9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You noticed I'm holding q-cards.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I'm holding q-cards

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because they are going to help me[br]focus on my message

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
while at the same time,[br]shielding me from painful memories,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and intrusive thoughs,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because my story [br]isn't an easy one to tell.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In fact, every time I tell my story,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I'm re-traumatized.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But if sharing my story means

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that one more girl [br]has a chance of freedom,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
then it's worth it for me.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Growing up in my family wasn't easy,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
mental health problems and abuse

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
can destabilize a family.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But, abuse doesn't just exist in a vacuum.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It doesn't just start or stop[br]in one idividual's life,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it permiates every action[br]and activity of their being.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Mental health problems[br]and abuse led to neglect,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and neglect left me [br]on the streets of Scarborough,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
as a very young girl.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I distinctly recall going back to school.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Remember each year[br]the teacher would ask us?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Write down what you did last summer."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was so ashamed, I was paralised.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I didn't go to summer camp.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
No, I didn't go to the cottage.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was the kid [br]that played outside all day long.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
There was no regular structure.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
There was no routine for most anything.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
One summer, I was raped by a stranger,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and other, abuse integrated[br]by the neigborhood boys.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was always in fight or flight mode.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It seemed like danger [br]was lurking around every corner.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What I learned that summer

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
was how to remain hypervigilant,[br]how to avoid attack,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
something that no young girl[br]should ever have to learn.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But it didn't stop[br]with the neighborhood boys.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I would later be abused at the hands[br]of multi generational pedofile.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And it was his words that kept me trapped.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When he said,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
your parents won't love you anymore[br]if you tell on me.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In my isolated environment[br]I believed him.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And my behaivors started to reflect[br]the environment that I lived in.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I don't remember the time back then

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
when my boddy ever felt like my own.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
At 17, I started moving from club to club.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I first started stripping.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Then later, I worked for a smut magazine

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where I would meet[br]some of the most dangereous people

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I'd ever encountered.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Still, I was on this never ending quest

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to have some form of agency[br]over my own body,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a source of power I had never had before.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
One day, my phone rang,

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I was looking at my gas gauge[br]sitting on empty.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It was my old co-worker [br]from the magazine company.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
He called me to tell me that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
he was running Toronto's[br]largest massage parlour.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And he wanted me to come[br]and join his stable.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The word "stable"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
didn't even give me pause.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Well, on the outside [br]it looked like a normal bussines

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
except it wasn't.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This massage parlour had ten rooms[br]and they were always busy.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
There were between forty to sixty[br]women and girls on rotation in the spa.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
A massage was between 40 and 50 dollars.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We'd get a 10 dollar commission,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
if you didn't have a fine.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And you could have a fine [br]for just about anything,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
being late, talking back[br]or not having a perfectly primmed body.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It was expected that the girls[br]could earn considerably more money

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by doing extras.

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And by doing extras,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I am talking about some of the[br]most unimaginable and degrading acts.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Police raids? They occured in these places

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but no police officer, no by law official [br]ever offered me help.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
No one ever said "Hey, is there[br]somewhere else you'd rather be?"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or "I know somebody you can call.

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Can I connect you two?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And this would be my life [br]for the next nearly nine yaers.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Maybe you are listening to my story

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and you're thinking [br]"how foolish is this girl!"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But I wasn't foolish.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was vulnerable,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was naive,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and I was a perfect target.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I didn't have a sense of belonging.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I didn't feel wanted or valued[br]for anything other than my body.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I had started to deceive myself,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
this is my choice, I'm making this money.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But in hindsight,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
there wasn't my choice involved at all.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This wasn't work, it was trafficking.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was told how to dress,[br]who to have sex with

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where to live, everything.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I felt scared almost all the time.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The man who recruited me

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
he manipulated me into thinking,[br]believing that he was my protector,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
my boyfriend, except he wasn't.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
He was my trafficker and I was[br]little more than his property.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Over time, he made me a manager.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Made me. This was not an act of saving me.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This was not a promotion.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This was him trying to build his status[br]and grow his power.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
On paper, he ran a licensed[br]body rub parlour.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This allowed him to look like a[br]legitimate bussinesman.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This license allows you to rub[br]need or stimulate

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
any muscle in human body.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Officially, these words don't mean[br]that sex is on the menu.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But in my experience, and thousands[br]of others suggests differently.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Somewhere between the letter of law

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and the predatory practises of[br]massage parlour owners and operators,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the willingness for police [br]to look the other way,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
our city has created[br]a licensed brothel system.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
A massage parlour keeps the schedule,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
manages all of the advertising,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and fields all of the calls,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
freeing up the trafficker[br]to look for another victim.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Buyers? They don't have to [br]go to a seedy motel.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Massage parlours an holistic centers

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
ones on the way to and from[br]your home and work.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They provide a facada of acceptability

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
safety and option on a woman's part.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But even worse, the fact that [br]all this happens

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[br]inside of a licensed system means that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we are enshrining a man's right[br]to buy a living breathing human being.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That's what we are talking about.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This is what sex trafficking [br]looks like in Canada.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It is the brothel hidden in plain sight

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where women are trapped[br]and many enslaved.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And here all of us,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
all of us are deceived into believing that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
what's hapening is a woman's choice.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You see, our cities license these parlours

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and holistic centres.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And in their point of view

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they're not officially granting[br]a licence for a brothel