Citation SC 2010, c 3 Date enacted June 29, 2010 Second reading April 22, 2009 | Territorial extent Canada First reading January 29, 2009 | |
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Enacted by House of Commons of Canada | ||
An Act to amend the Criminal Code (minimum sentence for offences involving trafficking of persons under the age of eighteen years) was a private member's bill that was enacted on June 29, 2010 by the 40th Canadian Parliament. Until that time, no other private member's bill had passed since the 2008 Canadian federal election. The bill that led to the act, Bill C-268, was sponsored by Joy Smith, Member of Parliament for Kildonan—St. Paul. The act established a mandatory sentencing of five years' imprisonment for those charged with the trafficking of children within Canada. Tara Teng, who was Miss B.C. World at the time, spoke positively about the passing of the bill, but believed that more needed to be done politically on this matter, so she began to meet with MPs in the Metro Vancouver area. Before the bill was passed, there was already a maximum sentence for trafficking children in the country, but there was no minimum sentence. A previous attempt to have the bill passed had failed because of prorogation. At the first and second readings, the Bloc Québécois was the only political party that opposed the bill. Anti-pornography activist Judy Nuttall had tried to get the bill passed before the 2010 Winter Olympics; she said that poor children commonly become sexual slaves at internationally attended events such as the Olympic Games. Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Ron Evans also supported the bill before it was passed, saying that "Bill C-268 is one step forward for the First Nations women and children of Canada."