Canada lax in pursuing offenders abroad - Toronto Star News Article

An article appeared in today's Toronto Star Newspaper on Canada's efforts at prosecuting Canadians who engage in child sex tourism abroad. In the ten years Canada has had a sex tourism law in place, there has only been one conviction. By comparison, the U.S. has had 71 prosecutions since its law, the Protect Act, came into force in 2003, with 44 convictions. In Australia, the law was enacted in 1994; since then, there have been 29 prosecutions and 14 convictions. Australia has two-thirds the population of Canada.

A lack of funding, of dedicated personnel, of training for law enforcement in source countries, and of a proactive approach by Canadian authorities and police are listed as reasons for which Canada is not doing what it could to prosecute and convict Canadians who engage in sex tourism.

Benjamin Perrin of the Future Group (a PulseWire member) and Paul Gillespie, formerly head of the Toronto Police Service's child exploitation unit, are interviewed in the article.

Read the article at:
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/268866