Prostitution: Quebec exports to Ontario | The Press

They are exported as goods, and treated as such once at destination. For a long time, Quebec has been a major supplier of recruits, often minors, to the prostitution market in Ontario. Why such a westward movement? And what happens to these young people torn from their environment? La Presse went to look for answers on the ground.

A well-known catchphrase

The comings and goings are constant at the Mississauga Gate Inn. Customers come to buy sex at this seedy motel early in the morning, before work. At lunch time. Heading home after work. Or in the middle of the night. A small stop of 30 minutes, 60 at most, then they resume their journey.

La Presse was able to observe their ride during a series of visits last month to the establishment of a hundred rooms arranged around a parking lot, near four key highways in the Greater Toronto Area and the airport on busiest in Canada.

On April 5, at 8:25 p.m., a man in his fifties arrived driving a recent Grand Cherokee, with lots of chrome accessories. Barely paunchy, the man wears glasses, his hair combed to the side, a clean shirt tucked neatly into his pants and an open mid-thigh coat. An air of middle management. He has no baggage.

In the incessant noise of planes and trucks, he taps on his phone, then goes directly to a room, without going through the reception. It emerges exactly 60 minutes later. The man catches the eye of his parking neighbor. He seems to hesitate between concern and complicity. Then he rushes into his vehicle and drives off.

Other men, one of whom is wearing an immaculate white suit, stroll in the parking lot, zigzagging between the chambermaids who are busy at all hours with their cleaning carts. The $80 motel is full, despite scathing reviews on hotel websites and negative newspaper headlines: A woman was found dead there in 2014 and, the following year, the "protector" of a sex was sentenced to prison for fracturing the skull of a client (a local father) who refused to pay.

The Mississauga Gate Inn, whose owners would not comment on the situation, is far from unique. A local motel manager explained, on condition of anonymity, that he throws out four or five occupants linked to prostitution every day.

"Francophones, it's hard over there"

This succession of anonymous rooms and gloomy parking lots along the highways, this Ontario far from the images of postcards, these are the kind of images that Allyson (fictitious first name) keeps from his stays in Ottawa, Hamilton or Niagara, he a few years ago. A former sex worker, the Saguenéenne in her twenties had gone there when she was under the total yoke of a Montreal pimp. Like so many other young girls. “At first, it's like traveling. But in the end, you don't see much there, ”says the one who, at the time, was stuffed with speeds to chain customers almost 24 hours a day.

All the police services and social service workers interviewed by La Presse confirm this: this “export” of girls is a major trend. They go to British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and, of course, the greater Toronto area, the most populous in the country.

“Francophones are tough over there. Just put it in your ad, your phone won't stop ringing. The girls talk about it, and the pimps also spend their time selling it. We're going to go there, we're going to make money."

A glance at the Ontario escort ad sites is enough to see that Quebec women are omnipresent there. In a single day, May ¹ , on a single Toronto site, 47 advertisements were published offering the services of “French girls”, while seven advertisements evoked a “Montreal girl”. A day like any other in the local market.

“We see that there is a lot of attraction for young women from Quebec, or at least from French-speaking culture, outside. Is it more exotic for customers? In any case, there is a demand, ”confirms Commander Michel Bourque, of the Integrated Team to Fight Pimping, installed in the offices of the SPVM.

“I have been doing this job since 2008, and since 2008 we have seen this phenomenon of pimps and girls from Quebec here in the greater Toronto area,” adds Detective Thai Truong, a specialist in the phenomenon at York police, north of the Queen City.

isolate, control

Specialists cite several economic factors to explain the exodus of Quebec prostitutes (see other text). But there is also the fact that the distance facilitates the work of pimps.

"It's easier to maintain control if the person is uprooted, their identity cards are taken away from them, they are given a minimum of money," says Commander Michel Bourque.

The girls make so much money for pimps that pimps want to make sure they don't let them go. Investigations by the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal brought to court in recent years have revealed trips across Canada punctuated by appalling violence, sexual assaults, ongoing financial exploitation, involving victims who had no where to flee.

“The goal is to isolate them as much as possible from the family, from the parents, to have total control over them. The pimps have also understood the principle that leaving for the western provinces, it's very English-speaking, and some girls don't speak English, ”adds Martin Pelletier, worker at the Montreal Youth Center.

"I had a girl call me, she was over there with a pimp, she wanted help, and she was like, 'Martin, what am I doing? I don't speak English!' I said: “call 9-1-1, you will be entitled to an interpreter”, he says.

Allyson remembers being unsettled when she arrived in Ontario, she who spoke English, but not perfectly. “You get there, there are terms you don't know. You talk on the phone with the client, you say "yes, yes", and when he arrives, you realize that you didn't know what you were saying yes to.

Her pimp was the only person she could turn to. Even if he was violent, that he took her money ($60,000 in four months), that he had raped her, threatened her. He said he was there for her protection, but he spent his time gambling in the casino, leaving her to chain up customers on her own.

“A client in Ottawa decided he wanted anal and I didn't. He did it anyway. No matter how much you shout, in a motel full of escorts, no one cares, ”she says today.

Because for several clients, she had no say. “You are an object. They paid and, in their head, they can do whatever they want,” she said.

____________________________________________________

The site where everything goes

The majority of cases of prostitution in Canada now go through an American classifieds site called Backpage, which is worth more than half a billion dollars and allows any Internet user to shop for their sexual services in more than 50 Canadian cities.

What is Backpage?

It is an American classifieds site present in 97 countries, which derives almost 100% of its income from sexual services advertisements and whose value is estimated at 600 million US, according to a US Senate investigation. All you have to do is choose the section associated with your city in the “escorts” category to see the dozens, if not the hundreds of advertisements published each day. A specialized firm consulted by the Globe and Mail has calculated that the site alone accounts for 60% of "adults only" advertising in Canada. Toronto police told the Toronto daily that 95% of underage pimping victims they rescued had been sold on this site. In London, the police speak of 100%.

Why does it take up so much space?

“30 years ago, 20% of prostitution was visible on the streets. Now it's less than 5%. Everything is on the internet. It's more hidden,” says Jennifer Richardson, director of Ontario's Provincial Human Trafficking Coordinating Office. Prostitutes and clients love the relative discretion, reach and safety of the web. But several sites refuse explicit advertising for sexual services. In 2010, one of the most popular classifieds sites, Craigslist, shut down its “adult” services section, leaving a big void that Backpage rushed to fill.

How does the site work?

Prostitutes and pimps have to pay to post their ads. They can add videos and photos, as well as prices and a phone number to arrange an appointment. In several cities, such as Montreal and Toronto, the volume of ads is so high that many advertisers republish theirs several times a day to find themselves at the top of the list. Credit card companies are boycotting Backpage, forcing advertisers to use bitcoins, a virtual currency.

Is he facing resistance?

The US Senate forced the site to hand over internal documents as part of its investigation, which led to a pithy report on Backpage's tolerance of human trafficking, including minors. Criminal charges were recently filed in California against owners Carl Ferrer, Michael Lacey and James Larkin, who pleaded not guilty. They have also been the target of civil lawsuits by victims, which have met with little success. Some police fear that closing the site would only move the problem, possibly to a more difficult place to monitor.