VANCOUVER - Craigslist officials seem open to changing their online sex ads section in Canada after dropping it altogether in the United States, says a human trafficking expert.
Ben Perrin, a law professor at the University of B.C., along with the RCMP and the Peel Regional Police force in Ontario have discussed the issue with the online classified ad company in an effort to prevent sexual exploitation of minors.
"We already know that Craigslist has been used as a portal for the sale of victims of human trafficking in Canada," Perrin said.
"We've had at least six cases in the Greater Toronto Area where the Peel Regional Police have identified Craigslist as being primarily involved for the sale of these victims of sex trafficking."
An Ontario man convicted in Canada's first human trafficking case last year used the free site to sell a 15-year-old girl as a prostitute, Perrin said.
Last week, after facing numerous lawsuits, Craigslist announced it would shut down its exotic services section in the U.S. and replace it with a new adult-services section where every ad would be monitored by its staff.
Critics have called Craigslist an online brothel after a Boston masseuse was killed earlier this year when she responded to an ad on the popular site.
Craigslist is not taking responsibility for the woman's death.
Perrin said he's hoping a discussion with the company will result in major changes in Canada as well.
"There's an agreement to move forward to the next stage, which is to begin to discuss some of the specific measures and assess which would be most effective in the Canadian context," he said.
"The number of postings in Toronto and Vancouver in particular have increased according to Craigslist, in recent months, so there's a real need to tackle this issue in Canada."
"We have every indication that they're taking this very seriously," Perrin said.
Susan MacTavish Best, a spokeswoman for San Francisco-based Craigslist, said the company "had a thoughtful and productive conversation with Mr. Perrin and law enforcement this past week."
"We look forward to continuing the discussion in Canada over the upcoming months," she told The Canadian Press in an email.
Craigslist has taken some measures to protect Canadian and American users of its site.
For example, the company has come up with a filtering system that prohibit certain words prevalent in the sex industry from being used in ads, although those who use the site have found ways to bypass it, Perrin said.
"What's critically missing from the Canadian Craigslist websites, of which there are over 50, is phone number and credit-card verification for someone who wants to post in the erotic services section," he said.
Such verification is necessary on the U.S. sites, but Perrin said Craigslist officials have said they haven't instituted such measures in Canada because law enforcement in Canada didn't appear interested.
"So we've organized a group of law enforcement in Canada who are willing to work with Craigslist."
Sgt. Marie-Claude Arsenault of the RCMP's Human Trafficking Co-ordination Centre was involved in last week's talks with Craigslist and said the company seems receptive to working with Canadian police.
"It was a very open discussion to try and work together," Arsenault said from Ottawa.
"I'm hopeful and positive that we'll be working with Craigslist and it will be a positive partnership."
Ontario resident Naomi Baker, who recently founded the non-profit group Canada Fights Human Trafficking, said Craigslist should shut down its erotic services section in Canada, in keeping with its decision in the U.S.
"That portion of Craigslist should not even be legally on there," she said.
"How do you govern that? How do you let some people on and some people off if you think it's human trafficking? You can't govern it, it's a can of worms."
Baker said the organization will be training volunteers from its British Columbia chapter to respond to an expected increase in human trafficking cases during the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Law enforcement officials say predators who lure young victims into the sex trade don't face much of a deterrent because unlike in the United States, Canada does not have a mandatory minimum sentence for trafficking people under 14.
Arsenault said there's little understanding, even among law enforcement officials and prosecutors, about human trafficking, which is often equated with human smuggling.
But people don't have to be transported across international borders to be sold into sexual slavery. Arsenault said pimps often move underage people from one province to another in Canada.
The RCMP has said between 800,000 and four million people worldwide are victims of human trafficking and the industry is almost on par with drug smuggling when it comes to the billions of dollars it generates.
Police and various groups are urging Parliament to pass a private member's bill that calls for a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for those convicted of trafficking people for profit.
The bill has passed first reading and is now in the committee stage.
Proponents hope the bill will move through that stage quickly, especially if a minority federal government falls and progress on the bill becomes meaningless.
In the United States, those who traffic children under 14 must serve a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years, while the offence against children between 14 and 18 amounts to an automatic 10 years behind bars.
