Ontario elementary school principals report girls as young as 12 and 13 are being targeted by pimps to lure them into prostitution, a conference on human trafficking was told Monday.
The girls in Grades 7 and 8 are getting texts and emails from predators telling them “you’re so pretty I can make you a model” and other sweet talk to entice the youths into the sex trade, MPP Laurie Scott told the conference.
Scott, a Progressive Conservative MPP who has launched a crusade against human trafficking, and Staff-Sgt. Coyer Yateman, head of the OPP’s human-trafficking branch, used the school example to drive home the point that the problem is no longer a Toronto or Montreal issue – it’s everywhere, even in the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville.
They brought their eye-opening stories, statistics and anecdotes to a conference of municipal leaders, school board officials, church congregations, victims’ services and social workers to raise awareness of human trafficking, which is one of the fastest-growing crimes in Canada.
The conference is meant to make leaders aware of the problem and put the communities on guard against the danger to children, Scott said.
“Tell 10 people and ask them to tell 10 others” to spread the word, said Scott, who represents the riding of Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock. (more...)
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