Canada police arrest 104 men in child prostitution dragnet
21 April 2017
Canadian police have arrested 104 men in connection with a child prostitution ring in and around the Toronto area.
York Regional Police say the men attempted to purchase sex with an undercover officer, who posed as a girl between the ages of 13 and 16 online.
Police targeted men who searched for prostitutes online, but did not arrest men who were seeking sex with an adult.
In Canada, adults are allowed to sell sexual services, but it is illegal to buy sex.
"We stopped 104 men from purchasing 104 children," Det Sgt Thai Truong said during a press conference on Friday.
The investigation, dubbed Project Raphael, lasted four years.
The goal of the undercover operation was to reduce demand for child prostitution by putting the men who seek it out behind bars, according to police. An undercover officer would engage with men looking to buy sex online, and then tell them that she was underage.
"Once they were told they were speaking with children, for the most part the men would stop," PC Truong said.
During that time, officers were also able to rescue about 85 child victims. However, police say they were only able to arrest about half of the pimps in those cases because the girls were too afraid to participate in the investigation.
Many of the girls showed signs of physical abuse, PC Truong said.
PC Truong says that most victims of sex trafficking began prostitution at about the age of 14.
Of the 104 cases placed before the courts, 40 of the cases have been resolved, with 64 still before the courts. About a quarter of the accused plead guilty. Four went to trial and of those four, three were found guilty and one man was acquitted.
Five cases of the 104 were withdrawn.
In Canada, soliciting the sexual services of someone under 18 is a crime punishable by six months to 10 years in prison for first-time offenders.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39673243
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OK, first of all these are sick pricks and all of these bastards deserve serious prison time and I hope they castrate the pimps when they catch them all.
That said, Buzz, since you are from Canada (and I am 2nd generation from there so I don't know) you are going to have to explain this to me:
In Canada, adults are allowed to sell sexual services, but it is illegal to buy sex.
HUH! It's legal for adults to sell sex, but it is illegal for adults to buy sex? How in the hell does THAT work? If the police (or the fancy RCMP (whom I have nothing but the greatest respect for)) catch a prostitute with a customer, does the prostitute go free because selling sex is legal, but the customer goes to jail because buying sex is illegal? That's like it's legal to sell scotch, but illegal to buy it (shudder)(the bastards!) Doesn't seem hardly Kosher to me!
Being legal to sell, but illegal to buy is as much a mystery to me as it is to you.
This story is from before prosititution became legal. One of my best friends in Toronto is a lawyer I went to school with, who practised criminal law. For a while he was the Public Defender in Toronto, and he often had to represent prostitutes. One morning, the "cage" was filled with about 12 prostitutes that were picked up the night before. As each one came up for their turn at trial, my friend pleaded them "Not guilty". After he had pleaded about 8 of them "Not guilty" the Magistrate said to my friend "Mr XXX, you've pleaded every one of these women 'Not guilty'. Surely at least ONE of all of them MUST be guilty." My friend replied: "Your Honour, when I went into law my mother made me promise never to associate with criminals, so it's a matter of principle that NONE of these women are guilty of a crime." The whole court, including the Magistrate, broke up. I know this story is true, because I was in the court to watch my friend at work.
But okay to grow it?
I honestly don't know? I don't think so.
BTW, I remember doing a hotel install in Mississauga (almost got a cramp in my tongue pronouncing it), Ontario (we were there for 4 weeks! Great Zoo in Toronto though!) and I went with my co-worker who was from Vancouver to a government store to buy some scotch and it was the strangest experience I ever had buying booze. I stood in a line with no booze in hand and when I got to the counter I told the man which brand of scotch I wanted, pointed at it behind him, told him the size (in liters of course) paid for it and once I paid for it (they loved my American bills, but I noticed EVERYONE wanted them!), got my bottle. They also didn't sell anything else except the booze and beer. No corkscrews. No key chains. There was no advertising on the walls. I felt like I was in a warehouse! At least my co-worker assured me that I didn't get ripped of because the same bottle of scotch I bought in Mississauga, was the exact same price as if I had bought it anywhere else in Canada. Strange!
A little more than a decade ago when I left Canada the "Brewers' Retail" stores (also Ontario government run) sold beer that way - you couldn't just buy a bottle, it had to be a package (of 6, 12 or 24). However, for many years you could use a shopping cart and just pick any alcoholic (not Canadian beer) beverages from the shelves in the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) stores and check them out at the cashiers (just like any grocery store). If I recall correctly, you could buy imported beer by the bottle or pack of 6, etc. there. However, just as you saw in California, the $4.000 brandy and other super-expensive booze were kept in a locked glass cabinet.
"Mississauga" (at least you spelled it right) is just outside of Toronto. It's the name of an Indian tribe that was located thereabouts. Kavika would probably know.
