Canada’s Human Trafficking Crisis Is on Our Highways
Episode Stats
Harmful content
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Summary
In this episode, we talk about the growing problem of human trafficking and sexual exploitation in Canada, and how to identify if you are being trafficked. We also discuss the lack of resources and awareness about the problem, and the desperate plea for help from everyone at all levels.
Transcript
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the reason we're talking about signs you might think oh okay you saw a sign big deal no no we
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saw a sign every 500 meters for kilometers with this topic this singular topic being hammered home
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right along the trans canada highway yeah and so you have to understand this is a trade route for
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human trafficking the stats for human trafficking in canada are nothing short of shocking alarming
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and disgusting 96 of trafficking victims in this country are female 71 of the trafficking victims
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in canada are under the age of 25 and even worse indigenous women and girls are severely over
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represented in these huge numbers now indigenous women make up only five percent of the general
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canadian population but they account for over 50 percent 50 are the trafficking and sexual
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exploitation victims in canada and someone who had a first row seat across this country
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of the plea for help from everyone at all levels is mike wixon joins me today mike how are you oh
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good jim thanks for having me and this is a tough topic it is uh but like you point out it's
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obviously bubbling to the surface uh in certain parts of canada um and the stats that you just
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shared you know alongside uh the statistical data that tells us worldwide canada has more missing
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persons than any other country per capita uh unsolved cases uh and you just have to think
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there's a dovetailing between these two stats that we're sharing um today and as you point out
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yeah i just i just arrived back from across canada trip yeah which was in many ways and of course
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most ways really beautiful but you do start to see some of the fissures in society in certain areas
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that you don't think about when you're in uh you know in ontario in the southern part of ontario
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certainly in the major cities and for that point you were seeing signs through northern ontario
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in western canada and not just a few but dozens and dozens of sign of missing women yeah a
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combination of missing individuals and i don't know uh if they have found the the young lady
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but i i think you probably saw the sign on the post outside our studio right here in toronto
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yeah uh you know there's a young lady uh her family playing for her return or to to get some
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insight this is on billboards uh in northern ontario as you make your way through sous saint
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marie up into thunder bay thunder bay into uh manitoba and even in manitoba the theme continues
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that there is a problem billboards telling us that there is a human trafficking problem how
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to identify if you're being human trafficked because frankly often it seems that these come
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from abusive relationships in the beginning and turn into crime over time and they're so young
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they're saying the majority of the victims are young teenage girls some as young as 13 who were
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recruited in various ways and it's it's this is one thing i think i don't care what where you lie
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in the political spectrum and how are your feelings about law and order i can't imagine any canadian
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watching this wouldn't think we need to stiffen the laws to protect the youth and women of this
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country and men who are being trafficked but mainly women but more importantly when those are caught
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they actually do real time to deter and discourage anyone do it in the future there's too many
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victims there's too many missing you know and they're from all races and religions and cultures
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but so many indigenous women it's it's a national emergency and and i know we have priorities in
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this country mike when it comes to law and order and spending money but the police departments
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across the country are so you know understaffed and overwhelmed they need help they need the
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government's help to give them more resources and more officers to try to put a stop to this
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it's uh interesting and and of course that's true and i think that there is a challenge
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around the crime of human trafficking not only is it one of the most dire horrible crimes that
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society has to deal with but it's also very hard to detect it's very hard to get the police to
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the resources that they have as you point out very difficult to get those but then the process
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the the means by which human trafficking is executed is really difficult to pin down
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criminally and then of course as you point out again jim that was a really good point once these
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people are convicted it needs to be a hard conviction for a long period of time it needs
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to set a standard for what we will and will not tolerate the other thing is jim i don't know if
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you recall uh you and i worked at a radio station uh that you still work at um and we had york
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regional police and to talk about human trafficking at one point and they talked about how difficult
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it is to get somebody to come to them who's being human trafficked uh how hard it is to get them
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extracted from that scenario so i think resources and expertise in this uh is probably on the
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horizon i hope now i spoke into a few officers ranking officers senior officers and they often
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talk you know we did a show last week paul and i about a crime in small town canada and they talk
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about that their big concern is um the bedroom communities the small towns when those vulnerable
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teens those young women get to downtown toronto montreal vancouver there's often they lose them
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they're lost in sort of the vortex of crime and you know sickness that is the people who traffic
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these young girls and as you say getting them out is very difficult and i mean they're recruited
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through being groomed at shopping malls and schools but social media is a big tool being used
