WINNIPEG — Desperate for cash, Winnipegger Tracy turned to the sex-trade to make ends meet. It didn’t take long before predators began to seek her out.
“They just ask if they can hang out all the time, be your boyfriend,” said Tracy, who would only provide her first name. “And when a man asks to be your boyfriend, he asks to be your pimp.”
She was able to ward off predators but the same can’t be said for hundreds of other Canadian sex trade workers, many of them underage girls.
The Winnipeg Police Service was among more than two dozen forces that raided hotels across the country last week as part of Operation Northern Spotlight.
Many of the women they found were under the control of pimps, and many forced to perform sexual acts several times a day for money.
“It’s our in our community. It’s going on in our backyards,” said Const. Jason Michalyshen of the Winnipeg Police Service. “As a police agency, we’re not just going to sit back and see young people taken advantage of by exploiters.”
The sex trade has evolved in recent years. Once a street crime, it’s turned to murky areas of the Internet — but sometimes it’s in plain sight online. Websites such as Craigslist and Backpage are now forums where women and even children are exploited.
“It’s troubling because it’s such a secret world,” said David Matas, a lawyer with Beyond Borders, an advocacy group that fights the exploitation of children. “When it comes to children being victimized, the sex trade is undercover, under the table.”
A recent Supreme Court of Canada decision striking down prostitution laws has also affected police.
No arrests were made in Operation Northern Spotlight — police said the focus is to give women stuck in the trade an out.
“Success isn’t going to be gauged on arrests and arrests alone,” said Michalyshen. “We have to look at the full picture and base success on our contact, the contacts we’ve made and the individuals who ultimately want to get themselves out of this particular sex trade.”
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