Manitoba to demand Craigslist kill sex ads

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/10/2010 (2001 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MANITOBA will follow Ontario's lead in demanding that the online service Craigslist stop carrying ads for sex-trade workers in Canada.

Critics of Craigslist's erotic services section allege that underage girls are among those being sold for sex in the ads.

Justice Minister Andrew Swan, attending a meeting of Canadian attorneys general in Vancouver, said in a telephone interview Thursday that he will write a letter to Craigslist "in the hope that they'll voluntarily pull those ads" -- as the company did in the United States following pressure from state officials and the victims of sex traffickers themselves.

"Ontario has led the way. We plan to follow along and we hope those ads will also be removed from Canadian websites," said Swan, noting that the issue has come up in talks with his fellow provincial justice ministers.

Three Ontario cabinet ministers wrote to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster Sept. 14 to applaud the service for agreeing to requests from attorneys general south of the border to shut down links to prostitution-related ads.

The ministers noted, however, that the company had yet to do so in Canada.

Craigslist has said it has not removed the erotic services content from its website in Canada because it's not been pressured to do so.

That's something that University of British Columbia law professor Benjamin Perrin, Kildonan-St. Paul Conservative MP Joy Smith and others want to change. They've been lobbying senior Canadian politicians to become more vocal about the issue.

Smith spoke with Swan on the matter earlier in the week. And on Thursday, before Swan made his announcement, Smith and Perrin called a press conference, in part, to call attention to it.

Smith, who has brought the matter to the attention of Prime Minister Stephen Harper as well as Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, said she is confident that Craigslist will soon comply with Canadian demands to remove the service.

"It's something we have grave concerns about and I would anticipate in the very near future some very good news about this," she said.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca