Professor Perrin claims that spikes in prostitution often coincide with mass sporting events. He said the 2004 Summer Games in Athens and 2006 World Cup in Germany are just two recent summits that attracted fleets of sex-trade workers to meet the needs of the visitors who are typically wealthy and male.
On a similar note, the Citizens Summit Against Sex Slavery (a coalition of women's groups, academics and politicians) gave the Vancouver Olympic organising committee, the B.C. government and the federal government an "F" for "failing to make sure women and youth are secure against human trafficking during the 2010 Olympics".
But the Police don't agree. Vancouver police aren't planning any crackdown on prostitution during the Games, said Const. Lindsey Houghton. "Street-related prostitution existed before the Games, it will exist during the Games and it will exist after," Houghton said. "Our enforcement around that will not be any different. We have a dedicated vice unit that works very closely with the girls and the guys . . . to ensure that they are safe." [same link above ]
Well-Being Australia chairman Mark Tronson, a Baptist minister who was in Vancouver twelve months ago to consult on 'Olympic Religious Services', said that the subject of prostitution did not come up.
"It wasn't on the radar as we dealt with the philosophy of Religious Services and we concentrated on finding strategies to avoid some of the practical pitfalls from previous Olympics," explained M V Tronson.
Nonetheless, he knows that the issue associated with prostitution at major public gatherings is not limited to sporting events.
"In 1990 I was visiting a friend in Kentucky who was associated with the racing industry developing a product to protect horses from damaging themselves while within stables," M V Tronson explained.
At that time a political convention was being held in that particular city and it happened that his host took him and other guests to a bar that also served hot food.
"On no less than three occasions women came to us at the bar and illustrated their 'possibilities' while we were eating. The conversation demonstrated that this was part of the course whenever any large public event came to that city," M V Tronson said.
As he pondered on that circumstance twenty years ago, and with this latest news item from Vancouver, he reflected on how many Christian ministers have fallen morally when away from their families and churches and wonders whether the same situation applies when a famous evangelist comes to a city for a crusade.
As strange as this might seem, he'd never considered linking such a scenario. Today's tele-evangelist crusades (sometimes three to five days) can see anything from fifty to a hundred thousand people come together (US and Africa). Hillsong in Sydney, Australia gets over 20,000 over its five days of crusading.
Why wouldn't the sex trade target a Crusade as they do a political convention or a major sporting event? M V Tronson pondered.
"It illustrates the need for Christian's prayers of protection", M V Tronson says, "protection for Christian leaders as they attend such national and international gatherings and for Christian leaders visiting Vancouver for these 2010 Winter Olympics."
