Honourable members, this committee is in a strategic position to create a Canadian response to the evil of sexual trafficking. I believe you can bolster the fight for human rights on the globe and ensure the beauty, freedom, and value of all within its sphere of influence. And I want to assure you that we're praying for you.
All of the international leaders of the Salvation Army met in 2004 and identified the abolition of human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation as an international priority for the Salvation Army and the world. With that international commitment, we've set our sights on Canadian soil and how we can fight this thing in our own country. And our paths meet here.
We've set out to combat sexual trafficking on the ground. Several obstacles and persistent questions have emerged that I'd like to discuss with you, and I want to suggest some potential answers for this committee.
On a special note, I've noticed that everyone I've met who seems to work at a grassroots level and in policy on ending sexual trafficking—in the RCMP, victims services, and grassroots NGOs on the ground—suffer from an assault of paralysis when it comes to this issue. It seems so complex, hidden, and secret—really just evil—and this great paralysis tends to happens. I wanted to assure you that the time for paralysis is over. We don't have that option anymore. This is a prevalent issue in the world, and it's an evil that I believe Canada is in a position to stop. So I want to tell you that I believe we can progress on this thing, we can attack it, and we can actually take some ground. I don't believe it's hopeless.
So I want to suggest that the struggle itself is worth having, and I also want to come to you with a strong conviction. I often work in desperate places, and I have this strong conviction, as does the Salvation Army, that light is more powerful than darkness and that God is on our side. So be encouraged; we've employed heaven. I've gone straight to the top on this one and asked the Lord for His strength. You are not alone in this.
For the specifics, there will be a formal written paper, but my comments will be a bit more informal. It tends to be what I do.
But without oversimplifying, I think this monster has two heads. I want to suggest that we can attack both of those heads separately with a one-two punch.
So the first head of the monster of sexual trafficking in Canada is the actual victims, the actual survivors of human trafficking, and the provision for those survivors, both internationally and domestically. Trafficked victims are currently, in our country, being sexually exploited every day. We know this for a fact; this is happening right now.
Because of their intrinsic value, we must provide a place where survivors of sexual trafficking have access to their basic human rights. The UN Palermo Protocol, which Canada signed, has already made it clear what that looks like. In article 6, it recommends “implementing measures to provide for the physical, psychological and social recovery of victims of trafficking in persons”, including appropriate housing; counselling and information; legal rights; language translation; medical, psychological, and material assistance; and employment, educational, and training opportunities.
In Canada, we are not fulfilling this protocol. But there are several ways we can honour the protocol and provide these basic human rights with expertise and expedience. This isn't hard.
Punch number one on this head is to create immediate federal funding for safe and supportive structures for sexually trafficked survivors. We can't do this too soon. There are many traffic victims who do not have the safety or security that they require in Canada, and this has multiple effects. I won't go into all of them, but one effect is it can re-victimize the trafficked person. Another effect is that it gives power to the traffickers, because they offer provision that we don't. So the traffickers actually have power, and we give it to them by not providing reasonable things.
On the ground in Vancouver where I work, through partnerships and grassroots initiatives, including—and catch this, it's exciting—faith-based communities and feminist movements working together on this issue. This is how important it is—our coming together on this common issue to offer provision for the survivors of human trafficking in Canada.
We lack the funding to secure even the basic level of response right now. We have the will, we have the expertise, but we don't have the funding to do it. These victims deserve more than this.
Because of the nature of sexual trafficking and the desperate effects on its victims, it's critical to respond with specialized and culturally appropriate care. Right now, if a human traffic victim who's been sexually exploited surfaces, which has happened many times, the only option that exists for them to is to find shelter in existing shelter situations.
The problem with this, particularly in my city, Vancouver--and I can't speak to all the rest of Canada on the grassroots--is that there's no room. There's just no room in the shelters. There's a lack of funding, so that I can't even hold a bed in a shelter because that negates the funding for that shelter. So there's no place for the victim to go. I've been housing victims in people's homes, literally, because there's no place for them to go. The shelters that do have room aren't appropriate for victims of sexual trafficking. They're simply not appropriate.
