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10.19.2009

Autumn Love


I'm finally home (for the next week at least) and I couldn't be happier. It's a little chilly, but I'm getting used to the weather again. Definitely staying busy, but I'm hoping to tackle some homework later tonight.

Yesterday, I spent the day with my parents strolling through the Byward Market and indulging in our weekly Sunday Brunch at Chateau Laurier. Walking through downtown Ottawa, I almost forgot how beautiful it is here. The leaves, the people, the culture...I definitely love Ottawa.

10.12.2009

Home



I just finished my last midterm so the countdown to home has officially begun. I wasn't really looking forward to leaving Virginia Beach for the week because I know I could be sooooo productive here, but now that Contracts is out of the way - it's all I can think about! 

(PS. those are my puppies Lola and O)

I am so excited for...
  • XL one milk one sweetener coffee from Tim Horton's
  • Lunettes from Moulin
  • Early morning at the Byward Market
  • Boxes and boxes of sour cream glazed timbits from Tim Horton's
  • Mont Tremblant and postponed Thanksgiving weekend
  • Work
  • My amazing parents and our hilariousness
  • Family Sunday brunch at Chateau Montebello
  • My fuzzy slippers I forgot to bring to school
  • My amazingly comfy beyond wonderful bed
  • Snow & fall leaves
  • HOCKEY (go Habs go!!)
  • Chocolate cake at Milestone's
  • My puppies Lola et O
  • Metric concert
  • Walks around Parliament late at night and park bench conversations
  • Everything French


10.11.2009

Weekend...


I'm sitting here on a porch, drinking delicious Tim Horton's coffee and studying contracts. It almost makes me feel like I'm at home, almost...

Today will consist of lots of studying for my midterm tomorrow, but the Fall Break countdown is ON! Friday, I leave for Ottawa and then Saturday I leave for Mont Tremblant bright & early. I am so excited for the mountains, food, and amazing company. I can't wait!! 

Tomorrow is Canadian Thanksgiving and I'm a little sad I won't be able to celebrate, but luckily my friends & family are delaying their Thanksgiving so we can celebrate together next weekend. No Turkey Time for me today....just lots & lots & lots of contracts!

10.07.2009

Here & There

This week has been a crazy one. As I'm writing this entry, I'm sitting in the library trying to study for my Civ Pro midterm tomorrow. It's midterm/memo time at Regent, which means a lot of late nights and study sessions in the library. At least we're all in this together!

Hockey season started last Thursday, which doesn't exactly help my studying. I'm currently watching the Canucks v. Habs game on my computer...not the best study tool. The Habs are losing 3-0, which is shocking in itself. 

Through this crazy busy week, I have realized how thankful I am for the people I have met at Regent thus far.  School might be insane and there are definitely times when I'm not sure I can make it, but my support system here is incredibly strong. I have a great group of friends, which I am SO thankful for. Julie, Rachel, Missi, Heather...you're all amazing and I couldn't imagine my life without you now! Days seem long, but with each of these people by my side, I know I can do it! 

10.03.2009

Opposition To Child Trafficking Bill Horrifies Former Trafficking Victim


Ottawa, ON:   Wednesday September 30, 2009, MP Joy Smith’s Bill C-268, which proposes five year minimum sentences for traffickers of children, received significant support from 239 Members of Parliament during the vote at Third Reading. However, 43 MPs of the Bloc Quebecois and 3 MPs from the NDP parties voted against serious penalties for child traffickers. 
 
As Timea Nagy, a former victim of human trafficking, sat in gallery of the House of Commons watching the vote on C-268, she felt horrified that anyone would vote against such legislation. 
 
“I don’t understand how anyone could feel that five years in jail is too much for those who offer children for sale,” said Timea Nagy. “What if it were their child that was trafficked? Would they still have voted the same way?” 
 
“Timea is truly and inspiration and hero to us all! Her determination to help other victims gives us continued hope that one day we will end this modern day slave trade,” said MP Joy Smith. “We must give her and other victims hope. As Members of Parliament, we are obligated to give victims confidence to come forward and escape the clutches of their traffickers.”
 
Timea also had the opportunity to review some of the comments made by one of the NDP members who voted against Bill C-268. During the final debate on C-268 on September 29, 2009, NDP MP Megan Leslie said,
 
“We have a situation here in which five people have been convicted. Let us remember that the bill deals only with people who have been convicted, and we have 800 people who are being trafficked. They are not addressed by the bill at all, not one bit. Five versus 800: I wonder why we are even wasting our time talking about this when what we really need is action on child trafficking.”
 
