Temporary “sex-trade workers” to be restricted from Immigrating

[Posted at Bene Diction Blogs On July 5 2012] Earlier this week, according to Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, new regulations were introduced which restrict employers who are "connected to the sex trade" from bringing in women who would work as exotic dancers, escorts and massagers into the country.

“Frankly this should have been done a long time ago,” Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told the National Post on Wednesday.

“Why would we grant visas to girls that we have a strong suspicion are going to end up under the thumb of a criminal gang being exploited and trafficked? We’re not going after the women — we’re protecting them from what they might not know will happen to them when they get to Canada.”

The story notes that only "employers linked to the sex trade" would face a ban, while those employers with no record of doing anything wrong would be cleared to bringing people in. {If it were something like this, this opens a legal can of worms, as those people wanting to bring these ladies in will be asking, "Why am I being treated as if I will commit a crime?"

Marni Soupcoff of the NatPost raises another objection. Sh reads this as a ban on every temp workers reading these jobs and asks whether this could stand, given that these jobs are legal in Canada.

One thing is clear, aside from any merits to the idea, it will appeal to social conservatives. Aside from the moral question of what these ladies would do, the general question of "human trafficking" is something that has been raised in the House of Commons.

Tory MP Joy Smith, who was interviewed in that Radio-Canada piece on Faytene and her allies, has been raising the issue in the House of Commons for some time now, will no doubt be pleased with this initiative. A bill that she brought forth on the subject, which makes it illegal for Canadians to practice human trafficking outside of Canada, became law last week.