A crowd of protesters gathered at the Saskatchewan Legislature Saturday afternoon to unite against human trafficking and pedophilia, in support of the “Save Our Children” movement.
The protest started with a march from the Regina Court House.
People shared stories and statistics of just how common pedophilia is in Saskatchewan, especially in the entertainment industry.
Two women who spoke about their experiences in the modeling industry were young models Andrianna Haswell and Ariana Donovan.
While it was tough for them to share their stories, they felt it was important.
“It’s extremely important to let people know about it now, and just be proactive, rather than wait until something really bad happens, and we end up getting even more cases,” said Donovan. “I know that we aren’t a very big industry, but we are very much expanding very fast. I only started modelling four years ago, and it’s grown substantially since then.”
The girls added that with the ever-evolving use of social media in their industry, it makes it easier for people to exploit young women and children.
“I think that social media plays such a big impact, especially in sex trafficking and pedophilia, because it’s so accessible and anybody can access anything on the internet, and that’s the scary part,” said Haswell.
They say that while crimes like these have been going on for decades, they are happy to see a shift in people starting to pay attention to it.
“Because people were scared to talk about it before, and now with everything coming to light in Hollywood, people are taking a stand to it and realizing that this is something we need to stop, and we need to think about, and do something about,” said Haswell. “Because this is not normal.”
The protest comes after Justice Minister Don Morgan announces that the province would be looking at new legislation against human trafficking, in an effort to stop it in its tracks.
