By Lena Sin, October 10, 2010
Originally published in the Province.
A B.C. law professor is calling on the federal Minister of Public Safety to stop Craigslist from listing adult erotic services.
Benjamin Perrin, author of Invisible Chains: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking, accuses Craigslist of aiding and abetting sex trafficking by allowing criminals to freely advertise the sale of exploited women and children for sex. “I’m simply saying shut down this section of the website, which has been known and popular for marketing victims of sex exploitation,” Perrin said.
Craigslist, a U.S.-based company that provides free online classified ads, shut down its erotic services ads in the U. S last month after a number of state attorneys-general demanded that it do so.
Perrin said if the federal government is not willing to demand the same from Craigslist in Canada, he is prepared to lay private criminal charges.
Under the criminal justice system, a private citizen can go before a justice of the peace and provide evidence and reasonable grounds to believe that an offence has been committed.
Perrin said he has met with Craigslist management and arranged a conference between the company and the RCMP to express their concerns, but nothing has come out of it.
