MP behind controversial prostitution bill to step down from position
By Jessica Smith Cross
Metro
January 13, 2015
http://metronews.ca/news/canada/126...prostitution-bill-to-step-down-from-position/
Member of Parliament and anti-human-trafficking advocate Joy Smith has decided, now that the controversial prostitution law is in full force in Canada, her job in Parliament is done.
“I’ve just finished the last bill on prostitution with (Minister of Justice) Peter McKay and I think now I’ve put the period at the end of the sentence,” she told Metro after announcing she will not run again in 2015.
Smith said that the legal tools she wanted are now in place in Canada — the prostitution law and two private-member’s bills she helped pass that strengthen laws against human trafficking of children and sexual exploitation abroad — so she will devote herself full-time to her cause.
That includes participating in a panel discussion in Toronto on Thursday, hosted by the Economic Club of Canada. She will speak alongside her son, RCMP Cpl. Edward Riglin, and two survivors of human trafficking.
Economic club spokeswoman Kara Merpaw said human trafficking isn’t typical subject matter for her organization, but it is planning to host a series of talks by Smith across Canada.
“The issue of human trafficking is a local one. That’s a major focus of each of the panels: letting people know it’s not just something that happens elsewhere,” Merpaw said.
Smith said it was through her son’s police work that she learned about the sexual trafficking of children. She never intended to be an MP but rather a school principal.
“This was not what my life was going to be,” she said. “I’m not a very good politician. I’ve never been attracted to it but I’m really glad I did it. I love being an MP and serving my constituents, but the reason I went to Parliament was to stop human trafficking. What I want to do now is continue that work.”
In the decade Smith has served as an MP, the issue of human trafficking — forced labour, including forced prostitution — has become a criminal offence, a priority for law enforcement and a public, sometimes ideologically divisive, debate.
Smith had a hand in the prostitution law that came into force last month. She’s been influential and holds the controversial view that sex work can’t be consensual, that all prostitution is human trafficking.
“They are one and the same,” she said. “I can tell you the people who are pushing back so readily are the people making money off the girls and the boys so they become associations or they become the voice. We’ll read the transcripts in the public hearings we had in the House of Commons and listen to the real stories because we hear these people from organizations that want to keep their cash flow coming in.”
Akio Maroon, chair of Maggie’s Toronto, an advocacy group run for and by sex workers, can be counted among Smith’s critics and is one of those who “push back” against her view of sex work.
“For me, her legacy is one of fighting against human rights, one that stands in opposition of workers’ rights for sex workers.”
Maroon said Smith’s contention that those who oppose her view — and see sex work as a choice — are making money off their advocacy is disproved by people like her, who are unpaid for their advocacy work.
“I’ve never received a single dime. I work for free,” she said.
“It’s very sad we had someone in political office who actively worked against the safety and dignity of sex workers,” Maroon said. “She will go down in history with sex workers’ blood on her hands.”
However, she said she didn’t dispute that Smith has had an impact, if a divisive one. “When you talk about Joy Smith, everybody gets really impassioned, because she really doesn’t get it,” Maroon said.
“She will not be missed,” she said, adding, “I don’t think we’ve really seen the end of her.”
