These two short documentaries are posted as an introduction to the very serious problem of child prostitution.
     



RCMP officers accused of covering up for convicted B.C. Provincial Court Judge Ramsey

B.C. Government Sanctions Criminal Activities | B.C. Social Workers Recruit For Prostitution Rings | B.C. Social Worker Works As Prostitute | British Columbia Sex Slave Industry | B.C. Family Courts Do Not Protect Children

Statistics identify that there are between 100,000 and 300,000 child prostitutes in North America. Accurate figures are difficult if not impossible to obtain. Pimps circulate these child sex slaves to different cities in various parts of North America on a regular basis.

Many young girls that are trafficked and forced into prostitution in Canada are frequently transported out of the country into the United States. The pimps move the girls every 3 to 4 weeks. Known routes of circulation are San Francisco to Oakland to Phoenix to Honolulu to Portland.

There are an estimated 10,000 children living on the streets of Toronto Ontario, a large percentage of them are involved in the sex trade.

Approximately 600 children are involved in the sex trade in Montreal, Quebec.

More than 400 children work in the sex trade in Calgary, Alberta.

In 2001, there were 25 females under the age of 18 working in the sex trade in Kelowna, British Columbia.

On March 08 2001, John Lowman, a criminologist from Simon Fraser University stated that there are approximately 500 prostitutes in Vancouver under the age of 17. He is quoted as saying, 'the law is designed to keep prostitution out of sight, and gives little protection to juveniles'.

The following information does have an extremely serious impact on and direct link to child prostitution in British Columbia.

We have received complaints from over a dozen single mothers since 2001. All women claim that intake workers from the B.C. Ministry of Human Resources were recruiting them for prostitution purposes. The areas that have been identified in the complaints are Surrey and the central Okanagan.

The women all state that when they applied for financial assistance through the B.C. Ministry of Human Resources, offices intake workers informed them that work was available at local Escort Agencies.

All women refused to work in the sex trade industry at the insistence of the intake workers and were subsequently denied any type of financial assistance.

Several of these women had their children apprehended by the B.C. Ministry for Children and Families (MCF) within 6 to 8 weeks after applying for financial assistance and refusing to work in the sex trade industry.

The apprehensions were based on financial grounds. MCF claimed that the children were at risk because of the mothers lack of financial stability.

The RCMP in Kelowna were contacted and informed about the recruitment for prostitution and questionable child apprehension procedures by MCF.

The RCMP refused to investigate the concerns. They stated that; 'Prostitution is legal in Canada, The age of Sexual Consent in Canada is 14, Escort Agencies are legitimate businesses that are required to have business licenses, therefore no crime had been committed.'

The RCMP further stated, 'They do not interfere with MCF child apprehensions.' We are unable to post the information provided by the women. Because of the RCMP's refusal to investigate the allegations, the women were unwilling to provide statements.

We did send an email to the Honorable Murray Coell, Minister of Human Resources, advising him of the ongoing recruitment problem. To date, November 2003, Mr. Coell has not responded. The following is a copy of the email sent to Mr. Coell on April 03 2003.

Hon. Murray Coell
Minister of Human Resources
Victoria, B.C.

Sir:

I have and am continuing to receive serious complaints from single women in the Lower Mainland and Okanagan regarding recruitment into prostitution through Ministry of Human Resources offices.

I have reported these concerns to both the appropriate local Ministry Offices and the RCMP. To date there has been little, if any, response to the reportings from either the Ministry representatives or the RCMP.

In brief, single mothers have claimed that they have applied for social assistance and were refused because they were told there was work available for them at local Escort Agencies.

Are you aware of these types of activities being conducted within your Ministry and does your Ministry support or condone a 'Prostitution or Starve' policy? In 2006, 4 years after both the RCMP and the Hon. Murray Coell Minister of Human Resources were informed of these criminal activities, only one welfare case worker has ever been formally accused of using her job to recruit workers for an escort service.  This case was acknowledged only after a confidential document from computer tapes sold by the B.C. government has revealed.

