Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown was in Sudbury on Thursday, meeting with police officials about efforts to combat human trafficking.
Brown was with Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP Laurie Scott, whose private members bill passed through Queen's Park in February and became law this month.
The Saving the Girl Next Door Act allows parents, police and victims service groups to obtain protection orders on behalf of victims to protect them from pimps.
It also calls for police to get more resources to set up dedicated human trafficking units and for a task force of police, Crown attorneys, judges and social service agencies dedicated to combating the trade in humans.
"Scott has crusaded for the last number of years at Queen's Park, understanding that this is a huge challenge in Ontario,” Brown told reporters. "I'm not sure we treat human trafficking with the seriousness that it merits in Ontario. I heard a statistic today that Ontario has the highest number of missing persons in Canada -- 1,600. That's astonishing that it hasn't inspired us into action."
Scott said many victims today are recruited through social media and are locals, not immigrants.
"Most people don't realize that 90 per cent of the girls are born in Canada,” she said, adding the average age is 14. “This isn't a story of Eastern European girls coming into Canada to be a nanny and find themselves all of a sudden working in the sex profession.
“These are our kids, predominantly girls, in our small towns and our communities, as well as the cities, being lured, mainly through social media, into a life they cannot escape without all of our help."
"The average age is 14 years old of the people being lured into human trafficking."
Her bill also allows survivors to sue pimps for emotional and financial damages. The protection orders are key, Scott said, adding she would like to see them extend for three years, as they are in Manitoba.
Violating an order there could mean a $50,000 fine and two years in jail “if they go anywhere near that girl."
While the legislation has passed, Scott said the Liberals haven't allocated resources needed to make the bill effective. No money was set aside in the provincial budget, she said, despite the fact it's a serious problem.
"This is one of the largest growing crimes in Ontario," Scott said. "Girls are being trafficked all across the province. Sudbury is a hub of Northern Ontario. And that's what happens -- the girls are moved from community to community to community, so their connections are cut off, they are separated even further from their families and they're sold from pimp to pimp.
"Southern Ontario likely has more victims, but they are passing through Sudbury at some point in their awful journey."
She wants the Liberals to provide funding so police forces can set up dedicated human trafficking units, something that's key to stopping traffickers.
"That would go a long way to saving the girls, and go a long way toward prosecuting these pimps," she said. "It's the most lucrative crime out there, right now. The average pimp makes $250,000 a year on one girl."
Brown said the statistics of dealing with pimps in the court system is dismal.
"I don't have the Sudbury stats, but since 2013 in Toronto, there's been over 400 trafficking incidents, yet only one conviction," Brown said. "We have to do better."
