Brian's testimony at the Senate Committee in Ottawa, yesterday!. So thankful to the Lord for anointing Brian's lips and for blessing him with gift of communication and speech that speaks from years of experience and with a heart that reflects God's truths and purposes! Thank you everyone for your prayers and support.
Introductory Statement - Senate Committee re Bill C-310
Honourable Senators, Ladies and gentlemen thank you for allowing me to speak to Bill C-310.
My name is Kenneth Brian McConaghy. I am the founding Director of Ratanak International a charity focusing on relief, development, and the sex trade in Cambodia.
I come to this issue with 22 years of RCMP experience and 23 years experience in charity work in Cambodia. In my dual rolls of RCMP member and NGO director I have participated in the investigations of Canadian pedophiles who travel overseas targeting trafficked children.
So grave are the conditions of the children involved, so outrageous the acts committed against them that I was compelled to leave the RCMP in order to serve these children full time.
I appear before you today as one neither naive nor thin-skinned. Rather as one conditioned by decades of exposure to violence. In that context I wish to assure you that the issue of Human Trafficking is among the most grotesque and pressing I have encountered.
In the international context Canada must and does function within international legal norms. This is illustrated by our signing of a variety of international agreements. (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Declaration of the Rights of the Child, Palermo Protocols etc.) In my opinion the passage of bill C-310 would strengthen our position on, and commitment to, such agreements.
Within Canada the constitutionally of the extraterritorial reach provided for in C-310, relating to (CCC Section 279.01) Trafficking in Persons appears to be sound if it is compared to the authority currently available through Section 7(4.1) to Section 151 (Sexual Interference), Section 152 (Invitation to Sexual Touching) both of which have been tested in courts. (Reasons for Judgment, Justice A. F. Cullen, Supreme court of British Columbia, R. Vs. Klassen, 2008 BCSC 1762).
Are there Canadians to which C-310 would apply?
The short answer is yes. It is clear that such individuals exist and are operating. While I cannot speak to number of Canadians involved it is clear, that we, tragically, as Canadians, are involved.
It is not hard to go to locations in Asia and watch the grooming of children prior to their assault.
It is not uncommon for malnourished boys to “willingly” go to the apartment of a western male with promises of Disney videos and all you can eat Pizza. Some would even characterize this as “consentual”. However let it be clearly understood that a child will tolerate just about anything if an empty stomach is the motivating factor. Such activity, whereby hunger is used as a tool to control a child, constitutes exploitation. Such are the activities of Canadians known to me.
These circumstances don’t even begin to describe the activities of the hard core Canadian pedophile who shamelessly attend the brothels placing orders for the kind of “product” (age, gender, build) they are interested in assaulting only to have their helpless victims delivered and locked in rape cubicles to await their fate.
It is clear to me that such activities (Aside from the actual assaults themselves) which involve the recruiting, transportation, etc., constitute Human Trafficking.
Societies such as post genocide Cambodia have lost the ability to protect their own children. This makes the actions of Canadian predators all the more despicable for they travel with all the rights and privileges of a Canadian passport. They travel to escape the protective environment provided by Canadian law, medical, services, and supportive Canadian families. They travel the globe to hunt children that have never known the luxury of such protection.
In my experience it is clear that Canadian predators have and are engaging in activities that constitute Human Trafficking. We currently have the laws in place to proceed against Canadian predators for their actual assaults against children overseas. We have such laws and we have demonstrated we can use them with success. We do not, however, have the extraterritorial authority to pursue those who would engage in the associated activities of recruiting, transporting, transferring, etc.
Such activities are currently beyond our reach. Rather than beyond or reach it is my belief that they should be firmly in our grasp.
I would ask for the speedy passage of Bill C-310.
Thank you.
Introductory Statement - Senate Committee re Bill C-310
Honourable Senators, Ladies and gentlemen thank you for allowing me to speak to Bill C-310.
My name is Kenneth Brian McConaghy. I am the founding Director of Ratanak International a charity focusing on relief, development, and the sex trade in Cambodia.
I come to this issue with 22 years of RCMP experience and 23 years experience in charity work in Cambodia. In my dual rolls of RCMP member and NGO director I have participated in the investigations of Canadian pedophiles who travel overseas targeting trafficked children.
So grave are the conditions of the children involved, so outrageous the acts committed against them that I was compelled to leave the RCMP in order to serve these children full time.
I appear before you today as one neither naive nor thin-skinned. Rather as one conditioned by decades of exposure to violence. In that context I wish to assure you that the issue of Human Trafficking is among the most grotesque and pressing I have encountered.
In the international context Canada must and does function within international legal norms. This is illustrated by our signing of a variety of international agreements. (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Declaration of the Rights of the Child, Palermo Protocols etc.) In my opinion the passage of bill C-310 would strengthen our position on, and commitment to, such agreements.
Within Canada the constitutionally of the extraterritorial reach provided for in C-310, relating to (CCC Section 279.01) Trafficking in Persons appears to be sound if it is compared to the authority currently available through Section 7(4.1) to Section 151 (Sexual Interference), Section 152 (Invitation to Sexual Touching) both of which have been tested in courts. (Reasons for Judgment, Justice A. F. Cullen, Supreme court of British Columbia, R. Vs. Klassen, 2008 BCSC 1762).
Are there Canadians to which C-310 would apply?
The short answer is yes. It is clear that such individuals exist and are operating. While I cannot speak to number of Canadians involved it is clear, that we, tragically, as Canadians, are involved.
It is not hard to go to locations in Asia and watch the grooming of children prior to their assault.
It is not uncommon for malnourished boys to “willingly” go to the apartment of a western male with promises of Disney videos and all you can eat Pizza. Some would even characterize this as “consentual”. However let it be clearly understood that a child will tolerate just about anything if an empty stomach is the motivating factor. Such activity, whereby hunger is used as a tool to control a child, constitutes exploitation. Such are the activities of Canadians known to me.
These circumstances don’t even begin to describe the activities of the hard core Canadian pedophile who shamelessly attend the brothels placing orders for the kind of “product” (age, gender, build) they are interested in assaulting only to have their helpless victims delivered and locked in rape cubicles to await their fate.
It is clear to me that such activities (Aside from the actual assaults themselves) which involve the recruiting, transportation, etc., constitute Human Trafficking.
Societies such as post genocide Cambodia have lost the ability to protect their own children. This makes the actions of Canadian predators all the more despicable for they travel with all the rights and privileges of a Canadian passport. They travel to escape the protective environment provided by Canadian law, medical, services, and supportive Canadian families. They travel the globe to hunt children that have never known the luxury of such protection.
In my experience it is clear that Canadian predators have and are engaging in activities that constitute Human Trafficking. We currently have the laws in place to proceed against Canadian predators for their actual assaults against children overseas. We have such laws and we have demonstrated we can use them with success. We do not, however, have the extraterritorial authority to pursue those who would engage in the associated activities of recruiting, transporting, transferring, etc.
Such activities are currently beyond our reach. Rather than beyond or reach it is my belief that they should be firmly in our grasp.
I would ask for the speedy passage of Bill C-310.
Thank you.
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