Sincerely,

R.W. Nicholson

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B.C. Government Sanctions Criminal Activities

We are not the only ones very concerned about our governments 'policies' regarding the safety and welfare of women and children. Concerns paralleling our own are identified in the following news media release of June 10, 2003.

BC Government selling women’s lives to the lowest bidder.
For immediate release June 10, 2003

BC - The BC Coalition of Women’s Centers is calling attention to the outrageous actions of the BC Ministry of Human Resources, which is now measuring its success by the number of people entering crime, hitting the streets, or dying.

The BC Association of Social Work - Okanagan Branch, has uncovered contracts worth millions of taxpayer dollars to private, pre-employment contractors - contracts which allow these contractors to collect money for the “disappeared.”

According to the BC Association of Social Workers, a Freedom of Information request has produced contract #cesp46075030486, which could be worth almost $17.4 million in billings to the Ministry of Human Resources' program. The contract specifies that "Payments will be made to the Contractor on achievement of the cumulative full months a Participant is independent of Income Assistance". The Association states, “The Ministry of Human Resources has confirmed that payments would continue if the client died, moved out of province, or otherwise disappeared.”

In other words, pre-employment and “job placement” contractors in BC are paid simply for any client that never darkens the doorstep of MHR again. Whether women are employed, in jail, in hospital, on the streets panhandling, selling their bodies, or involved in other crime, with or without their children, as long as MHR never sees them again, the BC Government will declare it a success. On top of this, no one is tracking clients, so the Ministry has no idea where women will end up.

Pre-employment and employment contracts have been given to the lowest bidder, which leaves women vulnerable to those who may be out to make a quick buck at the expense of women’s lives.

This lack of concern for the well-being of clients may lead to women finding themselves under increased pressure to enter (or re-enter) the sex trade, to return to (or enter into) abusive relationships in exchange for financial support, or to engage into other dangerous and potentially illegal situations. Contractors will be earning money every time a woman is murdered and her death goes unreported to the Ministry.

It is conceivable that a private contractor could unwittingly wind up profiting from another incident similar to the horror of the Missing Women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

This, combined with Ministers and senior bureaucrats getting ‘bonuses” for numbers declining in Ministry of Human Resources, is morally reprehensible.

Although the Government of BC claims that, in three “Exit Surveys” done with former clients, 50 to 67 per cent left for work, according to the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, in a report on welfare policy released yesterday, the Ministry’s surveys have only ever achieved a response rate of 32 - 33 per cent. Of those sought for the surveys, 40, 46 and 48 per cent, respectively, did not have a phone number in service, while another quarter to one fifth were either “unavailable” or declined to be interviewed.

The BC Coalition of Women’s Centers has obvious concerns about the concept of anyone profiting from the vanishing of clients. What is even more concerning is that it will inevitably cost taxpayers more to pay these private contractors, than it would have cost to keep women, and their children, alive and in reasonable health. We are convinced that the citizens of British Columbia do not want our province’s most poor and vulnerable women and children to be treated like our highways, and sold to the most interested bidder.

If the Government of BC is truly concerned about helping women enter or re-enter the workplace, then it will ensure women have access to quality and accessible child care, transportation allowances or bus passes, and a higher minimum wage. It will ensure women have access to appropriate long-term training and education, and it will concern itself with building an economy that supports all of our citizens, and not merely a privileged few. Benita Bunjun 604-255-6554
Debra Critchley 250-542-7531 or 558-1138

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Social Worker Works As A Prostitute

  Kelowna Daily Courier - February 19, 2001

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A Prime Example Of The British Columbia Sex Slave Industry

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B.C. Family Courts Do Not Protect Children

With all of the evidence of a flourishing sex industry it's a 'crapshoot' if the best interests of the child are considered in the family courts states Glenn Robinson, manager of the Family Justice Center.

Kelowna Daily Courier - February 18, 2003

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