, or he’s been duped by the proponents of the dark industry that exploits them. Regardless, his argument is GARBAGE. The truth is, violence against prostituted girls and women ends when men stop buying sex.
 

Righteous Anger

“People do all sorts of things for money,” she says. “I would like to see lawmakers looking through the lens that there’s nothing morally wrong with providing sexual services for money.”

Body Rubber ScrShot

I became angry after reading, in my community news paper, all about prostitution’s therapeutic benefits to local men, and the wonderful career opportunities it provides for our daughters.  And I felt like saying something.

Letter To The Editor, Metroland News, York Region

Local massage parlour luring young women with the same false promises that violent pimps use.

Local massage parlour luring young women with the same false promises that violent pimps use.

“…Onyx Ronin, the alter ego of the woman Mr. Grimaldi interviewed, suggests it’s right and fitting that men should be able to buy access to women’s bodies.  Ronin calls it “selling intimacy” and would have us believe that she receives nothing but respect from her clients.  In contrast, colleagues of mine who have been exploited in local massage parlours tell seemingly endless stories of violence, addictions and human trafficking.  Like Ronin, my friends staunchly defended prostitution, when they were trapped in it.  Only after distancing themselves from the exploitation, and beginning the healing process, were they able to speak about the abuse.       

Ronin’s attempt at advocacy for body rubbers is overshadowed by a bid for her own validation from law makers.  The story sends out a confusing message and ultimately affirms the men who indulge in an illegal industry that opposes Canadian values.”

-John Cassells, Street Youth and Human Trafficking Specialist, SIM Canada

Please Click Here to read my full letter, and Here to read the original article.

G-U-I-L-T-Y

I can only speculate as to the true weight of that one word on the accused as he sat motionless in the court room.

To my young friend, who was a “victim-witness” in the human trafficking case, that same word carried a lot of weight, as well.  It meant that a person with real power and authority believed her voice was as important as any other –that her life was as important as any other. It meant that he had listened carefully to all she had said on the stand. It also meant that any weight that might have remained, in the wake of the trial, was now forever lifted from her shoulders.

Monica HugBefore heading off to his chambers, the judge quickly scanned our group. We were nine of the men and women that had walked in support of our young friend during the court process. But when he found her, he stopped. His look softened, and began to give way to a smile. There was no question that he had been impacted by her strength and character; we all had been. And, just maybe, it was a good and encouraging day for him, as well.

——–

Watch CTV coverage of the first day in court and our interview on 100 Huntley Street.

To learn more about MET’s Vulnerable Witness Program:  john.cassells@gmail.com

CTV Coverage: MET’s Vulnerable Witness Support

Tamara Cherry, CTV Toronto
Published Monday, October 17, 2016 6:47PM EDT

A new initiative to help victims of sex trafficking navigate their way through the court system began taking shape at a Toronto-area courthouse Monday.

A young woman allegedly exploited by a pimp in the GTA sex trade for more than a year arrived at the Brampton courthouse accompanied by members of Men Ending Trafficking – a Toronto-area group made up of men who advocate against the exploitation of sex workers.

The trial for the woman’s alleged pimp was scheduled to begin Monday, but was ultimately put over until Tuesday.

“We’ve got a real problem in that the young victims are terrified,” said John Cassells of Men Ending Trafficking, a group that has aligned itself with The White Rose Movement and Haven on the Queensway to support victims of sex trafficking. “They’re going to court and they’re being intimidated. Often, they just don’t have the support around them that they need. Everything from wardrobe, what are they going to wear, right down to being able to have the confidence to take the stand and calmly and confidently tell the truth about what has happened.”

The group met up with the woman at the centre of the Brampton trial several months ago – after she had testified at the preliminary hearing for her alleged pimp. It was a process she described Monday as “awful,” given the lack of support she said she experienced in the courtroom.

One of the Peel Regional Police investigators referred her Peel Youth Village, which hooked her up with a support worker who has worked with her since July 2015. That support worker then reached out to Haven on the Queensway, which then hooked up with Cassells and Men Ending Trafficking.

“It feels so good,” the young woman, who cannot be identified, said of the support workers surrounding her at court Monday. “I don’t know what I would do without them, absolutely.”

Eduarda Sousa-Lall of Haven on the Queensway said the support for sex trafficking victims can be simple.

“I come with an approach of a mother with a heart,” Sousa-Lall said. “Just, ‘What do you want to do today? Maybe go to the movies? Go have coffee?’ Just sort of keep it real…Just to let her know that she has become a woman of courage and that we’re here.”

The alleged victim said she wants to testify in court to ensure no other young women are victimized.

“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else, right? And I feel like if I back down, then he’s just going to go out there and he’s going to do it all again,” she said.

“We see time and time again where the victims just can’t withstand the rigors of the court process,” Cassells said. “They haven’t had a voice. They haven’t been allowed to think for themselves and now they’re being asked to go face-to-face with their abusers and speak the truth about what’s happened. That’s extraordinarily difficult. Many of these young victims, too, think even after they do this, will their lives be in jeopardy? So there’s a great factor of fear around these issues.”

Asked why it was important to create a men-only organization to advocate against sex trafficking, Cassells said that many victims have grown up without a father and in situations where they are sexually abused by men.

“They’re exploited by men. The entire sex trade is funded by men who want to exploit them. They don’t know that they can trust any men,” Cassells said. “This is hopefully a very restorative process for them to begin to allow men – safe men and honourable men – to walk alongside them and support them in such a needy time of their lives.”

The young woman in this case is expected to take the stand against her alleged pimp on Wednesday.

“Every day this young woman is in court, there will be men and women who are here in her corner,” Cassells said. “We’re not out to get anybody. We’re not out to intimidate any other party. But we just want to make sure she’s not alone in this process.”

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