Go after the johns and pimps, forum hears

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This article was published 12/03/2015 (4217 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s time to go after the criminals who sexually exploit our children, a packed forum of more than 250 people heard today.

To put an end to the sex trafficking of kids and young girls, you need to go after the demand for it, said several of the speakers at the 6th annual All Children Matter forum put on by the Winnipeg Sexually Exploited Youth Community Coalition.

It’s time society went after the pimps and johns creating the demand for younger and younger kids, said some of the adult presenters at the forum who were sexually exploited as youth and are now advocates and counsellors.

“These johns are the problem,” said presenter Bridget Perrier.

“But we’re not talking about the demand for paid sex,” said Perrier, who was first sexually exploited as a youth in care in Ontario when she was just 12 years old.

As an adult, Perrier testified at committee hearings on Bill C-36 to criminalize sex trafficking. She said at the time she was threatened by organized crime “to be silent.”

“We need to attack this more aggressively,” said Perrier.

“We know who the exploiters are but nobody wants to touch it,” said Maroussia McRae a survivor who was taken by sex traffickers from Winnipeg at the age of 13 and now works as a crisis counselor at an East Side Vancouver women’s shelter.

“They say ‘there’s not enough proof’ and then people don’t want to report things.”