So this kind of thing makes it even more difficult to get to the hidden places of trafficking. What happens is that these sexually trafficked victims, particularly, are so traumatized and they've been controlled by fear and violence for so long that they don't have any trust issues, and by nature they are suspicious of any kind of authority, or any kind of structure, or of even any kind of governmental support. If we provide adequate care and provision for those traffic victims, I believe we can free some of them enough that they would begin to share some of the secrets of the trade, which would benefit us in combating sexual trafficking more than we could ever imagine.
So provision is the left punch, if you would.
The right punch of this monster, and of this head, is to create a new piece of federal legislation that is specifically designed to give victims of sexual trafficking visa classification in our country. In March of this year the CIC announced that trafficked persons are eligible for a temporary resident permit. While we're glad they're making an effort, on the ground we've found the TRP inadequate.
First, while it would regularize a person's status in the country, it gives them access to nothing beyond interim federal help. So they're given status in Canada, but no means to survive. They're not eligible for work unless they're granted the longer permit option of six months, which has never happened. Second, the minimum of 120 days under the visa is too short a time for a survivor to recover and plan the next steps of her life.
Third, the women are still being criminalized in the very classification of this permit. It's designed for those in violation of IRPA and it serves to criminalize them as violators rather than as victims. Victims of human trafficking are victims, not criminals, and we need to recognize that legally. In order to make this happen, we'll need a new piece of legislation that creates a specialized visa for trafficked persons.
Additionally, on the ground level--this is just an aside--it's virtually impossible to find anyone who knows the TRP guidelines or how to go about applying for this permit. Literally, basic questions like how I apply, what's covered, and who do I contact cannot be answered. And anyone I have found with the expertise, which is one person in all of Vancouver so far, recommends not using the TRP because of its inherent lack of provision. Clearly, I think we could do better, and we must.
The Salvation Army is committed to partnering with you to ensure the proper safe and supportive care needed for the survivors of human trafficking. That's one head of the monster, this victim approach, the survivors and provision for survivors. It's a two-handed punch, right? The left hand is provision for their basic needs, as the protocol suggested, through release of funding federally; and the right hand punch is legal status and a new piece of federal legislation.
The other head of the ugly monster is the area of demand. What I mean by demand is the men who buy and profit from the sexual exploitation of women and children. There are two essential left-right punches we can do for this head.
The first is to recognize that prostitution is a form of sexual slavery that allows trafficking to flourish and to grow. This is essential.
The latest UN special report of the Special Rapporteur, Sigma Huda, on the human rights aspect of the victims of trafficking in persons makes it very clear that legalizing prostitution is intimately connected with likely increases in human trafficking. I quote:
...we should consider the link between trafficking and prostitution and recognize that prostitution is in itself a form of trafficking as defined in the Palermo Protocol since it is a form of sexual exploitation. Even if no visible external force is used, the consent of the victim as stated in Article 3 b of the Protocol is irrelevant. It cannot be said that prostitution is a voluntary process with no compelling or propelling factors such as the question of survival or of no other options being available to women that recruiters, traffickers and pimps take advantage of.
I've lived and worked on the streets of Vancouver's downtown east side for several years. Along with other organizations, we befriend women and children and youth who've found themselves victimized and sexually assaulted and who find themselves selling their bodies on the streets. I can tell you that story after story, woman after woman, they have all come to desperate and horrible places in their lives. They've been coerced, tricked, persuaded, beaten, and threatened to keep doing what they do. They live a degrading and horrific reality every single day. Let's stop using terms that normalize prostitution and that cast prostitution as just a form of work. Do you want sex work to be something young females should aspire to? Do you want your own daughters to contemplate sex work as a career choice?
