An alarming number of young girls across Ontario and the country are being lured into a world of sexual exploitation and most people aren't even aware of it.
Human trafficking was the subject of an information session at the Sarnia Golf & Curling Club Thursday, jointly hosted by MPPs Bob Bailey of Sarnia-Lambton and Laurie Scott of Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock.
Scott, the Official Opposition Critic for Community Safety and Women's Issues, brought the issue to the forefront with her Private Members' Bill, "The Saving the Girl Next Door Act."
She says the average victim in Ontario is 14 years old and is lured, often on the Internet, by predators, usually young men, looking to make money.
"'Hang with me I'm going to treat you well,' but then it's all of a sudden, 'well I've spent a lot of money on you and my friends like you and we need to make some money so just do this for awhile,'" says Scott. "Then once they are sexually exploited for the first time, if they even try to leave they're usually threatened."
Scott says everyone has to be made aware that human trafficking is happening in all our towns and virtually every high school.
"At home, small-town Ontario, one of my communities is Lindsay, 20,000 people. Once they got a police officer that works for victim services and was knowledgeable about human trafficking and they started to ask the right questions, in eight months they rescued 23 girls," says Scott.
Scott says awareness has to be raised and training provided to teachers, hotel and motel operators, children's aid society workers, and others in all communities.
The Ontario government has created the Provincial Anti-Human Trafficking Coordination Office which works closely with front-line service providers and Indigenous partners on support and prevention programs.