You noticed I'm holding q-cards.
I'm holding q-cards
because they are going to help me focus on my message
while at the same time, shielding me from painful memories,
and intrusive thoughs,
because my story isn't an easy one to tell.
In fact, every time I tell my story,
I'm re-traumatized.
But if sharing my story means
that one more girl has a chance of freedom,
then it's worth it for me.
Growing up in my family wasn't easy.
Mental health problems and abuse
can destabilize a family.
But, abuse doesn't just exist in a vacuum.
It doesn't just start or stop in one idividual's life,
it permiates every action and activity of their being.
Mental health problems and abuse led to neglect.
And neglect left me on the streets of Scarborough,
a very young girl.
I distinctly recall going back to school.
Remember, each year the teacher would ask us.
"Write down what you did last summer."
I was so ashamed, I was paralyzed.
I didn't go to summer camp.
No, I didn't go to the cottage.
I was the kid that played outside all day long.
There was no regular structure.
There was no routine for most anything.
One summer, I was raped by a stranger,
and other, abuse integrated by the neigborhood boys.
I was always in fight or flight mode.
It seemed like danger was lurking around every corner.
What I learned that summer
was how to remain hypervigilant, how to avoid attack,
something that no young girl should ever have to learn.
But it didn't stop with the neighborhood boys.
I would later be abused at the hands of a multi generational pedofile.
And it was his words that kept me trapped.
When he said,
"your parents won't love you anymore if you tell on me."
In my isolated environment, I believed him.
And my behaivors started to reflect the environment that I lived in.
I don't remember a time back then
when my boddy ever felt like my own.
At 17, I started moving from club to club.
I first started stripping.
Then later, I worked for a smut magazine
where I would meet
some of the most dangereous people I've ever encountered.
Still, I was on this never ending quest
to have some form of agency over my own body,
a source of power I had never had before.
One day, my phone rang,
I was looking at my gas gauge sitting on empty.
It was my old co-worker from the magazine company.
He called me to tell me that
he was running Toronto's largest massage parlour,
and he wanted me to come and join his stable.
The word "stable" didn't even give me pause.
Well, on the outside it looked like a normal bussines
except it wasn't.
This massage parlour had ten rooms, and they were always busy.
There were between forty to sixty women and girls on rotation in the spa.
A massage was between 40 and 50 dollars.
We'd get a 10 dollar commission,
if you didn't have a fine.
And you could have a fine for just about anything,
being late, talking back or not having a perfectly primmed body.
It was expected that the girls could earn considerably more money
by doing extras.
And by doing extras,
I am talking about some of the most unimaginable and degrading acts.
Police raids? They occured in these places,
but no police officer, no by law official ever offered me help.
No one ever said "Hey, is there somewhere else you'd rather be?"
or "I know somebody you can call.
Can I connect you two?"
And this would be my life for the next nearly nine yaers.
Maybe you are listening to my story
and you're thinking "how foolish is this girl!"
But I wasn't foolish.
I was vulnerable,
I was naive,
and I was a perfect target.
I didn't have a sense of belonging.
I didn't feel wanted or valued for anything other than my body.
I had started to deceive myself,
"this is my choice, I'm making this money."
But in hindsight,
there wasn't my choice involved at all.
This wasn't work, it was trafficking.
I was told how to dress, who to have sex with
where to live, everything.
I felt scared almost all the time.
The man who recruited me,
he manipulated me into thinking and believing that he was my protector,
my boyfriend, except he wasn't.
He was my trafficker and I was little more than his property.
Over time, he made me a manager.
Made me. This was not an act of saving me.
This was not a promotion.
This was him trying to build his status and grow his power.
On paper, he ran a licenced body rub parlour.
This allowed him to look like a legitimate bussinesman.
This licence allows you to rub, need or stimulate
any muscle in the human body.
Officially, these words don't mean that sex is on the menu.
But in my experience, and that of thousands of others suggests differently.
Somewhere between the letter of law,
the predatory practises of massage parlour owners and operators,
the willingness for police to look the other way,
our city has created a licenced brothel system.
A massage parlour keeps the schedule,
manages all of the advertising,
and fields all of the calls,
freeing up a trafficker to look for another victim.
Buyers! They don't have to go to a seedy motel.
Massage parlours and holistic centres,
the ones on the way to and from your home and work.
They provide a facada of acceptability
safety and option on a woman's part.