As a committee, please do not make the mistake of separating prostitution from the equality of women. The condition for women who find themselves in sex slavery on our streets will not improve by moving them inside to turn their tricks or by setting up cubicles outside to do their business. They deserve more than a change in terminology and a quick external fix. We have to restore the dignity they were created with, by calling prostitution what it is: a sex crime against women. They have value. I tell them that daily, but I wonder if my country will agree.
The UN report frames this position in a context of human rights. I quote:
It has been wrongly assumed in some quarters that a human rights approach to trafficking is somehow inconsistent with the use of the criminal law to punish prostitute-users. This conclusion can only be based upon the assumed premise that men have a human right to engage in the use of prostituted persons. This premise should be rejected. Men do not have a human right to engage in the use of prostituted persons. In some domestic legal systems, men have been granted a legal right to engage in the use of prostituted persons, but, as suggested above, this right...[is] in direct conflict with the human rights of persons in prostitution, the vast majority of whom have been subjected to the illicit means...and are, therefore, victims of trafficking.
To combat demand, it is imperative that we make it culturally unacceptable to buy women for sex. Men who buy women for sex need to be arrested and specific programs for male sexual offenders be increased.
In the Salvation Army one such program exists already and has for ten years. Prostitution offender programs are commonly known as john schools across the country. We consider them a success in educating and therefore reducing the demand for purchased sex from those who participate in the program. It's here again that prostitution and sex trafficking cross paths, as we find that those who purchase sex are buying women from domestically trafficked places as well as internationally. The message must continue to get out that buying sex for money, food, or shelter is exploitation and is therefore not acceptable on any kind of level.
Men who have sex with a child in prostitution are committing child sexual abuse and need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. If we are serious about the rights of women and children who are sexually exploited in our country, we need to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16, at a bare minimum—if we're serious about rights for people in Canada.
That's the first punch. It was a big one; it might have been the right.
The second punch at this monster is to criminalize prostitute users and decriminalize victims of sexual assault. Make no mistake, this action is about the equality of women. The UN recommends that while prostitute users be criminalized, prostitutes not be; that they be treated as victims, not as criminals. Sweden has adopted this model because of their commitment to the value of women and children in their society, and their success on this issue is something that Canada, as a progressive nation ourselves, could easily adapt.
I quote from Gunilla Ekberg, a Canadian who helped form the Swedish policy:
As with all laws, the Law has a normative function. It is a concrete and tangible expression of the belief that in Sweden women and children are not for sale. It effectively dispels men’s self-assumed right to buy women and children for prostitution....
Consider this statement by a former prostitute, now an advocate for women's rights:
We, the survivors of prostitution and trafficking gathered at this press conference today, declare that prostitution is violence against women.
Women in prostitution do not wake up one day and “choose” to be prostitutes. It is chosen for us by poverty, past sexual abuse, the pimps who take advantage of our vulnerabilities, and the men who buy us for the sex of prostitution.
The Salvation Army is deeply committed to the intrinsic worth of women and is committed to the abolition of sexual slavery.
I'll end with one final quote. At one time, Martin Luther King, Jr., ignited a nation with this quote:
Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” Vanity asks the question, “Is it popular?” But, conscience asks the question, “Is it right?” And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.
I believe that time has come for Canada. We can choose to do what is right for the survivors of sexual trafficking by providing safe, supportive, and legal refuge for them in Canada. Let's do what's right for Canada by choosing to call prostitution what it is: sexual violence against women. Let's stand up as a nation to say we won't tolerate the sexual exploitation of women and children in our country any longer. God grant it that in Canada women and children are not for sale.
:
In Canada, the issue of fraudulent marriages frequently comes up in the South Asian community. Arranged marriages are often the norm within Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim communities back in India. The practice of arranged marriages, one needs to stress, is not the same thing as a forced marriage, even though there is always a danger that women may be coerced into an arranged marriage.