“I know the terrifying feeling of knowing that your trafficker is out there. Is there any wonder why there are only 5 convictions and these 800 other victims don’t come forward,” said Timea Nagy, who now counsels other victims of human trafficking. “What confidence can we offer them, when there is no guarantee that their trafficker will receive any jail time at all? Why would they dare come forward when the threat of further exploitation and abuse remains?”
 
 
Prior to the vote on Bill C-268, an email was distributed to all MPs with a message from Timea.
 
To the Members of House of Commons.
 
My name is Timea Eva Nagy. I am a Human Trafficked victim and survivor.
As a person who has experienced this horrific crime first hand, and as a person who is now helping other victims by giving them hope and courage to go to the police and give a statement,  facing the possibility that their keepers will walk or get a light sentence is the hardest part of my job.
 
Looking in a victim’s eye, and telling her that the Police will do everything they can, but it is now up to the law and the court system to make sure that these guys will never hurt her again can be really scary to rely on.
 
Trafficking drugs and guns get tougher sentences then trafficking a person.
 
I truly believe that if it was your daughter, sister, you would also feel that something is wrong with that picture. You have a chance today to change that. We as Victims, and the Police officers are relying on your decision today.
 
Please give us hope and reasons to be brave and strong for giving a statement and testifying. Please reward the Police officers who are doing a really hard work by giving them tougher law’s to work with.
 
You have the power to do that!
 
On September 30, 2009, two hundred and thirty-nine Members of Parliament voted to take a stand against child trafficking. Two hundred and thirty-nine Members of Parliament voted to bring dignity to the victims of child trafficking. Two hundred and thirty-nine Members of Parliament voted to fight the fear of victims.
 
Unfortunately, forty-six Members of Parliament chose to vote against hope for victims.
 
Timea was by no means the only person shocked by the resistance to C-268. Canadians across Canada were appalled at the opposition to C-268. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, founder of Murdered or Missing Persons' Families' Association (MMPFA) said, “Voting against this Bill will be detrimental to Quebec and the victims of criminal acts.  The Bloc’s position suggests that attacking children is not serious and not subject to severe sentences.”
 
Other Canadians reflected on the passage of C-268 as fundamental to affirming Canada’s position towards child trafficking.
 
“This is certainly a great moment where together as Canadians we stand for children, sending a clear message that we will never tolerate their trafficking,” said former Quebec youth judge, Andree Ruffo. “It took the vision and determination of Mrs. Joy Smith, Member of Parliament. She should be thanked and congratulated.”
 
Both Mr. Boisvenu and Ms. Ruffo spoke with MP Joy Smith at a walk to raise awareness about child trafficking and support C-268 last Sunday in Montreal. The walk drew many people from across Quebec representing a wide range of faiths, ethnic backgrounds, and communities.
 
“Regardless of where I go in Canada, Canadians are clear that they will not tolerate child trafficking, nor will they tolerate light sentences for the perpetrators.” said Mrs. Smith. “This message continues to be consistent across our country.”
 
The full list of voting results can be viewed here: http://www.joysmith.ca/index.asp?ID=76&cat_ID=1&sub_ID=468

9.30.2009

Bill C-268

Taken from: Media Advisory, MP Joy Smith

Final Hour of Debate and Vote for Child Trafficking Bill
 
Ottawa, ON:  Today, Bill C-268, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (minimum sentence for offences involving trafficking of persons under the age of eighteen years), will be debated for the final hour of Third Reading during Private Members’ Business hour. Debate today will continue on the Bloc motion to gut the mandatory minimum sentences from the Bill.
 
Bill C-268, tabled by Member of Parliament for Kildonan – St. Paul, Joy Smith, would amend the Criminal Code to include minimum sentences of five years for cases of human trafficking involving minors.
 
  • Private Members’ Business hour will take place between 5:30-6:30pm, however if there are votes, the start of the debate will be pushed to 6:00pm.
 
  • On Wednesday September 30, 2009, Bill C-268 will be put to question and voted on at Third Reading. If successful, it will proceed to the Senate for consideration. The vote on Bill C-268 will likely occur between 5:30 and 6:30pm.
 
