Alberta to Get Rid of Craigslist Prostitution Ads

My province may actually do something about the disgusting amount of prostitution ads on Craigslist. The US, to my best knowledge, recently has banned the selling of sex on Craigslist as it is a breeding ground for sex trafficking and exploitation.

Duh!

Apparently my province is joining the growing number of provinces taking a stand against this. It does not surprise me that my province is lagging behind, it was slow on banning smoking on public places, too.

But, I digress

The article from CBC news states:

The Alberta government has reversed its policy on Craigslist, demanding the removal of erotic ads on the website.

On Friday, Justice Minister Alison Redford and Solicitor General Frank Oberle sent a letter to the CEO of the online classifieds website calling for the removal of erotic ads, which experts say are used for sex trafficking.

This week, University of British Columbia law professor and human trafficking expert Benjamin Perrin slammed the Stelmach government for failing to follow the lead of several other provinces in cracking down on Craigslist.

The same day, the province condemned the ads but said writing a letter was not the answer.

However, Alberta Justice spokesperson Jody Korchinski said the government has reconsidered.

"Alberta has and will continue focusing on investigating and prosecuting any allegations of human trafficking whenever the evidence warrants," Korchinski said.

"However, the ministers also recognize that advocacy and awareness … does also play an important role, which is why they decided to lend their support to their colleagues which have raised this issue in past weeks."

Craigslist shut down its prostitution ads in the United States in September after complaints from attorneys general in 17 U.S. states.

A total of four Canadian provinces say they want Craigslist to remove the ads.

A West Vancouver man was charged in August with luring a child under 14 after police found an ad on Craigslist in which a man was seeking to meet a school-age girl for sex.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2010/10/23/edm-craigslist-erotic-ads-ban.html#ixzz13PXmiXOR

Finally! This site has absolutely no line it does not cross. I was actually browsing the "personal" ads in my city a few weeks ago to see the reality of online prostitution solicitation. I was saddened to see tons of women younger than me (this means under 21 but no younger than 18) attempting to solicit sex. It scared me that so many of the young women were posting their phone numbers right on the page.

Some of the ads on craigslist are hidden by being placed under "massage therapy" and so forth. Most of the prostitution ads i saw, however, were posted under "erotic services"

The first thing that came to my mind when i saw the postings were, "what if this woman is actually underage?" or "what if someone made this post to sell this woman for sex?"

I also saw a whole lot of racist prostitution ads for "exotic" women - "submissive Asian women" and so forth. My heart broke when I realized that a lot of these posts seemed like trafficking with statements like, "I just moved to Canada" and a lot of broken english. I wonder how many of these women were tricked, or how many were in desperate need of money because immigration is not the easiest thing in the world. But, what if they were forced here? It's terrifying to know that this is going on so close to me. Some of the neighborhoods were ones i spend a lot of time in - it is happening everywhere.

Here's a glimpse of the reality of craigslist Canada:

"SPANISH & MALGACHE DUO P*RNSTAR LOOK A LIKE!"
"Hi, Gentlemen: I am Korean Suger, 19 yr.old Korean girl."
"I am ASIAN nana, 20 yr-old LOCAL Japanese Visitor STUDENT offering my new sex experiment with you."
"You have officially found the Perfect Girl .... I am super pretty . petite & youngest girl in the town "


I'm just relieved that the government is actually going to do something about it. It encourages sex trafficking, sexual slavery and promotes rape culture and patriarchy. Good job, Alberta!