What’s Current: The Globe & Mail’s investigation into trafficking reveals Canada is not doing nearly enough to protect Indigenous women & girls

Bridget Perrier was trafficked at the age of 12, in Canada. Her story is featured in The Globe and Mail's investigation. (Photo via The Globe and Mail)
Bridget Perrier was trafficked at the age of 12, in Canada. Her story is featured in The Globe and Mail’s investigation. (Photo via The Globe and Mail)

Tavia Grant explains the story between the Globe and Mail’s “Trafficked” series, begging the question: Who is putting on the pressure for the Globe and Mail to say the investigation was a “rushed” job, or one not respecting people’s “identities?”

“Where possible, interviews were conducted with survivors in person, in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Toronto. Some of the interviews were several hours long, and some follow-up interviews were also conducted to clarify details. This isn’t a story that could have been rushed; some of the survivors were scared to come forward, and five of them — out of fear of reprisals, or about stigma towards them or their children — withheld their names. We took care to explain the context of the story we were writing, and that we would be guided by their preferences in terms of identity and the level of detail disclosed.”

Listen to Angela Marie MacDonald and Meghan Murphy discuss #Ghomeshi on Media Mornings.

German women who refuse to blame Islam for the attacks in Cologne are hit with an onslaught of violent online misogyny from non-Islamic men.

Dalhousie’s Elaine Craig argues that Canada’s laws on the proper treatment of alleged sexualized trauma victims in court mean nothing if the prevailing legal convention is to ignore them.

“We continue to have a problem with some defence counsel using cross-examination strategies that trade on the same types of rape myths we’ve been working for decades to try and eradicate from the criminal law process.”

Is censorship the new normal? Julie Bindel argues that it is in “Sorry, we can’t ban everything that offends you.”

“Banning people from stating their views does not make those views disappear. Banning Donald Trump from the UK will not stop Americans voting for him. Banning Roosh V. from the country does nothing to change the fact that in the UK, an estimated 85,000 women are raped and 400,000 are sexually assaulted every single year. What it does do, is blind us to the existence of the attitudes that he articulates. Let us hear the arguments put forward by people with whom we disagree so that we can expand our knowledge and show rational resistance.”

Jess Martin

Jess Martin is a public relations professional, an aspiring writer, and an assistant editor at Feminist Current. She prefers to write about feminist topics, disability, or environmental issues, but could be persuaded to broaden her horizons in exchange for payment and/or food. In her spare time Jess can be found knitting, gardening, or lying in the fetal position, mulling over political theory that no one in their right mind cares about.