Posted at 10:00 a.m.
For you, it may just be a “news item” read in The Press of Saturday. For me, this is a situation that I have observed for several years, helpless and sad for the victims of this crime.
This is the story of the trial of a Quebecer at the head of a prostitution ring. These are 26 women who gave him part or all of the income from the sale of sexual acts. The man was not convicted of pimping. Oh no. Instead, he received a sentence relating to section 286.2 (1), “having received a material benefit from the provision of sexual services”. This man, in the eyes of the justice system, is not a pimp. And when you have been the victim of pimping, being recognized as such is a real need.
For the defense lawyer, the women in this network “were sex workers; we were not in front of a recruiting affair”. In a society where prostitution is increasingly seen as a job like any other, the people who gravitate around this industry are, unsurprisingly, becoming entrepreneurs like any other. It becomes difficult to distinguish pimp from boss, booker from recruiter, driver from pimp.
This tendency to seek violence and coercion to prove pimping worries me and seems far removed from the spirit of Canadian law. The Criminal Code defines procuring as inducing a person to offer or perform sexual services for consideration. To lead is not to compel. And pimps have understood this. They convince rather than constrain.
You have to know very little about the reality of prostitution to think that young women are being recruited by force. Many choose this option. Because they are promised by their boyfriend that it will be done as a team or because at 18, you prefer luxury and glamor to poorly paid jobs. In short, most enter willingly, knowing that they will have control over their schedule, the number of daily clients and the sexual acts they will accept. And in most cases, it doesn’t happen that way. Customers are so harassing that the management is outsourced to third parties who will exploit it. The lover is finally a pimp controlling and a whole network has an interest in quickly making the most of this consenting source of income before it changes its mind.
And the day when this network will be brought to justice, these young women will struggle to be recognized as victims of a crime which nevertheless bears a name, pimping. And their recovery will only be longer, stigmatizing and difficult. Under the pretext of free entry, they will be told that they are not real victims, that it is no one’s fault that it went wrong.
In this case, the majority of women did not want to collaborate in the investigation. And we understand them. Pimps have a large, influential network, which does not hesitate to threaten anyone who pretends to want to denounce. Pimps have friends and families who benefit from this lucrative business and who will not hesitate to put pressure on women to shut up. And those who have seen other women testify in a trial for pimping certainly do not want to live this traumatic experience. Especially in a perspective where the pimp will perhaps not be condemned for… pimping.
When will there be concrete measures, financial assistance and sufficient accommodation resources for women who wish to leave this environment? When will there be real actions directed towards those who create pimping, that is to say the customers? Pimps exist and get rich because men are always looking for advertisements with the words “new in the business”, claiming new masseuses at the corner salon or a rotation of dancers in the bars of the region. In prostitution, demand greatly exceeds supply. Pimps are there to respond to this market imbalance. Without this constant and paying demand, pimps will find other sources of income. It is not by condemning two or three “bosses” per year that we will put an end to this well-organized exploitation.