But even worse, the fact that all of this happens
inside of a licenced system means
that we are enshrining a man's right to buy a living breathing human being.
That's what we are talking about.
This is what sex trafficking looks like in Canada.
It is the brothel hidden in plain sight
where women are trapped and many enslaved.
And here all of us,
all of us are deceived into believing that
what's hapening is a woman's choice.
You see, our cities licence these parlours
and holistic centres.
And in their point of view
they're not officially granting a licence for a brothel,
but they are well aware of what's happening behind closed doors.
Not all massage centres are like this.
No, legitimate owners, they're not open until 4:00 am.
They don't advertise their staff in scantily clad clothing
on escort websites.
So, how these types of massage parlours, how are they able to thrive?
Here in Canada, each municipality
has the power and control to grant the licences for their area.
The higher levels of government, they know these problems exist,
yet they take no responsibility
by saying that they don't make the decisions,
the municipalities do.
Even one of our more celebrated and successful politicians
was found inside a massage parlour with no negative impacts to his career.
It's as if we're saying "we're ok with this."
But I refuse to believe that, I just simply don't.
I was in a meeting with the most high senior officials
from the municipal licencing.
I specifically asked,
I said "You guys know that it isn't just massage, right?"
Their response "Yeah, we know that these are just fronts for brothels."
Everyone knows about this problem,
yet no one is taking the lead to solve it.
I eventually escaped to my circumstanes.
I literally slept for three days straight.
It was my soul that hurt for where there was no hospital.
Discovering my faih in a supportive community
guided me to seek counselling where my journey to recovery began.
Because you see, getting out is one thing
but staying out, that's just as hard.
With this understanding, I started BridgeNorth.
I want to be a part of the solution.
I want to help end sex trafficking in Canada.
We offer services to women.
They'll contact us for peer mentorship and support,
medical care, food assistances, many other services as well.
We also provide ..
Sorry, we also provide a public education,
and we advocate to change our laws,
because this problem is still so hidden in plain sight.
There really are more victims out there than you think there are.
Some enters this dangereous world like I had,
others, chidren and youth,
they're lured at a foster care, group homes, shelters,
are from their own families.
The common thread is the traffickers
look to exploit the vulnerabilities of their victim,
common thread all the time.
Where I was trafficked, there were up to sixty women working.
The massage parlour I was at made under just two million a year.
That doesn't include any of the money
made in the rooms by the girls,
that's what we know is the trafficker's cut.
It doesn't include any money made by going to after hours parties
or other things like selling drugs or weapons.
Imagine for a second that's just one,
imagine thousands of places across Canada.
Well, as a survivor I believe we have to tackle the systemic problems
that foster trafficking in the first place.
That's why in 2014, I spoke out against sexual explotation
before the Justice and Human Rights Comittee.
I hoped to lobby for the passing of a bill called
"Prtotection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act"
We advocated for Canada to adopt the leading practices from Sweden.
This Nordic model, it penalizes the buyer
while helping women to exit.
This bill was passed and is now law,
yet still, we are not seeing very much action at all.
We're not seeing arrests of buyers,
we're not seeing adequate funding for services
that women need to heal and recover.
So, here now we have this legal framework
but we don't have it in use.
From Canada who is normally such a leader on so many fronts,
a country that is known for women's empowerment
and for gender equality.
Yet stil we need action to match our intention.
So, where do we start?
Well, first we need to abolish sex trafficking.
Its harms are inherent,
and simply cannot be licenced or legislated in a better way.
Second, women trapped should be given support to help them exit.
These women, they need to have be safe
from the repercussions of bad actors.
And finally, we need more support from people like you, just like you.
I have spoken to numerous federal and municipal government officials,
and they all say the same thing to me
"I can only address what my constituents bring to my attention."
Write them,
call them,
tell them
that women being exploited,
and trafficked inside of massage parlours
is not acceptable.
In conclusion,
it takes just one person, it really does.
I share my story today because I'm free,
and that freedom I cannot take for granted.
I believe everybody in our country should have that same rate.
I'm sharing ny story today
because I am hopeful.
I have seen, I have witnessed
the strength inside of the women we're talking about.
These women are future leaders,
entrepreneurs, moms, they are game changers.
All they need is a chance just like the one I had.
It took one person.
Her name was Kathy,
her husband Jim.
They each extended a hand of love to me.
They both had shown me again
what humanity was all about,
and assisted me to bring back my self -worth,
and that is something you can do for someone else too.
(Applause and cheer)