I cheated. I looked it up. I remembered it because, even though I had to stay there a long time and missed my wife, it was one of the most wonderful hotels I worked on. It was an 8 story Holiday Inn and I had a (free of course) 1 bedroom suite on the 8th floor with a glass wall view and a whirlpool tub. Big screen (for the late 90's) TV's in the living room and bedroom with cable that had every channel. A great French restaurant/bar on the first floor where my money was no good and everything went on my expense account. They also threw in free drinks for our "inconvenience". Of course since the problem was not ours and was with them getting some sort of permits, we did nothing every day for about three weeks and were paid anyway.
The only better ones I did was another 8 floor Holiday Inn on the beach in Ocean City, Maryland. A great one bedroom balcony suite overlooking the ocean and pool over Memorial Day weekend. All expenses paid! And all I had to do was to spend about 4 hours from about 3pm to 7pm answering questions from the staff (they had been trained by another co-worker before I got there) and then go eat crab at the restaurant and sip scotch. Ahhh, I miss the life! Unfortunately the systems have changed too much for me to be a teacher again and I am honestly afraid I would actually jump off from one of the balconies, which I am sure would distress all concerned. Except me of course.
"...we did nothing every day for about three weeks and were paid anyway."
Did you spend any time in Toronto? And if so, where did you go and what did you do besides the Zoo (which, you are right, is an amazing zoo where the animals live in natural habitats, and not in cages).
We went to the zoo, but my co-worker (I wish I could remember his name...sorry) looked at it lik all Canadians do, as a health walk! I could hardly keep up! I keep having to tell him to slow the hell down! I anted to spend time looking at the Beavers in the underwater viewing tank! I wanted to see the Elephants! He aid "They're not there" and trotted on! I said wait! And sure enough a few minutes later they showed up. What the hell is it with Canadians where everything is an exercise! I didn't want exercise! I wanted to enjoy the zoo! It really is a great one too.
We went to dinner down by the waterfront too, which is sort of where the Yuppies were moving back into the old houses, like West Hollywood. Great food! Nice rhythm! I saw the "slums" of Toronto. The public housing. Hell I wish my place was that nice at the time! Garage parking (two spots). Two and three bedrooms. Low prices. Plug ins for engine heaters. Subsidized! I almost wanted to immigrate right then!
He wanted to go up in the needle, so I let him. Not me! Too damned high! I sat on the waterfront and smoked. I still smoked back then.
Other then that I spent a lot of time floating in the large hot tub in my room, standing naked in front of the glass wall in the living room of my suite and wondering if anyone would call the RCMP (remember I was on the 8th floor) and eating great French food (the Escargots were wonderful! I had them at least once a day!) and sipping good wine and scotch. I loved that they felt bad and comped everything! Made the "sacrifice" more bearable. LOL! The truth is though I did spend a lot of time on my cell phone to my wife and Toronto was having it's worst heat wave in recorded history! It was HOT outside!
I'm not happy about heights either, but when the CN tower was built it was the world's tallest free-standing structure. From my office window I watched a Sikorsky place the TV/Radio? tower on top. The first upper level where the observation floor is, and the revolving restaurant above it don't really give you vertigo, but there is an upper level much higher that is a narrow walkway surrounding the tower, with outwardly leaning floor-to-ceiling windows, where I was so damned scared I got down on my hands and knees. Since then I've been on a much higher tower, the one in Chengdu. I once posted an article about it on NT. However, I sure as hell didn't walk on the glass floor.
When I was younger (about 12) I went up in the Oneida tower at Niagara Falls and it scared the hell out of me It was because it was just an open cage! I felt like I would fall out so easily. I flattened myself against the back of it and would not move until we were back down. There is a taller tower there, but I don't remember the name of it. We went to the Falls three summers in a row when I was a kid in our pop-up camper and station wagon (I always was "elected" to sleep in the back of the station wagon!). I loved going back then, but my mother went about 20 years later just before her husband died and said it was garbage with tourist stands
I remember standing on the Canadian side (that was the only way we went from lower Michigan) looking down over the over hang and watching the water thunder over. It was hypnotic. I can see now why people choose it as a place to commit suicide. It drags you in. It pulls at you. Very strange vibe even way back then. The last time we went it was so I could look over a Jesuit seminary near there. I was 16 and very seriously considering eventually entering the Priesthood, but only as a Jesuit. You know the truth is that, despite the wild side I talk about here, I think I would have made a very good Jesuit Priest. They are the true intellectuals of the Catholic Church. The more rebellious side.
That statement has entrapment written all over it. That said, catching child predators is a very good thing.
Hang 'em high.
By their balls...with big fish hooks!
I am going to bed now, so I am going to lock this article so some jerk doesn't complain about how I deal with these. Good night.