We Must Not Get Caught Up In The Rhetoric

The Tories have come out with a package to tackle human smuggling and trafficking. Now let me just state here and now that I think human trafficking is awful and deplorable. People who get trafficked into Canada can end up anywhere i.e. as sex trade workers. Many of these people spend great deals of money trying to escape a life of destitution and squalor for, what they hope will be, a better life in Canada, only to end up on the streets or doing lord knows what else. So we definitely need to turn our attention to this issue. But doesn’t it seem to anyone else that going after the smugglers is a little bit, oh, I don’t know, stupid? After all, it’s not like these people are walking through an airport with a chain gang behind them and the security guards are looking the other way or too busy with their nose in a cup of coffee to notice the human misery passing under their noses. These smugglers tend to make these arrangements out of the country and, most likely, never even set foot on the land where their trafficked “product” winds up. So if the smugglers rarely ever leave a base of operations, how on earth is tougher legislation in Canada going to stop their actions? It seems to me that the Harper government has been so desperate to solve this problem they are getting caught up in their own rhetoric. They see boats come in with refugees, get really scared (for God knows what reason) and rush to create legislation to try and convince us, the public, that they are on the job.  Here’s a thought, why not try and address the problem at the source?

The only way we are going to be able to stop human trafficking from WITHIN Canada is if we turn boats away from our shores. Let’s be realistic though, for a second. These people who have paid, as I said, huge sums of money, are coming to Canada because they are hoping to eek out a better existence then the ones they had. Why should we deprive them of that opportunity. And more importantly, it makes no sense to turn the boats away because then, these people are being re-vicimized when we either turn them away or hold them up in cells for weeks on end awaiting our judgement. These poor souls. Surely there must be some way we can go about making things easier on them. Call me a bleeding heart but in my travels I’ve come to appreciate so much what I have as a Canadian and can understand why people would want to leave areas of intolerance and fear to come to my home. I want to help them, and accept them with open arms as a fellow human being in need of assistance. What’s the Harper government’s plan? As usual, to turn a blind eye to the misery and trauma of these poor people and put a band-aid over a wound when clearly it needs stitches.