QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Funding for Victims of Human Trafficking and Abused Women
May 15, 2020
Honourable senators, my next question concerns your government’s decision to end funding for a program which helps sexually exploited and trafficked women and girls across Canada. For example, the London Abused Women’s Centre says due to the loss of funding they will have to cancel programs that support over 600 women and girls who are victims of human trafficking. This organization has done tremendous work helping thousands of women and girls over the years. This government talks a lot about feminism, yet during our global crisis, when these women and girls are particularly vulnerable, this government cuts them off. I don’t see how any government doing this could ever claim to be feminist.
Leader, why did your government choose to end this very important program, especially at this time, and will your government recognize its mistake and restore the funding?
Thank you for the question. It’s a question about an important and very vulnerable sector of our community.
This government remains committed to combatting exploitation of women and other vulnerable communities, human trafficking and to better protect victims who are among society’s most vulnerable. The program to which the honourable senator is referring was funded under the Measures to Address Prostitution Initiatives, the MAPI fund. It was a five-year program that was set up under the previous government to close at the end of March 2020.
The government is very aware of the impact that the program’s sunsetting, as per its own terms, has had on certain organizations, including but not exclusively the London Abused Women’s Centre, who indeed do important work. The government is working diligently to find solutions to enable them to continue the important work that they do.
