122 people charged in child-abuse probe

Agencies across province discover 55 child victims, as young as 3 years old

Five York Region residents and one person from Bradford were among 122 people charged following a provincewide investigation in November by multiple police agencies into child sexual abuse.

Some of the child sexual abuse victims are as young as 3 years old, unable to “utter” a word to file a report, said Inspector Tina Chalk of the OPP counter exploitation and missing persons section during a news conference Wednesday in Vaughan.

The OPP, along with 26 police agencies of the provincial strategy, announced results of the Provincial Strategy to Protect Children From Sexual Abuse and Exploitation on the Internet investigations, which identified 55 child sexual abuse victims, leading to 551 charges against 122 people across the province.

Signy Arnason, associate executive director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, said abusing children has become a “a global epidemic.”

“Canadians listening to this announcement today, we need your help … we need people educated on this,” Arnason said, echoing requests of police officials at the news conference, who said they need help from the public to stop child abuse.

“It is our fundamental and moral responsibility to ensure every child grows up safe. On behalf of the OPP, I want to make this message very clear: We will not stand for anyone hurting our kids. We will do everything we can to reduce the threat child predators pose to our children,” OPP investigation and support bureau deputy commissioner Rick Barnum said.

Staff Sgt. Sharon Hanlon, coordinator of the provincial strategy, went a step further with her comments.

“Perpetrators of online sexual exploitation often minimize their actions by saying they were ‘just looking.’ Let me be clear: Anyone who possesses, distributes, accesses or otherwise supports the supply and demand chain for child sexual abuse images are complicit in the sexual exploitation of children.”

At the conference, police warned that the people charged do not live in “the shadows,” but can be teachers, engineers and military people and, often, relatives of the victims.

“It is our fundamental and moral responsibility to ensure every child grows up safe.” RICK BARNUM OPP INVESTIGATION AND SUPPORT BUREAU DEPUTY COMMISSIONER