Human trafficking is slave trading: MP Joy Smith
Conservative MP Joy Smith has been fighting an uphill battle trying to get Canadian feminists and politicians to take seriously the growing problem of human trafficking. Her interest in this issue dates back over ten years, when she was Tory justice critic in the Manitoba legislature. After speaking with police, NGOs, and victims, she realised that human trafficking is nothing more than slave trading.
Elected to Parliament in 2004, she has now introduced a private member’s bill, C-268, to impose a minimum five-year sentence on those convicted of trafficking children under age 18.
Daphne Bramham writes about Joy Smith and her cause in today’s Vancouver Sun.
From victims, she heard horror stories not just of what happened to them physically once they were under a trafficker’s control, but how at a certain point they came to believe that they were only whores and not worth saving. It turned Smith into a passionate advocate for them, and it’s been a long and unpopular road.
After being elected to Parliament, Smith took her cause to the all-party Status of Women committee in 2006 and was told that trafficking was not a problem in Canada.
Undeterred, Smith found allies. By the end of 2007, the committee had heard from experts and produced a lengthy report that recommended Canada develop a comprehensive strategy to combat the trafficking of humans.
That recommendation was unanimously passed by the House of Commons, yet nothing has been done.
[…]
Smith’s bill would remedy that. Still, even she admits there will still be huge holes in the law, large gaps in enforcement, not enough education for police officers and vulnerable children and far too little attention being paid to the likely explosion in trafficking in 2010 to coincide with the Winter Olympics.
Human trafficking, says Ms Smith, is a crime against humanity. It’s hard to disagree.
Joy Smith’s parliamentary home page is here, her personal home page here, and full information about bill C-268 can be accessed here.
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[...] HUMAN TRAFFICKING is slave trading: MP Joy Smith …. [...]