“Member of Parliament Joy Smith has tabled a bill that would create a minimum prison sentence of 5 years for anyone convicted of trafficking a minor.
Canada’s Criminal Code currently makes no such distinction and allows judges the discretion to sentence anywhere from 0-14 years for trafficking offences.
Imani Nakpangi, the first person in Canada convicted of human trafficking involving a minor, received a three year sentence for the trafficking of a 15 year old girl but was credited 13 months for pre-trial custody. He made over $350,000 sexually exploiting her over two years before she was able to escape. Essentially he will spend less time in jail than he did exploiting her.
Last year, Montreal resident Michael Lennox Mark received a two-year sentence, but with double credit for the year served before his trial, the man who horrifically victimized a 17-year-old girl over two years spent only a week in jail after his conviction (Smith, unknown).”
I do not know about you but when I read this it really struck a nerve. I mean, a man kidnaps a 15 year old girl who is not even old enough here in Canada for consensual sex and then he prostitutes her out to strange men for over two years and in the end he gets just 23 months. Who knows what kind of shit she went through and is most likely still going through. The fear and the physical, mental and emotional abuse that took place are horrifying to think about. Truly try to imagine yourself locked up by a stranger and then your daily duties are to pleasure random men. They might be clean shaven well dressed men or haggard I have not been near clean water in weeks kind of dirty. They could have AIDS or who knows what kind of sexually transmitted diseases. Now how about having all of this going through your mind and being your daily routine while at the same time crying yourself to sleep every night fearing that you will never be free; free of the pain, free to see your friends and free to be with your family. It is making me sick just thinking about it, and it is making my blood boil.
As pointed out this thing called Imani Nakpangi will spend less time behind bars than his victim did being his slave, and there is no other term appropriate for it. In my opinion 5 years minimum is a slap on the wrist compared to what they should be getting. And it never occurred to me that a person’s life, safety and well being were worth so little that we would actually have to legislate a law forcing our judges to punish these animals. Since when did we care more about the criminal than we do about the victim? In Canada it seems to happen far too often for any degree of comfort. Personally I think that it says a lot about our country and our judges that we had to take this step. To me it is just another sad example of why our judicial system needs to have an overhaul.
I support Bill C-268 X 10.
Reference:
Smith, J. (unknown). Support Bill C-268. Retrieved April 5, 2009, from Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=60339527497
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