An anti-human trafficking advocate in North Vancouver fears Canada will become “America’s brothel” if prostitution is legalized..Cathy Peters founded the #BeAmazing campaign to educate and advocate against human trafficking. On February 11, Peters warned the Justice Committee if Bill C-36, The Protection Of Communities And Exploited Persons Act, was revoked, Canada would become “America’s brothel.”.“There’s a very nasty criminal underbelly that nobody talks about, and it’s growing in Canada. If we lose that law, and we normalize the sex industry, Canada changes overnight,” Peters told the Western Standard in an interview..“Americans would pour into Canada to buy sex. And they’re already doing it here in British Columbia. BC is the best province to buy sex … because [Bill C-36] is not enforced at all in British Columbia. It is in other provinces, but not here in BC. Why? Because we have provincial politicians here that support the sex industry.”.Peters believes prostitution legalization in New Zealand failed to protect women and lowered it to a “tier two country.”.“Human trafficking has increased, child sex trafficking has increased. They have small brothels with no accountability, no oversight, no transparency, and they’re filled with indigenous and with children,” Peters said of the Kiwis..“Germany has normalized the sex industry. They have great big brothels, super big ones, ‘mega brothels,’ they’re called. So 80% of men in Germany buy sex… They have to get girls from the poor countries in Eastern Europe, Romania, Moldova, Albania, Northern Africa, the Caribbean, South America… About 6 to 12% of men buy sex here in Canada, and that number will creep up. But what would happen if it went to 80%?”.Peters says contemporary research in Canada answers the question..“The indigenous are severely over represented in the sex industry at 54%. Nationally, those that are in the sex trade 54% are indigenous women and girls in urban centers like Toronto and Vancouver, in theory, it’s 70 to 90%. So if you fully decriminalize prostitution in Canada, the first casualty is going to be our indigenous women and girls. The harm to those communities would be immeasurable.”.Peters’ work helping vulnerable youth began 40 years ago as a teacher of young teens in Surrey B.C. where some girls sold their bodies for sex — and still do. Peters says she has done 200 presentations in the past 12 months to schools, city councils, and community groups. She has addressed councils in Tofino and Whistler and warned them that tourist traps are often sexual exploitation traps as well..“Tofino is a world-class tourist destination. Trudeau goes there… Who’s going to get pulled into it if you increase your demand for paid sex? Where does the supply come from? It’s going to be your local girls. And they are getting recruited aggressively. Hells Angels? All the gangs recruit because the sex industry is a high income, high yield crime and low risk. They’re not going to get caught, not in BC.”.Peters says most women would not choose prostitution if they felt they had other viable choices..“The libertarians that say, ‘Well, this is empowering for women and women choose this’ — women don’t choose this. They have no choice. Those that end up in it, they don’t want to be in there. So the stat is 95% would like out. They don’t want to do it. They were coerced. They were forced. They were groomed for it since they were children. They grew up with incest, childhood sexual abuse. So they were already groomed for it,” Peters said..“We have a toxic culture right now that is hyper-sexualizing our children and it’s happening in our schools. Our sex education curriculum are sexualizing our children, which means they are groomed for the sex industry. The sex industry loves it because they can always get product, they can always get supply. The only problem with the sex industry is it’s deadly. It kills you.”.Lee Harding is a Saskatchewan-based contributor to the Western Standard.
