The Toronto Star recently published two articles about prostitution and human trafficking. “‘Brothels in the sky’ replace storefront massage parlours” looked at changes in prostitution locales, with a new trend seeing brothels move from the familiar façade of massage parlours to residential condos.
“Prostitution is going nowhere, so put it somewhere” discussed the ongoing problems of prostitution, and argued for its legalization.
Prostitution and human trafficking are two issues that, in my opinion, should be discussed more often and brought to the forefront of public and political debate. I was therefore quite impressed that the Star had two articles focusing on the sex industry in Canada.
However, I was not impressed with journalists’ lack of information, or perhaps their lack of research, on the federal government’s efforts to address the issues. The articles alleged that no level of government is taking action on these issues, although this is completely false. There are two parliamentary bodies working on these problems that the Star has either completely ignored, or is ignorant of.
Many people are not aware of Parliamentary Committees, and yet these committees (televised for the most part on everyone’s favourite channel, CPAC) do much of the government’s work. These nonpartisan committees review, discuss, and debate specific issues, and welcome expert witnesses who are specialists in the relevant fields. Each committee then completes a report that is tabled in the House of Commons, after which the government has 120 days to respond to the report’s findings.
This parliamentary session, the Status of Women Committee has been focusing on human trafficking, as a result of a campaign spearheaded by the Conservative Party to raise awareness of the situation in spite of Liberal and NDP opposition. Human trafficking, specifically for the purposes of sexual exploitation, is an international problem that does not exclude Canada. Thousands of women each year are trafficked within Canada, from Canada to the United States, or to Canada from overseas.
Trafficking is not just an issue that affects low-income women-many victims of trafficking are young girls or young women who are lied to, have their documents stolen, and become dependent on their traffickers or pimps.
The federal government is also currently reviewing Canada’s prostitution laws. In a Subcommittee on Solicitation, an offshoot of the Justice Committee, the issue of prostitution is being reviewed and new ways of dealing with prostitution are being examined. Prostitution laws in Canada are complex, as prostitution itself is legal yet acts surrounding it, such as owning a bawdy house and soliciting prostitution, are not. This complexity creates confusion for judges and law enforcement officers, which is why these laws must be reviewed and clarified. Models used in other countries, such as Australia and Sweden, have also been studied to review the pros and cons of various types of legislation.
I have just reviewed two bodies of the federal government (a standing committee and a subcommittee) that are addressing the issues of human trafficking and prostitution. Yet in the Toronto Star articles there is absolutely no mention of either of these institutional bodies, and there are claims that Canadian governments are ignoring the issues. It is interesting that journalists working for a highly respected, mainstream newspaper would not complete the research necessary to write factually correct articles.
Omissions like these bolster my opinion that it is the public’s responsibility to read and watch the news critically, and hold the media accountable to the same standard we have come to expect from our elected officials. It is not enough to allow the media to educate you-you must educate yourself.
