Justice committee  First of all, this is a national issue when we come down to it. I've talked about a lot of the programs and the extensive programs that exist in Winnipeg. I'm not bragging, but I do know that some of these programs have been around for a long time in our city. We did have an officer whose daughter got involved in prostitution and ended up losing her life as a result.

Justice committee  I'll comment on the other items that Dominic didn't comment on. I want to talk about domestic servitude and forced labour. It's interesting that when we hold these public campaigns and we talk to people, they step forward and they say, “I know someone who was victim of this”. There is always somebody who comes up, or it's two, three, or four people at a time, and they bring up the domestic servitude situations.

Justice committee  Well, that's a big question, so there's lots there. I think a lot of what we talked about already around awareness speaks to some portions of that. But I want to share one story that really cements what you're talking about in a lot of ways. In Winnipeg we have a very large and vibrant first nation community.

Justice committee  Certainly, there are some people who are predominant, who are on your radar screen. In Winnipeg, we have a very large migrant population. We have a lot of people coming through the city. We have a lot of people immigrating to Winnipeg right now. That's very dynamic. There's lots we don't know.

Justice committee  To be honest about this type of crime, it's very difficult to prove in the first place. With drug trafficking you can define a network. You may have an individual who's caught with a kilogram of cocaine and you can say they're distributing and you get a 15-year sentence. That's not uncommon when you start dealing with and folding in organized crime, and organizations that participate in crime in an organized fashion.

Justice committee  In my experience with organized crime files, very often the judges and justices come out with a very long explanation as to how the sentence is computed. At the end of the day, I believe they come out with just sentences, taking into account all the facts. I think this still allows them that latitude, and still speaks to those who are being victimized.

Justice committee  No, these are through private agencies. They've been sponsored by non-government agencies. That relationship needs constant investment by police because it's very powerful and they have a lot of abilities that police and government systems don't. So we're really engaging with that community and taking advantage of those things to help people and use services that we normally wouldn't be using.

Justice committee  I've been fairly vocal on the revamping of some other bills, and I know we are going into other areas there. When we get into the topic of wiretapping and modernizing, there is a crossover there when it comes to technology and how people misuse the Internet, hide behind Internet servers, hide on the Internet through other things such as Facebook or Craigslist, and we are not modern in that area.

Justice committee  I used 6,600, but the actual number was 6,647 reports.

Justice committee  A number of suspects were identified and people were arrested for sex-based crime who would have escaped justice and those things wouldn't have occurred. We have lots of systems in place, and in these last two years, as I mentioned, we have taken a really hard look at how we do business around this.

Justice committee  In particular for victims of exploitation or in our prostitution offender program we actually have ways to fast-track them into the system to get them assistance.

Justice committee  That's a very good question. This is what we talk about when we talk about building trust. It has to start somewhere, and I'll give you an example. In Winnipeg, we had a very similar case to the one that the sergeant just outlined. We ended up proceeding by arresting those individuals for drug trafficking because they were so reluctant to step forward and give us statements on that.

Justice committee  Good afternoon. I'm honoured to be here today representing the Winnipeg Police Service, and I'm very pleased to speak with you on such an important issue. Not unlike other urban centres in Canada, Winnipeg struggles with crimes of exploitation, procuring, luring, prostitution, and related criminal behaviour.