90% of Canadian prostitutes are underage aboriginals
Marty Van Doren, RCMP officer and human trafficking co-ordinator for Ontario division, says that underage aboriginal girls make up some 90 percent of visible sex trade workers in Canada.
And make no mistake about it, most prostitutes are lured or forced into the life, he said.
“Are they victims? — yeah, absolutely,” Van Doren said.
The most vulnerable, economically challenged, socially dislocated women are often drawn into prostitution with promises of a better life, he said.
Instead, they find themselves abused and exploited by profiteers who beat them with “pimp sticks” (coat hangars) and other means, threaten them and sometimes brand them with lit cigarettes, scarring or tattoos, Van Doren said.
About 90% of visible sex trade workers in Canada are aboriginal girls under age 18, he said. “They’re sold like cattle and moved from city to city.”
In related news, anti-trafficking groups have launched the “Buying Sex is Not a Sport” campaign to raise awareness of the problem in the run-up to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Sure sounds like a victimless crime to me!