I heard about this and I am outraged!
Thank you so much for posting this and raising awareness- i love your blog and read it daily. I will def be writing letters and encouraging others to do the same! Thank you so much for your activism Michelle!

SEXUAL OPPRESSION COMING TO TORONTO

A casual observer can easily guess: Toronto Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti bears deep connections in the male led business community in Toronto, Montreal, Italy and beyond. With such connections a clear mind muses that his business partners, colleagues and family members will invest in the sex trade. Oh, a source of profit!
How does this profit come about? How lucrative is it?
When the sex trade = prostitution was legalized in the Netherlands and Germany, human traffickers, AKA sex slave owners, brought tens of thousands girls and women into these countries. These girls appear to be legal prostitutes to every man buying sex. To this day, about a hundred thousand women in Western Europe are forced, against their will, to perform sex acts 24/7 by the underground sex trade. One girl performing tricks for her slave owners at 8 – 30 tricks a day brings in $10,000 – $30,000 per month. Are these the profits dazzling the imaginations of silent partners and business colleagues close to the Toronto Councillor?
The proposed sex trade island clearly defines the Councillor’s mindset: Men can buy sex on demand with impunity. Women are to be assaulted sexually by men when men possess the power to pay for rape. Clearly, such a position making men dominant over women directly opposes our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Women and men are defined as equal under Canadian Law. Is a Toronto Councillor opposed to our communal laws?
Any plans to bring in sex tourism anywhere into Canada flies in the face of the discerning experience of Sweden, our Nordic cousins. For the final thirty years of the 20th century, Sweden, renowned for brothels and magnificent massage parlours under legalized prostitution, learned a painful lesson. Legalizing prostitution spreads prostitution, and gives free license to the illegal sex trade to multiply the abuse of women held hostage.
In an about face in 1999, Sweden passed the No Sex Purchase Law with 80% support of the public. After effectively enforcing this egalitarian law, in four years the number of legal sex trade workers halved (2,500 – 1,200) and is now 60% less than that of 1999. In the same brief four years, the numbers of sex trafficked victims dropped from 12,000 per year to 200 – 400 per year in Sweden. Annually, Finland experienced 15,000 – 17,000 sex trafficked victims in the same time period. Common sense led Finland, Norway and South Korea to now apply similar laws to Sweden.
“As such, Sweden’s ‘unique strategy treats prostitution as a form of violence against women in which the men who exploit by buying sex are criminalized. The mostly female prostitutes are treated as victims who need help, and the public is educated in order to counteract the historical male bias that has long stultified thinking on prostitution. To securely anchor their view in firm legal ground, Sweden’s prostitution legislation was passed as part and parcel of the country’s 1999 omnibus violence against women legislation.” (Marie De Santis, 2011)
“Sweden passed legislation that a) criminalizes the buying of sex, and b) decriminalizes the selling of sex. The novel rationale behind this legislation is clearly stated in the government’s literature on the law: “In Sweden prostitution is regarded as an aspect of male violence against women and children. It is officially acknowledged as a form of exploitation of women and children and constitutes a significant social problem…gender equality will remain unattainable so long as men buy, sell and exploit women and children by prostitution.” (Ibid.)
Canada today, has estimates of 20,000 trafficked victims according to the Salvation Army.
Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, his silent business partners, and the Toronto public can easily use common sense. Prostitution is a dangerous oppression of women by men. Promoting a sex trade island must be overcome by new laws in Canada, making it illegal for men and women to buy sex. Buying sex places one person in a place of power over another to dictate the sex acts demanded by the buyer. Canada, a dignified, freedom loving country, is more than ready to change this.
Kanata means community. No one overpowering another enhances the common beauty, freedom, and wisdom we Canadians regard necessary to express human equality. Canadians brought and harboured slaves in Ontario via the Underground Railway. We Canadians will squeeze out the silent underground business of sex slavery. We will see women raised to equality in our day, rather than create an island of abuse – oppressive abuse of women, in the largest city in Canada.

Tymofiy Hawrysh
Citations: Marie De Santis, THE SWEDISH MODEL – SWEDEN’S PROSTITUTION SOLUTION: WHY HASN’T ANYONE TRIED THIS BEFORE? Women’s Justice Centre, 2011. http://mapleleafap.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/the-swedish-model-swedens-prostitution-solution-font-10-5.pdf
http://www.captivedaughters.org/demanddynamics/reducedemand.htm http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/edmonton/2011/03/09/17550236.html