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for evil and and i know there's talk that mark carney and the liberals are looking at banning
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social media for kids under the age of 16 and i know there's a lot of people with very um you know
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emotional opinions about this but if this is a way to prevent prevent some of these young women and
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young canadians from being trafficked then maybe it's not a bad thing i i have to ask you know my
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my own opinion of that is um yes i feel it might not be a bad idea the only problem with it jim is
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if we take social media away from the kids who's going to tell me what's ai and what's not because
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i can't i can't tell uh that's true you know one of the things that i saw in a sign that really i
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found most disturbing was uh first of all when you the reason we're talking about signs you might
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think oh okay he saw a sign big deal no no we saw a sign every 500 meters for kilometers
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with this topic this singular topic being hammered home right along the trans canada highway
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yeah and so you have to understand this is a trade route for human trafficking correct
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and we're talking about communities in this country as small as 5 000 people to 50 150 000
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people it's little villages to towns to small and medium-sized cities and if they're being
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trafficked there into other communities into the big cities as you said for the police services
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to extract these people from the grips of human trafficking is such a massive undertaking one of
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the signs that i saw said is your child being human trafficked another one that i saw said
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are you being human trafficked do you feel safe enough to get out at the next stop
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oh really so really addressing the audience the driver the potential trafficker the potential
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victim right there at the side of the highway both girls both our daughters went to university
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in canada and they were taught when they started about hand signals i don't know if you heard about
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that there's a secret hand signal that you give if you're walking with an adult or someone that
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you feel you're you're in trouble to signal to someone else i need help and it's little things
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like that we're educating the public and educating people um hey this is wrong and we're i'm seeing
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some videos now on social media where uh unfortunately it's almost always women young
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women who feel like they're being intimidated by men older men and to go to a group of other men
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and start a conversation and that will deter them you know things like that like if i'm trying to
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stalk someone and all of a sudden you're talking to a group of construction workers or you know you
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know guys playing basketball or people in a restaurant all of a sudden they're in a group and
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maybe just maybe that gets you out of it but yeah it's it's become such an epidemic and you think
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20 years ago you used to see in the back of a tractor trailer missing person stuff like that
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now we're at the point in canada as you said where there's signs every 500 700 meters on the trans
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canada highway highlighting the issue human trafficking you know jim i think that one of
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the other elements that and and we saw this i should point this out you know we heard that the
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rcmp is hiring um i will tell you this uh and and i do not want to uh jinx myself for future trips
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to the west yeah but i got away with just one speeding ticket and aside from that i saw very
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few police on the trans canada highway except at the hotels where we were staying at i i don't want
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want to come off like a big shot but we stay at the Holiday Inn nice big budget give me some of
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that I'm a silver member but what we did notice along the way is that the RCMP is in training
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mode there were large groups of RCMP officers going to training facilities throughout the
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the country into different provinces and that is the primary you know police force along the
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trans absolutely these remote areas yeah and certainly operating the trans canada highway
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uh on a policing front we did notice an increase in the number of officers or that they were
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actually executing this training with young officers brand new officers at the hotels and
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well they that's where they stay at night and then they go to the training facility during the day
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um not even not even just um also recruitment we noticed military recruitment traveling across
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country as well of course uh also staying at our illustrious hotel you know what i think all the
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big companies like the police and the military tpl media media yeah we all stay there good luck
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getting a reservation but having said that it did it was interesting to see okay there's obviously
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this problem the rcmp is dealing with it we're seeing it on the roadsides it's part of the
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discussion and the culture here they're trying to handle it along the highway and now they're also
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also making the hires that they they said they were going and the presence mike the presence of
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some rcmp cruisers and officers in a hotel like if you're a criminal wouldn't you think twice
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before you bring a girl you're trying to traffic into a hotel that is the rcmp there jim if you've
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never been pulled over by the rcmp if you're like a local toronto guy and you get pulled over by
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you know what the deal is right but when the rcmp pulls you now you've done it this is the first
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time i've been pulled over in my life jam where you could i turned to brady and went oh i think
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that's a is so far in the distance in the prairies i saw him make the u-turn in the distance
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pit the cherries i looked in the rearview mirror nothing behind us nothing in front of us and just
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that guy waiting a minute and a half later i caught up to him so he could give us a ticket
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and because it's the rcmp and they come to the the you know the rcmp vehicle and stuff like that
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And just like laid on my head and said, okay, I got nothing.
