A Conservative Member of Parliament is raising concerns about child trafficking after she found a young Ottawa girl advertised on Craiglist for sex.
Manitoba MP Joy Smith found the advertisement online, which appears to offer up a 12- or 13-year-old girl for sex.
The phone number on the ad is no longer in service. However, Smith says the advertisement is proof that something needs to be done to stop child trafficking in Canada.
"They are threatened, beaten, raped. They are shot up with drugs and they make a lot of money for their perpetrators," said Smith, whose private member's bill on the issue passed in June.
Former RCMP forensic scientist Brian McConaghy devotes his time to fighting child trafficking in Cambodia, where girls as young as five are forced into brothels. He says Canadians are among those who buy the kids.
"Unlike drugs that you get to sell once, the profit margin is huge on human trafficking because you get to sell a human being over and over again," he told CTV Ottawa.
Although people are working to abolish slavery, those working with children and adults in the sex trade in Canada and abroad say slavery is still alive and well.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Joanne Schnurr
