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United States Urges Canada to Beef Up Anti-Trafficking Efforts Especially on Exotic Dancer Scandal

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - This morning U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice released the fifth annual Department of State Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report on Wednesday. The 150-country report is the most comprehensive worldwide report on the efforts of governments to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons, or modern-day slavery.  The document says "Canada needs to use its anti-trafficking law to vigorously increase investigations, arrests, prosecutions, and convictions of traffickers, especially those who may be abusing visa waivers and entertainment visas."

The report mentions specifically Canada's exotic dancer program which afforded work visas to women who were willing to come to Canada to be employed by strip clubs.   Such programs, say anti-trafficking groups, are a recipe for human trafficking since they lead women into forced prostitution after they arrive in foreign countries.  Anti-trafficking groups which spoke with LifeSiteNews.com assert that some clubs in Canada are run by organized crime syndicates and that they are in search of dancers from countries such as Romania since they are more easily exploited than Canadian women.

Even according to industry insiders the Canadian government involvement in importing strippers is scandalous.  An international strip club agent speaking to LifeSiteNews.com earlier this week said strip clubs which force prostitution are unable to find Canadian women willing to be 'employed' and thus with the collusion of the Canadian government foreign women are brought into Canada and coerced into prostitution.   

The US State Department report notes that Canada's exotic dancer program is "a type of program that has been abused and exploited by traffickers in many other countries." In fact the TIP report notes that Canadian officials have acknowledged that the situation has led to forced prostitution.  "Officials acknowledge that some women may have been forced into prostitution," it says.  Nonetheless, the Canadian government has not fully shut down the program.  Rather it has chosen to allow strip clubs to apply for such special visas on a case by case basis.  "The visa program has not been entirely suspended," notes the report.

Anti-trafficking organizations have investigated the Canadian exotic dancer program and found it severely abusive.  The Irish Anti-Trafficking Coalition (IATC) investigated the exotic dancer programme from November 2003 to May 2005. The IATC interviewed Romanian dancers in Malta, Cyprus, Italy, Greece, Romania and Canada.  Moreover, Canadian police officers, serving and retired,  testified to the IATC that in 1996/97 it was possible for club operators to make more profit from a single foreign girl than several Canadian dancers. 

IATC attempted to point out the exploitive nature of the exotic dancer program to Canadian officials.  IATC director Gregory Carlin told LifeSiteNews.com his organization held discussions with the Offices of the Canadian Prime Minister, Immigration Minister Joe Volpe, former Minister Judy Sgro, Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew and Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro.

After being frustrated in attempts to shut down the abusive program from the Canadian side, the IATC has called upon the Govt. of Romania to refuse to allow the Canadian government to exploit Romanian women, and ban women from coming to Canada as exotic dancers.

LifeSiteNews.com has learned that a second, more extensive report on Canada's trafficking in persons has been commissioned by the US State Department and is set to be released by the end of the month.

See the full TIP report:
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Even Stripper Industry Insiders Charging Canadian Government With Trafficking in Women
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/may/05053107.html

jhw

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