Click on the image above to see this amazing website that will resource you in partnering to end prostitution in Canada.
Below are my notes from a seminar that Glendyne Gerrard, the director of Women’s Ministry in the Mid West District of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
- Prostitution is violence against women
- Prostitutes start young
- 84% of prostitutes have been sexually abused as children
- Being abused seems to be a training ground for prostitution
- First nations women are at the greatest risk in our country of being prostituted
- 400 children were sexually exploited on the streets of Winnipeg last year
- The youngest victim was 11
- 84% of these children were aboriginal
- Poverty is the number 1 reason women are forced into prostitution.
- Abolition of prostitution is possible in our country!
- Sweden demands to abolish prostitution
- They decriminalized prostitution, but criminalized those who were buying prostitutes
- They believed that if there was no demand, then this would get rid of prostitution
- Decriminalization meant that the women were seen as victims instead of criminals
- So millions were put into drug detox centres and rehabilitation centres
- School curriculums were developed to train people of the value and dignity of all women
- What were the results?
- After one year, prostitution dropped by 60% in Stockholm alone, and women were no longer traffiked into the country
- We should present this as a viable option in Canada!!!
“Having heard all this you can choose to look the other way, but you can never say that you never knew.” William Wilberforce
In English, check out http://www.defenddignity.ca for more information and next steps.
In French, check out http://lacles.org/ for more information and next steps.