October 21, 2007
Andrew Chung
staff reporter
By the time Christopher Paul Neil was found hiding in a
seedy Thai beach town on Friday, he had become infamous not only for being the subject of an unprecedented global manhunt,
but for reminding us that Canadians are among suspected child sex predators abroad.
His case also raises serious questions
about Canada's commitment to tracking down so-called child sex tourists and keeping a promise it made to the world to do so
back in 1996.
Although Canada has strong legislation to tackle these crimes, it has fallen far behind other countries
in enforcement. In the 10 years Canada has had a sex tourism law on the books, there has been only one conviction. And that
case didn't begin as a sex tourism investigation. It expanded by chance.
By contrast, the United States and Australia
both have had dozens more arrests and convictions. Both countries also take a more aggressive approach to the problem.
"We
have a lot of sex travellers who leave Canada to have sex with children abroad," says Paul Gillespie, who ran the Toronto
Police Service's child exploitation unit until 2006, and is now vice-chair of the Kids Internet Safety Alliance.
"I
don't think Canada has any idea how bad the situation is with our predators, so it's easy to sit on a soap box and look at
other areas and say, `It's their problem.'
"And," he adds, "we're not addressing it in the least."
Neil, 32,
became the focus of a search after German authorities discovered 200 images on the Internet of a man abusing children, some
as young as 6.
His face had been digitally obscured, but the Germans managed to unscramble it, and Interpol made the
unusual decision to release the photo. Neil fled South Korea, where he had been teaching.
Benjamin Perrin, a professor of law at the University of British Columbia
and an expert in human trafficking, says Canadian pedophiles have operated with "impunity" abroad because, while other countries
have prosecuted their nationals in increasing numbers, Canada has not.
"It looks like Canada is complicit," he says,
"because (the law is) not being enforced."
Child sex tourists seek the anonymity and often lax or corrupt policing
that developing countries can provide. Often they capture the abuse in videos and photographs shared over the Internet.
In
1997, Parliament adopted a sex tourism law, sharpened in 2002, that allows Canadians to be arrested in Canada for crimes they
commit against children abroad. It carries penalties of up to 14 years in prison. And in 10 years, it has led to only one
conviction. How does Staff Sgt. Rick Greenwood, head of operations for the RCMP's National Child Exploitation Co-ordination
Centre in Ottawa, feel about that?
"Not very good," says Greenwood, whose centre's mandate is child exploitation on
the Internet, but which is supposed to take the lead role in sex tourism enforcement. "But we're trying to make efforts."
Greenwood
says there's a variety of reasons for the poor track record, including the need for more co-operation and intelligence with
foreign law enforcement. "But the overarching one is dedicated resources." The U.S. has had 71 prosecutions since its law,
the Protect Act, came into force in 2003, with 44 convictions. Since enacting its law in 1994, Australia - which has two-thirds
the population of Canada - has prosecuted 29 of its citizens, 14 successfully.
In Canada's lone case, police originally
sought Donald Bakker, 43, a Vancouver hotel worker, for attacks on prostitutes in B.C. They later found videotapes at his
home, and the investigation expanded into sex tourism. Vancouver police traveled to Cambodia to obtain evidence. He pleaded
guilty in 2005.
Another B.C. man, 56-year-old Kenneth Robert Klassen, is facing 35 sex tourism-related charges after
police discovered what they say were illegal images on DVDs.
There are differences in how the U.S. and Australia enforce
their laws. Both have agents that specialize in tracking sex tourism. Canada does not.
The U.S., through its Immigration
and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, is by far the most aggressive. It has taken out billboard advertisements in places
like Cambodia, warning of the penalties - up to 30 years in prison.
ICE agents have frequently flown over to interview
victims, compile evidence and bring suspects home.
The 12 investigators assigned to the RCMP's centre have not so far
assisted any investigation on the ground overseas.
In Australia, there is a national tip line, which has led to successful
prosecutions.
Unlike Canada, both countries train police in destination countries on their extraterritorial sex tourism
laws and how to get Western pedophiles out. Australia also provides forensic support.
"Canada is not doing training,
however we have had requests," Greenwood says. "We're trying to keep our own programs going here, to have enough resources
to handle our own issues."
Canada has RCMP liaison officers in some foreign countries, such as Thailand. But these
officers must deal with a huge workload, from drugs to terrorism.
Other countries' liaisons place a priority on sex.
"The German officer in Thailand - it's his number one concern," Greenwood says.
The last Australian Federal Police
annual report says the agency was conducting 57 investigations into sex tourism. The RCMP has just five cases ongoing. "By
the end of the year we could have two more convictions," Greenwood observes.
But in other cases, police here seem not
to be taking a proactive approach.
Take the example of Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh. The 63-year-old was extradited back
to Canada last June to face child molestation charges stemming back to the 1970s in Nova Scotia.
He had been living
in India, and the Star detailed similar allegations against MacIntosh by former students of a school there. Yet no authorities
are pursuing the matter under Canada's sex tourism law.
The RCMP says it hasn't received any complaint from Indian
police, and thus has not acted.
Rosalind Prober, who heads Beyond Borders, the Canadian affiliate of an international
child sex tourism watchdog called ECPAT, cites a case from Saskatoon, where thousands of child porn images were found in a
dumpster and traced back to a man in Thailand.
The man pleaded guilty to possessing child porn last January, but Prober,
currently attending a conference in Bangkok, wonders "whether law enforcement followed up to see who those children are in
the imagery" in a sex tourism investigation.
Perrin, the UBC law professor who helped found the website
youwillbecaught.com, says his group has forwarded passport information and even names of victims to the RCMP, but is not aware of any follow-up.
One
particularly worrying case involved a Canadian man apparently posing as a monk in various Southeast Asian countries to gain
access to children. Perrin provided the information a year and a half ago. "I'm a criminal law professor and it was absolutely
enough" to warrant an investigation, he says.
"They are valid concerns," Greenwood concedes, "and the bottom line is
we need to do more. We could do more, but it needs a collaborative international response."
Another reason why there
are so few prosecutions here is that Canada believes it's preferable to have a suspect tried in the foreign country.
"We
don't want to create an environment where the source countries shirk their responsibilities," Greenwood says.
Contrast
that to the U.S. position: "We'd rather do it here," says ICE spokesperson Pat Reilly. "If U.S. citizens are exploiting children
anywhere in the world, we'd like to bring them back to America, where they face some of the toughest laws in the world."
Since
1997, 110 Canadians have been charged with child molestation overseas, says Carole Morency, acting general counsel responsible
for child sex exploitation issues at the federal justice department.
"I hear the criticism that there's only one conviction,
that it's so ineffective," Morency says. "We wouldn't agree. One conviction points to the fact that it can and does work.
It shows that ultimately if they engage in these acts they will be held accountable."
Paul Gillespie, the former Toronto
detective, says he agrees pedophiles should be tried abroad. But he emphasizes that's no excuse for the "lack of political
will" and support to pursue Canadian pedophiles that abuse children abroad.
"But that's going to be very expensive."
