Vancouver Olympics get an ‘F’ for stopping sex traffic: group

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Mike Barber, Canwest News Service Published: Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Vancouver Olympic Games organizers have received a failing grade for their efforts to curb sex trafficking into the city, a think-tank announced Tuesday.

The Citizens Summit Against Sex Slavery, a coalition of women's groups, academics and politicians, gave the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee, the B.C. government and the federal government an "F" for "failing to make sure women and youth are secure against human trafficking during the 2010 Olympics."

Benjamin Perrin, a law professor at the University of British Columbia specializing in human trafficking, said he knew of "dozens" of young women, mostly from major urban centres and native reserves, who were being sent to Vancouver to deal with an expected surge of tourists seeking prostitutes.

Spikes in prostitution often coincide with mass sporting events, said Perrin. He said the 2004 Summer Games inAthens and 2006 World Cup in Germany are just two recent summits that attracted fleets of sex-trade workers to meet the needs of a typically wealthy, male audience.

"I'm very disappointed to say we were expecting this," said Perrin, pointing to recommendations his group made in 2007 to the RCMP and VANOC to prevent a surge in human trafficking before the Olympics.

"Fortunately, what is apparent today, is that a number of woman who have been brought to Vancouver for the purpose of being sold for sex during the Games by their traffickers have been rescued," said Perrin. "How many more out there, who are going to be subject to exploitation, we just don't know."

Many of these cases, Perrin said, are abetted by the popularity of online classified websites, such as Craigslist, that feature "erotic services" listings.

The listings are anonymous, helping travellers from around the world set up appointments with prostitutes before they set foot in Vancouver.

In the U.S., customers must provide credit card information before responding to a post. However, that's not the case in Canada, allowing a "virtual sex slave market to flourish outside the reach of police and intelligence services," a release from the summit said.

Vancouver police aren't planning any crackdown on prostitution during the Games, said Const. Lindsey Houghton.

"Street-related prostitution existed before the Games, it will exist during the Games and it will exist after," Houghton said. "Our enforcement around that will not be any different. We have a dedicated vice unit that works very closely with the girls and the guys . . . to ensure that they are safe."

Canwest News Service

Vancouver Olympics get an ‘F’ for stopping sex traffic: group

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Church fears rise in human trafficking

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By Ethan Baron, The Province
January 31, 2010

Canada's Catholic bishops this week released a letter to pastors across the country, denouncing the human trafficking they expect will feed the Metro Vancouver sex industry during the Olympics.

"Groups involved in the struggle against human trafficking are worried," the Jan. 27 letter says. "At some major sporting events, systems are often put in place to satisfy the demand for paid sex. Unfortunately, this is likely to be the case during the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver."

Some academics and activists assert that sex-trafficking for the Games is a certainty, while other activist groups and police argue such trafficking is not likely to rise.

"Our studies have suggested there won't be an increase in human trafficking," says RCMP Border Integrity Program Sgt. Duncan Pound. "We will have a large number of investigators available to respond should a case arise or be reported."

A study commissioned by the provincial government and the Vancouver Police Department concluded in a 2009 report that forecasts of massive human-trafficking connected to prostitution at the 2004 Athens Olympics and 2006 soccer World Cup in Germany were wrong.

"In relation to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, public statements have been made which project an alarming increase in this human trafficking," the report says. "These claims are inconsistent with the evidence . . . that trafficking and mega-events are not linked."

But others believe the realities of commerce will lead to trafficking.

"If there's a demand for paid sex, then supply is going to be created," says Michelle Miller, executive director of Resist Exploitation Embrace Dignity, an anti-prostitution group.

"When you add half-a-million visitors . . . we know that the demand is going to go up and the supply is going to have to be increased."

Traffickers may use the Olympics to facilitate bringing women across the border into Canada, says UBC law professor Benjamin Perrin. "How much easier is it to simply claim that you're going to be visiting the Games?" he says. "There has not been an increased police response to this issue."

Those who have been publicly predicting increased trafficking have actually lured many prostitutes to Vancouver for the Olympics, says Suzie Davis, an advocate for sex workers.

"By . . . promoting the idea that there's going to be a huge amount of earning potential for sex workers in Vancouver, they are encouraging women in an economic recession to take to the road," Davis says.

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Church fears rise in human trafficking