Parents of a Laval girl who repeatedly ran away from a youth group home wants to see tougher anti-pimping laws from the federal government.
Eric Hauptman and Josee Chaput said their daughter was one of many girls lured by pimps online. A law, proposed by the Stephen Harper government, has not yet been signed into law by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who promised to act quickly on anti-pimping laws during the 2015 campaign.
“Every week in the newspapers and on social media, we see girls that are running away and putting themselves in danger with the street gangs,” said Hauptman. “They’re crooks, they’re ruining our children’s lives. They’re killing their souls, they’re beating them up, they’re raping them and making them do prostitution and making a lot of money from that.”
Under the proposed law, prosecutors would be able to pursue pimps without having their victims testify.
“They put this law on a shelf and forgot about it, but we will never forget what happened to us,” said Chaput.
