Human Trafficking in Canada

I read a book earlier this year called "Half the Sky" by the renowned New York Times columnist Nicolas D. Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn which related the oppression of women and girls in the developing world. From sex slavery, female genital mutilation, rape, and various other horrid forms of oppression, Kristof and WuDunn give an eye-opening account of the injustices that are expelled on women in many developing countries.

If you haven't read this book, stop right now, go on Amazon and order it. I'm serious.

Kristof and WuDunn argue that half of the world's workers lie underutilized and the key to economic progress is the opportunity for women to enter the workforce, gain an education, and become equal, if not important, societal and political figures.

I'll give you a link so you can check out the movement yourself. Please take the time to introduce yourself to this subject. Education, in some ways, is our only weapon.

Speaking of horrible injustices done to oppressed women in developing countries, what about women in our own countries? Well, women in America and Canada have great opportunities and share basically the same status as men in these developed nations. Sexism is disappearing with the "values" of tolerance and feminism; and women, more or less, hold an equal place is Western society compared to men. I say more of less because many women are still paid less than men and are discriminated against in certain jobs and such. Also, society still views women as playing the housewife role and submitting to a life at home. However, this ideology has been continually disappearing with the rise of women in the workplace and in educational institutions.

Nevertheless, what would you say if I told you that there is sex trafficking in Canada? "Sex trafficking in Canada?" You would say, "why that's ridiculous. That only occurs in foreign, third world countries!" Well, you are right, sex trafficking does occur in developing countries. In fact, most of the estimated 800,000 people are women and CHILDREN being sex trafficked across international borders every year. Organzied crime rakes in about $12 billion dollars annually from the sale of humans to be sex slaves. Next to drugs and weapons, humans are the most trafficked commodity in the whole world.

However, what you would never guess is that an estimated 800 to 1,200 women and under-age girls are trafficked into Canada every year. These girls come to Canada because money has run out at home and they are promised a job as a Nanny or a waitress. The promises come from organized crime or pimps. When they arrive in Canada, their documents are taken away and they are told they must pay back their travel debt to their holders and are brought to places where they can make the money back "quickly". The girls are brought to strip clubs, massage parlours, exotic showrooms, or the street where they must "work" for a certain period every day and obtain a designated monetary amount. They are then shuttled back to a hotel, or living area, by the holders and brainwashed to believe that they are the criminals because they now have no documents (to stop them from going to the police). Every day that the girls do not make enough money, the deficit is added to their debt owed to the holders. The girls are beaten when they do not smile, gang-raped when they say no to sex, and are critically brainwashed until they just smile and laugh and go along with the whole thing, because they know what will happen if they don't. It makes me shudder when people rationalize prostitution because it is the woman's choice. What if they had no other choice? What if the woman isn't a prostitute, instead, she is being prostituted against her will? In fact, I view all prostitutes this way. No women happily agrees to become a prostitute. A prostitute is not listed under other career choices, such as lawyer, pilot, or teacher, for girls in elementary school. Prostitution is forced onto people because they have no other choice. Trafficked or not, women never want to choose to become a prostitute.

During the Vancouver Olympics, it is estimated that hundreds, if not thousands of girls were trafficked into the city to satisfy the needs of drunken "Johns". These women, and 16, 17... 14 year old girls, are forced to have sex to repay the debt they owe. How is this fact not publicly known? Why are prostitutes criminalized against, when it is the buyers of sex that should be put in jail? They are the ones raping these victims!

Please check out the organization, Hope for the Sold, which is based in Ontario and is working abolish sex slavery and help those who are being prostituted. I am giving you this link so that you can check for yourself where I got these stats and where this information is coming from. Please educate yourself about the expanding human sex trafficking industry and how it is in our own country, in our own cities.

A Laughing Stock

It came to my attention today that the great nation of Canada appears to have a diminishing respect for freedom of speech. This has been a great issue on the minds of many Canadians with the introduction of the Human Rights Tribunals and their supreme power over punishing any "offenders" of various minorities. My professor emailed me a National Post article today called "The Importance of Mockery" by Marni Soupcoff. Soupcoff describes how a stand-up comedian, Guy Earle, is being accused by a lesbian woman, Lorna Pardy, of making discriminating comments based on her sexual orientation and her gender. Apparently, at one of Earle's late-night gigs, Pardy was heckling the comedian and even threw drinks in his face. This led to Earle making fun of the woman and going so far as to take the sunglasses off her head and break them on stage. Pardy is now claiming that she has post traumatic stress disorder from his sexual discrimination comments and is claiming $20,000 dollars in emotional trauma. Earle is on trial now for these alleged claims that apparently, have more value than his right to free speech.

So now you know the story...
What I want to know is, is where does the Human Rights Tribunal get their power to punish these so called "offenders"?

I know that Stephan Boissoin, a pastor from Alberta, was severely punished by the Human Rights Tribunal for denouncing homosexuality (Red Deer Advocate). A local teacher, Darren Lund, accused the newspaper and Boissoin for "exposing a person or persons to hatred or contempt" and brought the case to a human rights tribunal. Boissoin was found guilty, in front of the human rights commission, of hate speech without a public trial or further evidence. The human rights commissioner, Lori Andreachuk issued the order for Boissoin's punishment on the fact that although no specific individual was violated, there still was the possibility of degradation. His punishment for exercising his right to freedom of speech and religion resulted in a compensation to Lund for his time to file the complaint, a "cease and desist" judgment which prevented him from ever publishing "disparaging" remarks about homosexuals or Mr. Lund, a required apology to Mr. Lund, and a fine of $7,000; all because he voiced his religious belief that homosexuality is wrong.

Where does it stop? How come tolerance has replaced a nation's value for equality and liberty? Why is tolerance promoted of most religions instead of Christianity? Instead of valuing the right of free speech, people are fighting against it, saying that there needs to be regulations and rules on what people can and cannot say. Isn't this against the fundamental basis that America was founded on? It seems to me that the cyclical nature of time has brought the previously oppressed peoples into the role of their oppressors; therefore oppressing the once oppressor. So much oppression. The minorities are now oppressing the majorities -- isn't a democracy supposed to be the vote of the majority? Oh wait, that would be discriminating against the minorities. We can't have that.




Levant, Ezra. "Ezra Levant on the Human Rights show trial of Christian pastor Stephen Boissoin". Nationalpost.com. 11 June 2008. 28 Nov. 2009. http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/06/11/ezra-levant-on-the-human-rights-show-trial-of-christian-pastor-stephen-boissoin.aspx
Soupcoff, Marni. "The Importance of Mockery". Nationalpost.com. 30 March 2010. 30 March 2010. http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/03/30/marni-soupcoff-the-importance-of-mockery.aspx