Canada: Child pornography's mob link

Child porn's mob link
Criminal organizations 'following the money,' former RCMP head says
 
Organized crime groups in Canada are moving in on the increasingly lucrative child pornography industry, Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan says.

Ms. McLellan, whose department includes the RCMP and CSIS, said the global nature of child exploitation means Canadian authorities are beginning to see trends similar to those in countries such as Italy and Japan, where organized crime has edged its way into the dissemination and production of juvenile pornography.

"Tragically, we see that organized crime in this country is getting into child pornography," she said in an interview.

In the winter of 2001, when Ms. McLellan was justice minister, she travelled to a conference of G-8 ministers where the issue of crime syndicates' involvement in child porn was first raised.

"The thing they talked about was that organized crime was taking over this area. It is now starting to do so here. It's becoming a profit centre for organized crime," said Ms. McLellan, who has vowed to step up the fight against the sexual abuse of children.

According to the RCMP and other law enforcement agencies, there is big money to be made in the production of and traffic in child pornography.

In its 2004 annual report, the Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada, whose membership includes police and intelligence agencies from across the country, warned "criminal networks have emerged online in order to share child pornography ... increasingly, some Internet-based child pornography networks operate fee-based Web sites."

The agency also linked the expansion of child prostitution to street gangs, which are an emerging threat, particularly in Ontario and Quebec.

Former RCMP commissioner Norman Inkster, who now runs a Toronto security consultancy, says it's not surprising organized crime's involvement in Internet ventures would extend to the shadowy corners where pedophiles trade in illicit photos and films.

"We always seem to be surprised when we find out organized crime has embraced the same technology as the rest of legitimate businesses. Why should we be? They follow the money," he said.

Deputy Conservative leader Peter MacKay said he wasn't surprised by Ms. McLellan's assertion.

"Tragically there's a market out there that they will try to meet," he said, adding that the way to combat the problem is through on-the-ground policing.

Mr. MacKay, who doubles as the party's critic on security matters, criticized the government for closing RCMP detachments in some rural locales and said that in addition to hiring more police, Canada should consider following the lead of other jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom and the United States in attacking online juvenile pornographers.

"I think what we need to do is have a specific piece of legislation come in to combat Internet proliferation of child pornography, I think we should address it as a stand-alone issue and bring in stand-alone legislation that is aimed specifically at cutting it off at the root," Mr. MacKay said.

He called for closer co-operation with Internet service providers, and though he wouldn't support coercion in having them assist police, he suggested the government could entertain legislative incentives and "increased obligations" to facilitate the police work.

This year the federal government earmarked $42-million for a national strategy to combat the exploitation of minors, and in October Ms. McLellan tabled Bill C-2, the Child Protection Act.

Part of the new money has been spent on expanding the National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre, which is located at RCMP headquarters in Ottawa.

The centre, which monitors online chat groups and roots out underground rings of pedophiles and child-porn purveyors, is part of an international effort to stamp out the problem.

"It's part of our whole integrated approach to the sexual exploitation of children ... it's linked to local police forces and it's also linked to the rest of the world in terms of dealing with the scourge of child pornography and the sexual exploitation of children," Ms. McLellan said.

Another key part of the effort involves an expanded Canadian DNA bank and the national sex offender registry, which officially came into being yesterday.

Though critics contend the databank is effectively toothless because offenders are not required to register, federal officials said the registry will help law enforcement keep track of sexual predators.

© National Post 2004

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