The logic upon which arranged marriages rest is that the close matching of a couple’s linguistic, educational, and religious background will make for a much more enduring marriage. Marriages in South Asia are considered to be a union not only between two individuals, but between two families as well. The choice of a proper bride and groom is of great importance for families, because it reflects directly upon their social standing in their larger community.
Marriages in India are usually required to be registered, but this practice is not always followed, particularly in small cities and in rural areas. Consequently, when there is no registration, there is no valid proof that the marriage took place, outside the oral testimony of witnesses to the marriage, who can be easily bribed or threatened. Other forms of proof of marriage include photographs or video records, which can be damaged, doctored, lost, or even erased.
Arranged marriages in South Asia usually involve some sort of monetary transaction between the two families. For example, in a Muslim marital context, an essential feature is the wedding dower, which is a predetermined amount of money given by the husband to his wife. In Hindu marriages, the financial transaction that occurs between both of the families is usually known as a dowry, which is defined according to Indian law as any property or valuable security that the bride has given or agreed to give, directly or indirectly, to the groom’s family. The payment of a dowry is illegal under Indian law. It's punishable by fines and imprisonment. But grooms and their families often pressure the brides on the eve of the marriage to pay dowries that can go as high as $20,000 to $30,000 Canadian. Brides and their families frequently agree to these amounts, even at the risk of going into debt, because they do not want to face the social stigma associated with a cancelled marriage.
Fraudulent arranged marriages are now becoming increasingly common within the South Asian community in Canada. We maintain at NOIVMWC that these marriages should be considered as an act of human trafficking.
There are two reasons for this. First, members of both sexes, men and women, enter into marriages purely for securing Canadian immigration status in order to attain the benefits associated with being a landed immigrant and eventually a Canadian citizen. Marriages are arranged between a Canadian and an Indian citizen based on the assumption that marriage to a Canadian citizen will result in a higher standard of living and that relatives living in India will be able to come to Canada at a future date. NOIVMWC is convinced that this can lead to many instances of men and women marrying expressly for the purpose of entering Canada.
The second reason that NOIVMWC considers fraudulent marriages to be acts of trafficking is that many these marriages are arranged for and by men who are either Canadian citizens or landed immigrants, who travel to India expressly for the purpose of getting married, and who may on the eve of the marriage demand exorbitant dowries from their brides and their families. Once the marriage is performed and consummated, the man usually returns to Canada, stating that he will sponsor his spouse’s entry into Canada as soon as possible, only to sever all contact with his wife upon arrival in Canada. Sometimes he will serve them with divorce papers. Sometimes he will disappear from sight. Since no formal registration of the marriage is required back in India, there's never any formal proof that a marriage has taken place, or that a dowry was given or obtained. Therefore it is impossible to prove that an act of extortion took place.
Even it were established before the Indian courts that the individual in question did engage in such an act of dowry extortion, that individual is able to evade justice in Canada because, as a Canadian citizen, that person has not committed an extraditable offence. What is common to both of these instances of fraudulent marriage is that Canadian laws are being manipulated to secure financial gain and that Canada is also being used as a safe haven for people who have broken Indian law.
It is difficult to determine the frequency with which fraudulent marriages occur within the South Asian community. Although the information that that NOIVMWC has is anecdotal, the frequency with which fraudulent marriages are occurring is enough cause for alarm. NOIVMWC can and would address this issue positively by conducting research on the many dimensions of this problem, by engaging in consultation with the various South Asian communities in, for example, Toronto or Vancouver. NOIVMWC, on the basis of this, would be able to provide training modules for immigration officers, settlement workers, and counsellors and provide appropriate policy advice to relevant government departments. The recent budget cuts, however, to Status of Women Canada and Social Development Canada have hampered NOIVMWC's ability to address this issue in a substantive way.
We realize this is a difficult issue, and that is why we also believe there must be a collaborative, proactive effort between CIC, Justice Canada, Foreign Affairs, Status of Women and Multiculturalism to resolve both these issues of fraudulent marriages.
