* not with ink

Friends of mine are in Europe right now, at the tail end of a six-week journey that’s taken them to half a dozen countries. That may not seem unusual (it isn’t, in and of itself), but if you read a couple excerpts from their update emails, you will see this is no ordinary “holiday.” Vienna: We visited the Prater, which is an area that consists of mostly trafficking victims. They occupy the street by country, with their pimps sitting in warm cars on the other side. We came early in the night, when pimps were dropping off their girls. It's really awful. We were not allowed to film in the car we were in, plus the area is very dark anyway, but wow, what a horrific place. It is right next to a convention centre, so when business conferences come to town, the girls are in high demand. We were able to get a piece of footage of a refugee selling newspapers, thanks for praying about that. It is all part of the racism in the laws towards refugees, like we explained in our previous pray...

Remember the time I emailed my MP about human trafficking and the sex trade here in Canada ? (Here's why I did it .) Well. Last Thursday, I got an email from her assistant; would I be available for a phone call with Dr. Bennett tomorrow at 10:30am? No…but after 12:30? 1:40 it is. A personal phone call. From my MP. I was a bit nervous, let me tell you. I am not politically savvy. I am not well-informed. And people in positions of authority intimidate me. Then I realized that BillC-310, the specific bill I’d mentioned in my email, was being debated at 1:30pm that Friday. Wait a second! I thought, If she’s talking with me, she can’t be at the debate! That seems counter-productive… And then she called. And I was nervous. And it was fine. Here are the take-aways from our phone call: Ending human trafficking should be a non-partisan issue. Human-trafficking & the victimization of women and children through the sex trade is a multi-faceted, complex issue. The solutions...

April 1, 2012 Hon. Carolyn Bennett House of Commons Parliament Buildings Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6 Dear Ms. Bennett, In light of the recent court decision handed down in Ontario regarding the legalization of prostitution behind closed doors as well as the NDP's delay of Bill C-310, I am urging you as my representative in Ottawa to amend the Criminal Code by rewriting our prostitution laws in a way that criminalize johns (sex buyers) and pimps, and decriminalize the person being sold. I strongly believe it is a misguided notion that legalizing prostitution protects women. The law does not harm women, but rather the men who are buying and raping them; we must take a firm stand against the demand for paid sexual access to the bodies of women and children. Legalized prostitution protects these very men and legitimates the buying of sex which fuels the expansion of the "industry." Prostitution is systemic violence against women and a major deterrent to women's...

Last week, my friend Michelle posted about Ontario's ruling to legalize prostitution behind closed doors on her website, Hope for the Sold . I read the entry. Tweeted it. Two friends re-tweeted it, and I felt happy. Later in the week, friends in Vancouver posted about the NDP's delay of Bill C-310 on Facebook. But you know what? They did more than post about it. They actually wrote their MPs . Writing your MP is something I've never done. It was something suggested in the post that I tweeted about. But it's so political . And takes so much work . Like actual research. And writing. And... ...oh wait. People are being trafficked within my province. Within my city. Do I care about their safety? Their stories? Do you? I'm not big on guilt, but I am big on conviction. And I feel strongly convicted that the time has come for me to move from slacktivist to abolitionist. Here are the three things I did last night: 1. I read the story of sex-trafficking vic...