Robert Sharpe championed freedom of expression in court when he won the right to possess child pornography, the ruling which sparked this week’s contentious House of Commons debate.   Sharpe is a 65-year-old divorced father of two who is an advocate of “intergenerational sex”.   He believes photographs help present pedophilia as normal, healthy and morally acceptable.  He’s not alone in his appreciation of nude children displaying their genitals or anal regions.   The Ontario police detective in charge of curbing this province’s appetite for child porn says he could keep 50 officers “extremely busy” on this beat.

“We have had to double the size of our unit in the past year, we have 15 officers in Project P and we’re barely scratching the surface,” said Detective Inspector Bob Matthews.  “That’s how bad it is, it shocks me that there’s that many people in our society that have a (sexual) interest in children.”

Gerry Morgan was seven and eight years old when he was unwittingly duped into sexual orgies with adults.  He remembers being in rooms bright with photographic light stands and while he can’t prove he was used for pornographic material, he has a nagging hunch that he was.  He remembers watching his nine year old sister being raped at the events, but says the atmosphere in the room was always co-operative and non-violent. 
Children simply absorbing the examples of adults, trustingly doing what they were told to do.  At 15, Gerry had his first drink of wine with a youth worker over a game of cards. For every hand he lost, he had to sip another drink.

“I passed out, woke up being raped and remember thinking, hey, this is different, I don’t feel anything, so I stayed drunk or stoned from that day until I was thirty,” said Gerry.  He worked out his sexual abuse in text book fashion - distorted self image, destructive behavior, addictions, and today scars on his wrist show some of his five suicide attempts.

Every police force in the world is now warning us the internet is the new global haven for child porn.  Decades earlier, those images were on our newsstands as Playboy, Hustler, and Penthouse carried over 100 pictures a month of sexual scenarios with children and violence, reports the U.S. Department of Justice.  Porn victims meanwhile, are working out what we’ve allowed to be sown into our culture.

Which brings me to my next challenge about freedom of expression, that thoughtful constitutional clause which gives us the protection to individually develop our character and life.  It’s time to apply that to those who have been hurt by childhood sexual abuse.

At 30, Gerry Morgan took his rights to freedom of expression and unknowingly began to work on a happy ending.  He knocked on heaven’s door and demanded answers for what he called, “going crazy.”   The answer was “Gerry, you’re not going crazy, you’ve been there.  You’re now going sane.”  In the arms of his loving wife Estelle who had stood by his side for years of torment, he asked for the peace that she had loved him with, the peace she called “Jesus.”

“People can’t love like that, that’s only Jesus that can make people love like that,” said Gerry. That night he surrendered a broken heart and asked Jesus to take up residence in his wounded soul.   It’s been ten years since Gerry began that journey, and today, the scars of his past are being used to heal others.  He’s launched an internet company that will be free of porn and he’s bravely speaking to those in recovery from sexual abuse.  Gerry’s freedom of expression says to me that if I did nothing to speak out against the scourge of sexual exploitation of children,  the least I can do is listen to the victims express their need for healing and help them pursue a character and life that was robbed from the innocence of children.