NOIVMWC feels that the Government of Canada can and should take a number of immediate medium-term and long-term steps to prevent these types of marriages. These have been outlined in our brief. Among these are the following: requiring a certificate of registration for the marriage to be included as part of the sponsorship documents; ensuring that immigrant-serving agencies and prominent leaders in faith communities be aware of this requirement; being able to develop visitors' visas for women who may want to pursue their absconding husbands who are back in Canada; developing an extradition treaty with India to return men accused of abandoning their wives after collecting dowries; and developing better coordination between CIC, Justice, and bar associations.
This whole issue of fraudulent marriage, I think, does not necessarily reflect well on Canada for two reasons: number one, because we are becoming a safe haven for a number of individuals who are breaking Indian law; and two, because, we believe, it tarnishes Canada's image internationally as a defender of human rights, generally speaking, and of women's rights in particular.
NOIVMWC believes that the Standing Committee on the Status of Women is in a unique position to speak to government about these egregious practices and in so doing, we hope, restore the confidence of South Asian women and their families in it as a defender of their rights here in Canada and in the subcontinent.
Thank you.
:
Thank you, Madam Chair, for having me here today, along with some of the fine people from the department, Sandra Ginnish and Holly King from our department, and Christine Aubin from the Department of Justice, all of whom are integrally involved in this file.
It's also a real pleasure to be here not only with you as parliamentarians but also with Wendy Grant-John, who I know you'll enjoy having an opportunity to speak with today. She is one of the most respected leaders in first nations communities across Canada and certainly one of the most respected women in this country. I was honoured when she agreed to take on this task and to lend not only her personal commitment but her integrity and reputation to what we're trying to do. I know you'll have an excellent chance to talk with her.
Thank you for your kind words about my responding quickly. It would be more a tribute to my staff than to me in making this happen, but I'm delighted to come any time.
I appreciate the opportunity to appear before the committee.
[Translation]
I appreciate this opportunity to address the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.
[English]
I'd like to begin by thanking all of the members for the work on this difficult issue of on-reserve matrimonial real property, which I will describe in shorthand as MRP.
Your report, the committee's seventh report, really highlights the issue and provides some valuable insight into what needs to be done and highlights the legislative void that currently exists in this country.
[Translation]
I agree wholeheartedly with the committee's view that this void effectively violates the human rights of many First Nations people, particularly women. The issue is also closely linked with other social ills, such as violence against women.
[English]
This is something that I know Wendy will speak to you about.
The complex nature of MRP is well documented in a number of reports of the Senate and by parliamentary committees, by officials in my department, and by independent and international groups that have explored this issue and various aspects. I agree with the committee's contention that enough study has been done and immediate action is now required.
Our government has begun to take action on this issue. I'm pleased to report that the consultation process, the consultative process that Wendy is leading, has begun. It will be a well-informed, effective, and sustained solution for on-reserve matrimonial real property, and Wendy will speak about this. I think we are seeing a very high level of engagement and commitment from the national aboriginal organizations and from chiefs and councils across the country.
The matrimonial real property or the family home is normally the most valuable piece of property that a couple on reserve owns. In that sense they are the same as any other Canadian family. Upon the breakdown of a marriage, the division of this property necessarily affects everybody who's involved, both spouses, male and female, their children, their families, and by extension the broader community.
The principles and rationale guiding our forward momentum on this issue and our commitment to resolving it are really pretty straightforward. We want to ensure the legal rights and remedies that are available to other Canadians off reserve are also available to first nations citizens, men and women, living on reserve. We wish to ensure there is a framework in place to ensure there's a fair division of property upon the unfortunate breakdown of a marriage.
[Translation]
The stories we have heard over the years are heartbreaking, and by now, all too familiar.
[English]
We need to make sure we address this legislative void in a manner that is acceptable to those who will be affected, and this, I agree, is an issue that is not without its complexity. First nation individuals--particularly women and children--and first nation committees must, however, be the focus of this initiative.
