Twenty years after Operation Scorpion, which uncovered a vast network of juvenile prostitution in Quebec, nothing has really changed, deplores criminologist Maria Mourani, who is pushing for other similar investigations to see the day.
“Twenty years later, unfortunately, we’re at the same point,” she says straight away in an interview with To have to for the release of his new book, Operation Scorpionwhich she signed with ex-policeman Roger Ferland at Éditions de l’Homme.
“The message of this book is to raise awareness and say: do you realize? After 20 years, there are still children who are being sexually exploited in Quebec, there are still juvenile prostitution networks, there are still men who buy the bodies of adolescents, ”she summarizes.
The former MP recognizes that there have nevertheless been notable advances, including the adoption in 2014 of the law that prohibits the purchase of sexual services in Canada.
But although the police have “all the tools” to carry out large-scale investigations, “there are very few customers arrested”, she denounces. “It’s still a big problem: we could make dozens of ‘Scorpions’, but we don’t even have any, even though we have the money and the laws to do so. »
She believes the police are simply afraid to go after the “big guys” because they don’t feel supported enough to do so.
In the book, Roger Ferland repeats that he has not been blocked by his superiors in the context of his investigation. “But with my outside perspective, I question that story, otherwise why didn’t they continue to investigate? asks M.me Mourani.
She indicates that after two waves of arrests, the authorities put an end to the investigation, even if the police continued to receive a lot of information on the networks of juvenile prostitution. “We closed Pandora’s box when it was full of titi. We didn’t want to hear any more of that, because it was the big scandal in Quebec, we had to stop all that. And that’s the reality! she continues.
candy sentences
Maria Mourani also denounces the “candy sentences” suffered by clients arrested as part of Operation Scorpion. “The findings are striking,” she writes. Despite convictions for knowingly having sex with minors, these men managed to get away with derisory sentences. Twenty years later, the majority of them are still active in the Quebec business community. Their influence and their economic capital have not really suffered, except with regard to Robert Gillet. »
Of the 119 clients who were identified by victims as part of this investigation, 18 were arrested and 16 were convicted, she summarizes. These “men of influence and power” were “mostly sentenced to suspended sentences, community service, probation and fines”.
According to her, the “resistance to harshly condemning these prostitutes remains an unresolved problem” even today. Moreover, she does not understand why these men who pay to buy the sexual services of minors are not systematically accused of sexual assault. “As if it’s different when you pay to touch a minor,” she sighs.
Victims injured for life
Fortunately, great improvements have taken place in the treatment of young girls who fall into the clutches of pimps, rejoices Mme Mourani. “Before, we perceived the victims as girls who were looking for their own victimization. In the youth centers, they were treated like girls with behavioral problems. Some police perceived them as girls who liked money. And the legal department treated them like little liars. Moreover, several victims of Scorpion have been lopsided in court. »
This is the case of Rachel, who recounts in the book how traumatic the experience of testifying in court was. “No 15-year-old girl should have to go through this kind of situation or be forced to testify in a trial under penalty of being charged with obstructing the work of the police,” she pleads. We should rather give him comfort. »
During Robert Gillet’s trial, the defense lawyer destroyed his credibility, to the point where his testimony was ultimately not accepted. She talks about the shame that assailed her at having to recount in a loop the horrors that had been made to her, of the impression of being herself in the box of the accused, of being treated as a liar. She recounts having cried many times in the toilets near the courtroom and even having had suicidal thoughts, “it had become so unbearable”.
According to Maria Mourani, Rachel did not have the protection she should have had as a vulnerable witness. “We wouldn’t see that in our courts today,” she says.
Rachel’s experience remains “a great wound” for ex-policeman Roger Ferland. “Rachel is my biggest regret in this whole investigation,” he admits in the book.
Rachel, she still lives with this “feeling of injustice” that has never left her. “My life has been destroyed, and these men carry on with theirs as if nothing had happened. […] I was an immature child, too young to grasp the consequences of my actions. As I grew up, I understood the harm they did to me. Telling you my story, I feel like throwing up. I still cry often. »