B.C. court upholds federal child-sex tourism law

A British Columbia court has rejected a constitutional challenge of Canada's child-sex tourism law in the case of a man charged with abusing children in three countries, setting the stage for his trial 12 years after the alleged offences began.

Kenneth Klassen faces 35 charges for the exploitation and sexual abuse of children in Cambodia, Colombia and the Philippines between July 1997 and March 2002.

Klassen challenged the child-sex tourism law, saying the incidents happened in other countries where Canadian courts have no jurisdiction.

But B.C. Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen found that the law against child-sex tourism is internationally valid because so many countries have similar legislation and because of the existence of international children's rights treaties.

"In the absence of extraterritorial legislation, Canada would become a safer harbour for those who engage in the economic or sexual exploitation of children," Cullen wrote in a recent decision.

"The sale of children and the sexual exploitation of children through prostitution and the creation of child pornography are thus activities which, conducted anywhere, a nation has a sovereign interest in preventing among its nationals or residents, simply because of their nationality or residence."

Constitutional rights

According to the United Nations, as of Jan. 5, 130 countries have signed an international treaty agreeing to the creation of extraterritorial laws against child-sex offences, including Cambodia, Colombia and the Philippines.

The child-sex tourism laws in Canada were enacted in 1997 and bolstered five years later to no longer require the consent of the foreign country where allegations of sexual abuse took place.

Klassen was the first to challenge the law on constitutional grounds.

In 2005, Vancouver hotel employee Donald Bakker was the first Canadian to be convicted under the law.

Bakker received a 10-year sentence for 10 sexual assaults on girls between seven and 12 in Cambodia, where he videotaped his horrific exploits.

Last November, two Quebec aid workers pleaded guilty to sexually abusing teenage boys while working at an orphanage in Haiti. Armand Huard, 65, was sentenced to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to 10 out of 13 charges of sexual touching and invitation to sexual touching.

Denis Rochefort, 59, who worked at the same orphanage, was sentenced to two years for similar acts.

Charged in 2007

Klassen, a 58-year-old father of three, is accused of abusing girls as young as nine. He was charged in March 2007 after a two-and-a-half-year international investigation that netted videos showing a man having sex with young girls.

He was charged with 14 counts of sexual interference, 14 counts of invitation to sexual touching, three counts of making child pornography, three counts of procuring and one count of permitting illegal sexual activity.

University of British Columbia law professor Benjamin Perrin, an expert in child-sex tourism legislation, said the court decision is a major victory for those who have been fighting for the rights of children abused abroad by foreigners.

"It's the first decision by a Canadian court which does confirm the constitutional validity of this child-sex tourism legislation," he said.

"It also provides a significant boost for prosecutors, non-governmental organizations who work in this area and police to begin to more proactively enforce Canada's child-sex tourism law."

Last November, international representatives at a conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,called on various countries, including Canada, to designate a lead agency to enforce extraterritorial laws related to the sexual exploitation of children.

Perrin said the RCMP's National Child Exploitation Co-Ordination Centre needs to enforce Canada's laws by training officers in child-sex tourism hot spots and work with non-governmental organizations that assist victims of western sex offenders.

RCMP spokesman Staff Sgt. Rick Greenwood said the agency needs to better co-ordinate information and work with agencies in Canada and abroad.

"If we don't have that the investigation will never get off the launch pad," he said from Ottawa, adding that about 80 liaison officers work in various countries to combat child-sex tourism by Canadian citizens.