Content warning: The following contains descriptions of torture, abuse, suicide and sexual assault. Please proceed with caution and care. If you require support, there are resources available.
Welcome to Small Change where informed voices fill in the blanks left by mainstream media reporting.
Today, I’m joined by Jeanne Sarson and Linda MacDonald creators of Persons Against Non-State Torture (NST), an organization that advocates for recognition of NST as a stand-alone crime that should be included in the Canadian Criminal Code.
MacDonald and Sarson are also the authors of Women Unsilenced: Our Refusal to Let Torturer-Traffickers Win.
After 31 years of researching, advocating and counselling women who have experienced NST, Sarson and MacDonald currently define NST as, “Torture that occurs in the domestic or private sphere in relationships perpetrated within families, in human trafficking, in prostitution and in pornographic exploitation by violent groups and gangs [that is] dismissed as social, cultural, traditional or religious acts and norms and can be committed during migration, displacement, in humanitarian and civil unrest.”
And, as these feminists point out, NST does not discriminate by age or class.
In February 2016, Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos (London, Ontario) introduced a private members bill that recognized NST. Working with MacDonald and Sarson, Bill C-242 would have offered legal recourse for NST survivors by acknowledging torture occurs in the private domain and within the realm of pornography and prostitution.
NST includes prolonged sexualized torture and can include multiple perpetrators; physical torture; brainwashing; electric shocking; immobilization; suffocation; gang rape and deprivation of food, drink, and sleep.
Easy access to pornography means that NST does find its way into personal relationships. Consider strangulation as a weapon of NST that has become mainstream with young women during sex.
Strangulation is amongst the most lethal forms of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). Loss of consciousness can occur within five to ten seconds with death taking only minutes. In 50 per cent of cases there are no external signs of injury and death may occur days or weeks after being strangled due to complications.
Strangulation is also a high-risk predictor of lethality and femicide. Considered by many in the gendered violence field, like Sarson and MacDonald, to be a red flare, it is often overlooked by police, responders, medical professionals and the criminal justice system.
Bill C-242 passed second reading in April 2016 and progressed to the Standing Committee on Human Rights but died on the floor on November 29, 2016.
At that time, Sarson stated, "The Standing Committee saying a law on NST is "redundant" was a shockingly disrespectful lack of political empathy. Imagining a Committee member in a face-to-face talk with a woman so tortured telling her that naming and identifying she was tortured was superfluous is unconscionable and to me borders on political cruelty."
In February 2018, MacDonald and Sarson took their campaign to the United Nations’ (UN) Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland because the pair believed socially shaming Canada was the only way to get the federal government to follow UN recommendations to include NST in the Criminal Code.
Since then, the former public health nurses from Truro, Nova Scotia have never looked back with the UN drawing on and sharing their extensive research, knowledge and advocacy.
In June 2024, Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls released her report, Violence Against Women and Girls, Its Causes and Consequences and presented her findings before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. Here’s a link to Alsalem’s opening remarks.
Alsalem’s report on prostitution marks a major breakthrough at the UN because in it she declared prostitution to be a system of violence against women and girls concluding that prostitution is not work.
Alsalem called prostitution a human rights crisis and a system of violence, exploitation and torture that sexualizes poverty and preys on women from marginalized backgrounds.
She acknowledged that patriarchy fuels the perceived rights of men to purchase sexual acts, formalizes systematic violence against women and girls all while blurring the line between consensual sex and sexual violence.
That in turn affects the expectations of men and boys as they idealize what they see portrayed in pornography.
Sarson and MacDonald provided a written submission to Alsalem that led to the Special Rapporteur to name and include NST in her final report.
Alsalem advocates for an abolitionists legal framework and reiterates that States have a responsibility to protect and assist victims in a gender sensitive manner.
Alsalem wants States to de-criminalize prostitution for women and girls; treat them as victims of a cruel system of exploitation and torture; and provide comprehensive support as well as exit pathways.
Alsalem calls for the criminalization of purchasers of sexual acts and pimps. She also calls on States to ensure that anti-trafficking policies avoid creating an artificial distinction between forced and free prostitution that could be misused.
These findings align with MacDonald and Sarson’s own NST work.
Sarson and MacDonald are members of the National Council of Women of Canada. Recently, Sarson released a video statement on behalf of the non-governmental organization (NGO) calling on the Canadian government to uphold the Protections of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA) in order to meet its international obligations dating back to the 1949 UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others.
That would include the Canadian government maintaining and robustly implementing the Nordic Model that criminalizes pimps and men buying sex.
The Nordic Model maintains that prostitution can never be made safe for women and that it is harmful to both the individual and society at large. It is intended to reduce demand by changing social norms and behaviour.
The Nordic Model maintains that prostitution is both a cause and a consequence of inequality between men and women.
After speaking with hundreds of women over the past three decades, MacDonald and Sarson can say that most women, and girls, do not choose prostitution.
While some MPs like Peter Fragiskatos get NST, most do not. And, with the exception of London, Ontario’s police chief, Thai Truong’s enviable anti-trafficking work, most police officers don’t get NST either because it falls under the umbrella of aggravated assault and sexual assault which undermines the gravity of the torture.
In a world where police are increasingly militarized and handed budgets that social service providers can only dream of, it seems unfathomable that when funds are confiscated from pimps and traffickers, that money is not used to help NST survivors find permanent housing, get job training or access NST-informed care. Instead, the money is used by police departments to purchase more police cars.
It seems like a no-brainer that those funds need to be redirected to address the root causes and outcomes of human trafficking, prostitution and NST. In other words, this is a clear-cut case where police are taking money that should be helping the women who generated those funds recover from NST abuses.
That’s why society needs to reorganize policing and reallocate its funding – that’s my polite way of saying, it’s time to defund the police.
So, women and women’s organizations, listen up! It’s long past time to make NST a prominent election issue at the both federal and provincial levels – because #TortureIsNotWork.
Additonal materials:
BBC interview with Dr. Debby Herbenick (18 mins.) discussing increased rates of strangulation amongst young people and the serious long-term effects on women.
Still not convinced that NST is happening in Canada then read Taylor C. Noakes July 12, 2014 article: The Quebec Tech Billionaire Accused of Sexually Exploiting Minors published in The Walrus.
The article lays bare how Robert G. Miller, an alleged paedophile, used his money, privilege and power to avoid being exposed and to intimidate anyone deemed a threat including his ex-wife, Margaret Antonier, who divorced Miller after finding pornographic materials that horrified her.
“Antonier’s lawyers claimed the divorce stemmed from Antonier discovering her husband had engaged in “horrible wrongdoings” and “wrongful acts.” The lawyers indicated that she initiated divorce proceedings after discovering activities Miller engaged in that were so offensive that he insisted Montreal divorce court proceedings be sealed,” Noakes states in the article.
Robert G. Miller epitomizes privileged patriarchy that treats young girls and women inhumanely and sees them as disposable.
This is why NST needs to be included in the Criminal Code of Canada.
Thanks to everyone who read today’s article and listened to my podcast. With your continued support, a little Nicoll can make a lot of change.
Music: Real Estate by UNIVERSFIELD is licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License. freemusicarchive.org.
*Be sure to download the Substack app to get the most from your podcast experience.
Non-State Torture recognized by UN -- again