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Not everyone is equal in Canada: aboriginal teenage sex trafficking victims unprotected by law
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When thinking about Canada, he or she thinks of well protected environment, animal rights, and humanitarianism. Still, there is a group of people who falls outside of that protection by the Canadian society, and their rights are still neglected.
Aboriginal people are neglected
According to the research, the UN Human development index ranked Canadian aboriginal group has ranked in 68th while Canada ranked in the 8th. Further, the Canadian government only spends $7000-$8000 on aboriginal people while spending $15000-$16000 on Canadians. Furthermore, though the Canadian Health and Social Transfers provision is growing at an average rate of 6.6.%, the budgets have declined by 13% for aboriginal people. Lastly, in 2001, the unemployment rate for Aboriginal people was 19.1% when it was 7.4% for the total population in Canada.
Aboriginal teenagers are the targeted victims of sex trafficking
Aboriginal women continuously become victims of violence, including human trafficking, which demands particular attention from the government. According to the limited data available on the sex trafficking of aboriginal women and children, more than 500 Aboriginal women have gone missing or been murdered in Canada over the last few decades. Michael Cettleburgh, a Canadian gang expert, testified that 90% of the teenage urban prostitutes in Canada are aboriginal population. Moreover, roughly 75% of Aboriginal teenage girls are sexually abused. And, 50% of these population are under the age of 14 and a quarter of them are under the age of 7. Experts also testified that the Aboriginal teenagers are in the age between 12 and 14 are prostituting in the north Winnipeg. They are pimped by gang members and selling their bodies for 20 dollars per sex.
Ironically, Canadian socialist parties oppose child trafficking bills to protect these victims
According to a news report in Canada, Canadian socialists refuse to impose harsher crimes on child trafficking offenders. They are according to the report, firmly supported by the criminals and are generally soft on crime. They also believe that 'law-abiding victims of crime are actually responsible for criminal behavior, and that criminals are the real victims of crime.' Even those who are convicted of sex trafficking in the past spent less than five years in jail since their prison time during the pre-trial custody counts as part of sentencing time. For instance, Micheal Lennox mark, a sex trafficking offender, only spent a week in jail for sex trafficking 4 teenagers victims.
?Canadian legislation needs to take sex trafficking more seriously
It was only last May 2008 that the first conviction of human trafficking case in Canada was held. Toronto Sun earlier this year exposed the lack of legal mechanisms to prosecute minor domestic trafficking in Canada. Though 14 years old girl had sexually abused by her pimp, the police could not prosecuted the pimp because she said he was her boyfriend and that she was in love with him. The case is similar to a typical domestic minor trafficking in the U.S., in which the pimp will be dealt severely for pimping a minor regardless of her consent. Perhaps, one is better off if he or she were born as a friendly animal to Canadians or a tree in one of their backyards than an aboriginal teenager in Canadian soil.
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