 
The debates and vote will be broadcast live on CPAC or can be viewed live on the internet through PARLVU. (http://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/ParlVu/ContentEntityDetailView.aspx?ContentEntityId=4631)

9.27.2009

Simple Facts


In order to learn more about the human trafficking industry, one must realize that is truly a human security crisis of global proportions. Through this blog, I update you with many new things my NPO (The Future Group) is doing to bring awareness to this horrendous trend in society. However, before you can truly comprehend the nature of the problem, it's best to detail the basics of human trafficking....


One of today’s biggest human rights crises is the international trafficking of women and girls (and, to a lesser extent, boys) into sex slavery. Human trafficking is the third largest criminal industry in the world, outranked only by arms and drug dealing. The United Nations estimates that trafficking in persons generates $7 to $10 billion annually for traffickers.

 

The number of people trafficked each year is estimated by most experts to be in the millions. Given its current growth rate, which is fueled by its high profitability, low investigation rate and low prosecution rate, human trafficking is expected by some to take over drug trafficking as the second largest criminal industry in the world within the next decades.


How Does Human Trafficking Take Place?


Traffickers acquire their victims primarily from developing countries where poverty is rampant, commonly through some means of force or deception. Victims are typically very young, most ranging in age from eight to 18 years old. Some are as young as four or five years old. A common scenario involves a poor Asian or Eastern European girl who is offered a “better life” as a housemaid, restaurant server or dancer in a wealthy country such as the United States, Great Britain, or Italy. When she arrives at her destination, her passport is taken away, she is physically and sexually abused, and she is forced into prostitution in a country where she neither speaks the language nor has any friends, relatives or means of support. She is forced to service 8-15 clients a day and does not receive any pay. Rather, the money is used to pay off her “debt” to the trafficker and brothel owners for transportation, food, lodging and so on. After some period of time, she will be resold to another brothel owner, often in another country, and the cycle will continue all over again. She is likely to acquire HIV/AIDS, and to pass it on to her clients and their wives, all around the world. She has a greater chance than most of dying early, and is certain to live a horrible existence in whatever short years she has. Even if she is eventually rescued and repatriated to her country and community, she is likely to be ostracized as a result of her involvement in prostitution.


Government and police corruption, primarily in under-developed countries, play a large role in the perpetuation of the sex slave industry, with blind-eyes being turned toward openly active brothels and payoffs being accepted by those officials charged with the enforcement of national and international laws prohibiting trafficking, prostitution and child sexual exploitation.


Global Nature of the Problem

 Unlike some human rights abuses which are primarily regional, sex trafficking is global in nature. Victims come from virtually all developing countries and are trafficked into or through virtually all developing and developed countries. It is estimated, for example, that 50,000 people are trafficked into the United States every year, most of whom are sold into prostitution.

 

This exploitation is not dependent on nationality, race or religion. It is also not dependent on economic or social standing. For example, a working man from Cambodia may purchase the use of a child sex slave trafficked from Vietnam for $1. Another Vietnamese girl of the same age will be charged out at $200 – often more if she is still a virgin – to a European businessman inHong Kong. Both girls will be forced to service countless American and local military men. A South American girl will be trafficked into Canada under an “exotic dancer” visa and forced into prostitution. A desperately poor Romanian child will be used as a sex slave in the lucrative and depraved child pornography business, the reach and growth of which has become unlimited since the advent of the Internet.

 

The one substantial difference is that it is the wealthy countries – through their military, businessmen, ex-patriates, tourists, and Internet pornography subscribers, all of whom pay significantly more for the use of a sex slave – that keep this criminal industry extremely profitable for traffickers.

 

Global Implications

 

The mental, physical and emotional impact of this egregious crime on the human security of the countless individual victims is obvious. The additional impacts on human security as a collective international concern may not be so obvious. They include:

  1. Threats to border integrity, as millions of people are transported annually across national boundaries under false pretences;
  2. Threats to human health, through the spread of HIV/AIDS and other STDs to the victims, their clients, their clients’ wives, and so on;
  3. Threats to national and international security, since it is believed that many of the world’s major sex traffickers are connected to organized crime groups, which may then use the proceeds to fund other criminal activities such as terrorism;
  4. Threats to the very health of our global human conscience, since slavery – often proudly touted as having been wiped out in the 19th century – is actually alive and well, right in all of our own backyards.

    For more information, feel free to stop me in the hall or visit www.thefuturegroup.org
The publisher/owner of this website, Rebecca Whittaker, is responsible for decisions regarding site content. The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of Regent University and Regent University assumes no liability for any material appearing herein.