[Translation]
That is why I believe the consultative process currently underway will achieve what we are hoping to achieve: a balance between individual and collective rights.
[English]
We've heard concerns during the consultation process to date that many first nations people are afraid that the underlying objective of this process will be to lead to an erosion of reserves. The goal of this process, I want to be clear, is to address the long-standing human rights issue. It is not the Government of Canada's intention to extinguish reserve status or to damage the collective status of reserve holdings through MRP legislation.
One of the principles my department has stated throughout is that reserve lands shall not be alienable. Let me assure you that reserves shall remain for the use and benefit of the first nations for which they were set aside. This process is led by Ms. Grant-John, a respected leader, a successful entrepreneur, and a skilled negotiator, in partnership with the Native Women's Association of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations. I'm very confident that this process will lead to innovative and effective solutions, solutions that will help ensure that matrimonial real property rights on reserve are protected while respecting community interests and protecting reserve lands for future generations.
Christine Aubin can speak to this, but the common law is infinitely capable of both protecting matrimonial property and ensuring the continuity of first nation reserves and the status of reserve lands.
Although it is far too early to predict exactly what legislative options will emerge from this process, the substantial research and analysis already conducted suggests a range of possibilities. At one end of the range lie a few amendments to the Indian Act itself, amendments that would see existing provincial laws on family and property apply on reserve. At the other end of the range is legislation that would grant individual first nations complete control over matters of family and property law on reserve.
[Translation]
Given the difficulties posed by each of these options at the extremities, I believe a sensible solution lies somewhere in between.
[English]
With all of the key stakeholders engaged, I am optimistic that the process will succeed. My optimism, as I said earlier, is also fuelled by the abilities of Ms. Grant-John, our representative.
[Translation]
Madam Chair, I am confident that the process now underway will not only lead to a legislative solution, but will also foster the support needed to implement that solution effectively.
[English]
Furthermore, to help address the often difficult situations faced by first nations women, I am announcing that an additional $6 million will be made available this year to help ensure that the network of 35 INAC-funded family violence shelters are better equipped to provide much-needed services to women and children on reserve. This amount will include funds to support resources, such as staff training, and direct costs to clients, such as food and clothing.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today, Madam Chair. I'll do my best to answer your questions.
:
I'd be more than happy to.
When we look at our communities as they are today, there is a huge struggle because of a lack of understanding on the part of the non-aboriginal community about where we were as communities and about our ownership of land. We'll just deal with ownership of land. I can't go into the whole big picture.
In fact, before the imposition of the Indian Act women did hold land collectively, but it wasn't the kind of ownership we look at now, which is fee simple, and you can trade it around or sell it. The ownership and the value of it was held by the family, with the women having as much say as anyone about how it was distributed, how it was broken up, and what it was used for. Once the Indian Act came into effect, there was, of course, the Westminster model, and the lands were broken up. I know that in a lot of communities, they only gave them to the male heads of the family.
I want to make a little bit more of a comment with respect to the place of women. I've done a lot of research in this area, and it reinforces what the elders are saying to us, that the women did hold.... As a matter of fact, I think the women held a higher place in our communities in a number of areas than did the men.
When you do your research, you see in a number of writings that when the non-aboriginal people came into our communities, one of the first things they said is this. What you need to do in order to--and these words I don't agree with--civilize the Indians is break the relationship between the men and the women. You need to instruct the men on how to treat their women, because their women have too much power. The women have too much of a place in the community and in decision-making; therefore, we need to ensure that the European men teach the Indian men how to treat the women.
The women in our communities know this, and they are still holding on to all the culture, all the history, all the stories. The women hold those, and as the givers of life, they hold a very high position. That's what we're talking about when we talk about returning to those traditional values and ensuring that when we build our communities from the ground up, which we want to do, we have the place of women, which is at a much higher place than it is in the non-aboriginal community, I'm sorry to say.