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But what they did do, and I found this amazing,
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as a rule of thumb in Saskatchewan, you get pulled over,
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all of the passengers it gives them reason to investigate further is there guns is there drugs
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is there a person yeah now i got the driver out of the car i can start to interview who's in the
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car okay this is obviously a tactic being used to try to reduce uh human trafficking i would love to
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know if that's correct but that was the connection i never heard of that before mike so uh it was
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very interesting i i blew a zero and he said oh good boy let me go get you a ticket and off i went
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As you get north and across the country into more rural areas, it's a real going concern.
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And that Trans-Canada Highway is obviously the root of concern.
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But Mike, how can we as a nation be serious about truth and reconciliation with the Indigenous population
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when over 50% of trafficking and sexual exploitation victims are Indigenous?
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Well, these are the areas that we were visiting, right?
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Somebody is stepping up saying this has to stop.
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That's not a problem in downtown Montreal or Vancouver or Toronto.
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we're worried about the world cup and transit yeah no it's a problem everywhere yeah and and that's
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what i experienced jim that the problem there was you know if you ask somebody in sault st marie
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what's your biggest concern they'll tell you potholes right it's different than what we think
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here exactly but this is another real issue that is plaguing these communities outside of the major
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areas that obviously is bad enough that they're taking steps along the highways and this is where
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our government funding and our tax dollars the rcmp the opp local police services local social
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services local organizations to help young people who feel they might get sucked into this world
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can keep them out of it and that's that's where you know instead of spending 200 grand on gourmet
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food and wine for three flights let's spend some money to hire some you know social sociologist and
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some therapists and people helping these young teens to stay out of that life
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yeah right i mean i mean as a canadian that that's what we're signing up for now by the way
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i just want to point out that there is a canadian human trafficking hotline you can call them 24 7
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1-833-900-1010 that's 1-833-900-1010 and that's 24 7 a canadian human trafficking hotline so if
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you think about something if you have a sneaky suspicion is something doesn't feel right if
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you're traveling you're like i'm not sure about this situation just call them if there's nothing
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wrong there's nothing wrong if there's nothing wrong everything goes on as normal exactly yeah
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but if there's something wrong then maybe you just save someone yeah because you made me think
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here's me driving across the country with little brady wedham beside me yeah and the police pulled
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me over i wonder if just for a second he was like whose kid is that oh no that's a man yeah
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uh a little man a wee little man but uh but yes no listen we'll include this number yes uh in the
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description so if you're listening or watching this take a look in the description you can take
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that number right there and be a part of the solution that apparently is desperately needed
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and so difficult to nail down you know mike i'm not going to be naive enough to say that you know
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when we were younger back in the 80s this thing didn't happen it happened but a much smaller scale
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but now the numbers are at the point now the national police service local police provincial
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police they're all overwhelmed their technology on their side to make it happen you as you point
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out social media email even just texting and and all of that the means of communication that help
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execute this and even drive the business let's be honest exactly right and they're ending up in
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prostitution and porn and whatnot and we have to save these mainly young women we have a moral
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obligation as canadians to do something and when we complain as canadians about the price of stuff
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and taxes this is something i will not complain about my tax money going to help stop this and
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help fund the resources whether it's crown attorneys or more investigators right more more
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more people to help the society there's more than just one uh element required for this solution
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you're right the entire handling of this from policing through the courts even through uh the
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the the prison system exactly all needs to be put in check for this it's a tough topic i appreciate
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it is but when they actually get to the court and if they are convicted that the judges do the right
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thing and give them a stiff sentence so that they know word gets out to anyone thinking about doing
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this you're going to do some serious hard time not in jail but in prison yeah and you you know
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i've seen enough documentaries no prison's no joke and if you're doing hard time at a prison
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you might think twice about doing this again i think there's a stigma attached with doing this
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