OTTAWA, December 3, 2001 (LSN.ca) – As police forces in 19 countries around the globe arrested 130 people connected to an international child pornography ring, Canadian authorities failed to arrest any of the Canadian suspects. The National Post reported last week that the 10-month investigation led by Britain’s National Crime Squad, was the largest ever bust of Internet pornography.
Although the RCMP cooperated with the investigation entitled Operation Landmark, the Canadian police said the information sent by Interpol, which had led to the arrests in all the other countries, was insufficient to issue arrest warrants in Canada.
Mark Hecht, senior legal council for Beyond Borders, a child advocacy group, told the Post that the events mirror a similar international child porn crackdown two years ago. Then the 16 Canadian members of a notorious group known as the Wonderland Club went free after Canada backed out of the bust at the last minute.
In November 2000, an international report on child sexual abuse singled out Canada as a haven for sexual predators of children. The report released by the committee to End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking (ECPAT) slammed Canada for having one of the youngest ages of consent for sex at 14 whereas most countries are raising the age from 16 to 18. At the time, Debbie Mahaffy, whose daughter Leslie was tortured and murdered by sex killer Paul Bernardo, described the country’s lack of coordinated action as “mind-boggling”. “We don’t seem to have a problem getting people’s attention when it comes to protecting them from violence,” said Ms. Mahaffy, who works for the Ontario government’s Officer for Victims of Crime. “So why can’t we enact the most basic mechanisms to protect our children from sexual exploitation? It’s simply inadequate.”
See the National Post coverage: https://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20011129/810281.html