Four Out of Ten Canadian Provinces Ask Craigslist to Close Erotic Ads

The Justice Minister and Solicitor General for Alberta have sent a letter to Craigslist asking the company to close their erotic services section in Canada. Alberta now joins Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario in calling for an end to commercial sex ads on Craigslist in Canada, while British Columbia is engaged in discussions on the same subject. Will the remaining Canadian territories weigh in on the national effort to stop child sex trafficking facilitated by Craigslist? Or will the fact that the provinces demanding change contain nearly 60% of Canadians be enough to move Craigslist to action?

Alberta's request to Craigslist came barely a week after the local government had publicly stated they would not join the national letter asking the company to cease advertising for erotic services. So why the sudden change of heart? Perhaps it had something to do with Canadian professor Benjamin Perrin reading excepts from his new book — stories of women being brought to Edmonton, the capitol of Alberta, and sold for sex against their will. Perhaps it was the story of Jessie Foster, an Alberta resident whose abusive boyfriend brought her to Las Vegas and signed her up to be an escort. She was last heard from in 2006. Perhaps it was because officials reviewed the thousands of erotic ads in Alberta and determined there was "no question looking at them, they're under the age of 18."

Whatever the catalyst, Alberta has now joined the growing social movement in Canada to ask Craigslist to stop advertising for child sex trafficking in in the country. After two years of growing pressure from NGOs and law enforcement, Craigslist permanently shut down their adult ads in the U.S. in September. However, they have not yet made changes to their international pages. According to a Craigslist spokesman at a recent American congressional hearing, U.S. and Canadian ads account for 97% of the erotic ads on Craigslist. So if Canadian advocates are successful in stopping the child sex ads on Craigslist, the human trafficking on the site will be reduced to a mere sliver of its former mass.

Craigslist Canada has suffered several blows with recent trafficking cases on the site, including the pimping several teen girls. One of these girls was pregnant at the time she was trafficked, during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police also recently released a report in which they found Craigslist to be a major facilitator of trafficking in Canada. It's clear that sex trafficking via Craigslist is just as much a problem in Canada as it was in the U.S. The question is what Canadians are going to do about it.

Whether you live in Canada or not, you can ask Craigslist to stop advertising for child sex trafficking in Canada. Canadian teens deserve the same protection from abuse as American teens, and Craigslist has a responsibility to give it to them.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons