Let's hope that it turns out not to be sexual slavery. I don't doubt that it has been somewhat sensationalized. However, I suspect there's going to be some grain of truth to the whole thing.
What I personally guess is most likely is that these women actually knew what they were getting into before coming to Canada but changed their minds about it when they got here, or after trying it for awhile. Instead of letting them go the organizers threatened them and/or their families with violence or maybe even used violence to force them to keep working and "pay off their debt".
That's still repulsive because it's still forcing someone into non-consensual sex, it still amounts to rape, and so on--but it doesn't make for as good a headline.
In reality though we'll all have to wait and see what happens. Who knows.
I guess I really have three points here in the even this case turns out to be overblown by even more than that:
1. It never hurts to tell someone what their choices are, if they are doing it voluntarily, happily, etc., then they'll keep on doing it--no real harm done.
2. It's such a grevious, disgusting crime if it does happen that it is worth taking a little extra care to make sure it never does happen here in Toronto, and a culture of concerned, helpful customers would make sure of that.
3. If we take up the role of upstanding concerned citizens that will help change the perception society has that this business is populated only by low lifes--I firmly believe that most customers and most SP's are perfectly reasonable, normal people, and the more we are seen to act that way the better.
