London, ON
For Immediate Release – May 12, 2020
After waiting for months and repeatedly contacting the Justice Department, organizations across Canada providing long-term support to trafficked, prostituted and sexually exploited women and girls discovered their funding proposals submitted to the Justice Department Victims of Crime Fund, would not be approved because the fund was not provided with money.
Organizations across Canada including the London Abused Women’s Centre (LAWC) are forced to close their successful federally funded trafficking program. While provincially funded programs will continue, our federally funded program will close May 29, 2020.
In five years of the program’s operation, it served 3,107 trafficked, prostituted, sexually exploited and at-risk women and girls. This included individual long-term, trauma-informed service to 650 trafficked and sexually exploited women and girls, 939 at-risk women and girls who attended groups, 173 family members from across Canada looking for their missing daughters, and 1,343 at-risk women and youth through community outreach. The agency also ran a four-month long digital marketing campaign targeting victims and sex purchasers between Windsor and Toronto resulting in 10,535,496 social media impressions.
Despite unprecedented success, the government ignored the recommendations of its own Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights which in part recommend that the Government of Canada provide “…adequate resource allocation to address the realities and challenges facing community organizations that assist victims as well as law enforcement agencies that are charged to investigate and detect human trafficking.” (Moving Forward in the Fight Against Human Trafficking in Canada Report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, Recommendation 11 2018:63. Retrieved from https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/JUST/Reports/RP10243099/justrp24/justrp24-e.pdf).
The Trudeau government claims to be feminist-centric and equality seeking yet has failed to fund the Victims of Crime Fund for victims of trafficking. The result leaves federally funded programs geared to the protection of trafficked women and girls across Canada with no choice but to close.
On September 4, 2019, Minister Goodale, while Minister of Public Safety Canada stated, “Human trafficking is an abhorrent crime that includes sexual exploitation and forced labour, which devastates the victims and survivors, their families and society.” Minister Goodale announced $57.22 million in funding over five years in part to “empower victims and survivors to regain self-confidence and control over their lives; prevent more of these crimes from taking place; and better protect those who are most
797 York Street – Unit 5 London ON N5W 6A8 t. (519) 432-2204 f. (519) 679-3918 info@lawc.on.ca
Providing counselling, advocacy and support for abused women vulnerable to trafficking. (Minister Goodale - $75-million National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking announced, Special Advisor appointed. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safetycanada/ news/2019/09/minister-goodale---75-million-national-strategy-to-combat-human-traffickingannounced-special-advisor-appointed.html.)
That commitment appears to have been abandoned.
It’s hypocritical of the government not to provide funds for sexually exploited women and girls, while its COVID Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) gives businesses linked to the sex industry, including strip clubs and body-rub parlours, with interest-free loans up to $40,000 with the potential to keep 25 per cent of those monies. (Les bars et l'industrie du cannabis auront droit à l'aide d'urgence fédérale. Retrieved from Radio Canada http://www.radio-canada.ca/util/postier/suggerer-go.asp?nID=4497173).
This is a gift to traffickers. In fact, eligibility criteria falls almost entirely into the domain of traffickers (What is the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) Retrieved from https://ceba-cuec.ca).
An Ipsos Reid poll done in 2018 showed that 75 per cent of Ontarians think prostitution is harmful to women and girls, 77 per cent of Ontarians felt that most women and girls do not want to have repeated sex with random men, and 85 per cent of Ontarians would not support prostitution as a job for their daughter, sister or family member (Six in Ten Ontarians Oppose Decriminalized Prostitution. Retrieved From https://www.lawc.on.ca/six-ten-ontarians-oppose-decriminalized-prostitution/ ).
COVID is not the only factor currently impacting women’s lives. Contrary to the feminist agenda the government prides itself on, women and girls will continue to find themselves vulnerable to the impact of sexual exploitation while simultaneously being denied service.
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Contact Information:
Megan Walker, Executive Director, London Abused Women’s Centre
mwalker@lawc.on.ca or 226-376-0781
Diane Matte, Concertation des Luttes Contre L’exploitation Sexuelle (en Français)
514-376-9241
Theresa Jenkins, Executive Director, Reset Society of Calgary
Theresa@resetcalgary.ca or 403-690-1610
