Vol. 8, Issue 2
Living in fear
Free of Charge
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Showdown
Human rights
Major new study finds
MP Marilyn Gladu backs
human traffickers recruiting young, vulnerable women
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church freedom on
‘conversion therapy’ bill
CATHY DOBSON THE JOURNAL
woman who became a victim of human trafficking wants Sarnians to know it happens here and how to help prevent it. “People are definitely taken aback when they hear my story, said Alicia, 31, who was 20-years-old and when her life spiralled into drugs and trafficking. “If you were to meet me, I’m a well put-together, attractive woman. I don’t look like someone who was involved in a very dark world. “I didn’t know that lifestyle exists in Sarnia. I didn’t even party in high school,” she said. “But when I came home after college I met a fellow who was older than me and had that appealing bad-boy persona. I met the wrong people at the wrong time.” The man introduced her to his friends and to cocaine. “I had no self-esteem. My parents had divorced and I found that traumatic. I responded to anyone who gave me the time of day,” she told The Journal. “He said I was special. I thought I had a boyfriend.” Soon he was giving her expensive gifts and drugs to deal to support her habit. When he delivered other women to johns, Alicia became the driver. “By then, I felt there was no way out. It made me feel needed. I trusted him. I felt I’d do anything for him.” Then one day came a customer who wanted her to turn a trick. “The man I thought was my boyfriend became my trafficker. Behind closed doors he threatened to harm my family,” said Alicia. Continued on 3
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A COMPOSITE PHOTO showing an inverted Chemical Valley and the shoreline of Michigan, looking northwest from Canatara Beach. Sarnia's neighbouring state is threatening to shut down a major pipeline that's critical for local industry. For a special report on Line 5, please see pages 12-13. TROY SHANTZ The Journal
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TARA JEFFREY THE JOURNAL
federal bill that would ban the discredited practice of conversion therapy is facing opposition from Sarnia-Lambton MP Marilyn Gladu. A petition launched by the Tory MP calling on the government to amend or withdraw Bill C-6 — legislation aimed at criminalizing conversion therapy — garnered 169 signatures and was presented to the House of Common. “This petition is supported by the majority of the 91 churches in my riding,” Gladu said at the December reading, noting residents and churches in Sarnia-Lambton are “extremely concerned about an attack on our freedom of religion, conscience, expression, belief and our ability to speak it in the public square.” Conversion therapy is defined by the government as ‘any service, practice or treatment designed to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual, gender identity to one that matches the sex assigned at birth, or to repress or reduce non heterosexual sexual attraction or sexual behaviours.’ The practice has been denounced by medical and human rights organizations around the world, citing devastating impacts on its victims, including suicide. Bill C-6, designed to protect the equality rights of LGBTQ2 persons, would make it a criminal offence to: cause a child to undergo conversion therapy; remove a child from Canada to undergo conversion therapy abroad; cause a person to undergo conversion therapy against their will; profit from providing conversion therapy; or advertise an offer to provide conversion therapy. Continued on 5