M.A.S.T.

Today we had a speaker from an organization called, "M.A.S.T." come in. 

M.A.S.T. stands for Men Against Sexual Trafficking.  It's basically the equivalent of M.A.D.D. in the world of sex trafficking.  They are an organization which only became official very recently, but has already done a ton in respects of the legal side of things.

For example, they passed a bill that does not allow the porn industry(almost always very closely affiliated with human sex trafficking) to have any venues on any public government property/any property that is supported by tax-payers.  I'm not sure if that is for the whole of Ontario or not, but it is definitely in the GTA.  They also helped pass a bill which creates a minimum prison time of 5 years for people convicted of human trafficking or the like(I'm sure the bill is much more specific), as well as several other legal steps forward in respects to human trafficking in Canada.

Stan(that was his name) also talked about the current struggle the government is having on whether or not to legalize the sex trade in Ontario.  The biggest argument that is being made in favour of the sex trade is that the prostitutes want to be there.  What isn't being told is that only THREE PERCENT of women on the streets say they are there because they want to be there.

Men who buy sex(or John's) think that the sex workers have a choice.  If they had a choice, there would be more than three percent who wanted to be there.  Also, look up the definition of choice and do some research on the horrors of life as a prostitute or sex slave, and then decide if you can really call it a choice.

On top of that, we had a former prostitute come in and tell her story.  She was sexually abused as a 9 year old(as a very large percentage of current prostitutes were) and started selling herself when she was 12.  In her case, she wasn't trafficked, but she also didn't necessarily WANT to be doing what she was doing.  She just didn't think she had any other choice.  She has a very long and horribly tragic story, out of which she has emerged a very passionate, loving, kind, and strong-spirited person(not without lots of therapy of course). 

I wish I had gotten her story on tape so I could show it to every ignorant person in the world.

I'll catch you all tomorrow.