TORONTO – The Ontario government is looking for "creative" new ways to get the attention of Craigslist after the American company ignored repeated requests to remove prostitution ads from its Canadian websites, Attorney General Chris Bentley said Thursday.
Bentley first wrote to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster in September, just after the San Francisco-based company bowed to pressure from several U.S. attorneys general and removed the prostitution ads from its sites south of the border.
Since then, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the federal government have also written the online classified ad service to ask that the prostitution ads be removed in Canada.
So far, Craigslist has done nothing other than to request a meeting with Ontario officials, allowing hundreds of ads for hookers to be posted on its Canadian sites every day.
"They seem not to think the steps they’ve taken in the United States are not important in the province of Ontario," said a clearly frustrated Bentley. "I’m very disappointed."
Craigslist has not responded to requests for comment on the story.
Nor has the company explained why it has so far refused to do what it did in the United States and prohibit ads where sex is sold, often with detailed menus of what’s on offer, price lists and explicit pictures.
Bentley, along with Children’s Minister Laurel Broten and Community Safety Minister Jim Bradley, sent a second letter to Buckmaster Oct. 20, expressing disappointment that "Craigslist has ignored the interests of Ontarians," but has had no reaction from the company.
In her letter to Craigslist, Alberta Justice Minister Alison Redford said the prostitution ads "appear to be thinly-veiled cover for human trafficking," and help support a "despicable" crime.
The provinces and Ottawa are concerned the online ads fuel human trafficking and make it easier for pimps to force young women and even children into prostitution, and say there’s no need to wait for a meeting before Craigslist takes the appropriate action.
"We’ve made it quite clear that if Craigslist takes a step in the United States that will have the effect of protecting young people and children, they should take the same step in the province of Ontario," said Bentley.
"I don’t know why they haven’t, and we’ll have to look for ways of getting their attention in a more creative way."
Clearly after their quick action to appease American justice officials, Craigslist would have no problem immediately shutting down the prostitution ads in Canada if it wanted to, added Bentley.
"I don’t know why they haven’t taken the relatively simple step," he said. "They are in the web-based computer age. They could do it overnight."
Just two weeks ago Chilliwack police arrested a 14-year-old British Columbia girl and charged her not only with prostituting herself, but with pimping out other under age girls through ads on Craigslist.
Police say the young girl’s ads have been removed from Craigslist and the website operators have been fully co-operative with authorities in the investigation.
Many weekly newspapers in Canada carry similarly explicit ads, but the federal government says they are much more likely than Craigslist to exercise some editorial control to make sure the ads don’t promote child exploitation or human trafficking.
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