VANCOUVER—Former Vancouver School Board trustee Ken Clement is among seven people charged with seeking sexual services from youth in the wake of a police sting last summer.

Police announced the sting — which started in June 2018 and led to 47 arrests over the course of two months — on Wednesday morning. The investigation is ongoing, and more charges are expected, police said.

Clement was charged with communicating to obtain sexual services from a minor on June 27. He resigned as a school board trustee, and as a candidate in the 2018 municipal election, the following week, citing personal reasons. Clement pleaded not guilty on Dec. 7 and is scheduled for a trial starting Oct. 29.

He could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday. StarMetro left messages with staff at his office, sent him an email and went to the home address Clement listed on campaign finance forms. The voicemail attached to the cellphone number provided by staff at his office is full. The lawyer listed on his court records declined to comment.

Along with Clement, the list of accused from the B.C. Prosecution Service includes Mario Celo Amistad, Jim Malmros, Jun Jie He, Nikolaos Dais, Donald Shroeder and Mehran Arefi.

Dais is a former teacher at Little Flower Academy, a private all-girls Catholic school in Shaughnessy. Principal Diane Little confirmed Dais worked there but has retired. The school’s website lists him as the head coach of the Grade 8 basketball team as recently as the 2017-18 season.

He is listed in the online registry of B.C. teachers as holding a valid professional certificate that expires on June 30, 2019. He could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Little said she had not heard about the charges until she was contacted by media Wednesday.

“Obviously, I am stunned. I am shocked. I hope there’s no truth to this,” she said. “I hope there’s no kids that’s ever been hurt by anyone, you know?”

Rob Fleming, minister of education, was unavailable for comment, but a statement from the ministry says it will “provide any assistance we can to police and prosecutors on these disturbing arrests” and affirmed that student safety is its No. 1 priority.

“Nothing is more heinous than the sexual exploitation and abuse of a child,” it reads.

Details about the others accused could not be confirmed Wednesday.

The sting — a joint operation between Vancouver police and RCMP — saw investigators post decoy advertisements on web escort listings and social-media platforms for sexual services. Once prospective johns reached out, investigators posing as a girl between the ages of 15 and 17 would reveal their age.

“The vast majority would turn down the offer,” said Vancouver police Deputy Chief Const. Laurence Rankin. Some of the men who refused to continue also referred the youth to anti-trafficking support services.

“But what’s disconcerting is that the small group of men ... (when they found out that) the person they believed they were communicating with was underage, they were more excited about that,” Rankin said.

Once the johns agreed on the sex act and the price, they were directed to a hotel room in Vancouver.

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“In the hotel room, they found VPD detectives and uniformed officers instead of teenage girls,” said Rankin.

The men arrested came from “all walks of life,” Rankin said. Along with the two school figures, the list includes a firefighter and a “member of an outlaw motorcycle gang.”

He added that, during the operation, word got around on some sex-work and escort review boards that police in Vancouver were in the midst of doing a sting against those seeking to buy sex from minors.

“There was certainly a lot of messaging going back and forth that the Vancouver police were out doing this sting. But I guess the drive for some of the men was such that they would disregard those warnings,” Rankin said.

The arrests were made under a section of the Criminal Code enacted in 2014, which criminalized the demand side of sex work as well as third parties — targeting johns and pimps — rather than sex workers themselves. (Obtaining or communicating to obtain sexual services from youth was illegal under different laws prior to 2014.)

Both the former and current laws have been widely criticized by sex-worker advocacy groups. They argue the laws make it more difficult for sex workers to access services and supports while doing little to address “root causes” of commercial sexual exploitation.

The Vancouver Police Department had laid very few charges under that section of the Criminal Code since 2014, following enforcement guidelines it reached in consultation with community groups. According to Statistics Canada, police in Vancouver reported a total of 93 incidents related to “commodification of sexual activity violations” between 2013 and 2017, with a total of 11 adults charged.

Police reported only one adult charged for “obtaining sexual services for consideration from person under 18 years” in Vancouver over that period of time.

Kerry Porth, a leading Vancouver activist for sex-worker rights who is an adviser with Pivot Legal Society, feels uncertain about whether the sting operation will help young people being exploited in commercial sex.

“I tend to think there are better ways of addressing the issue,” Porth said in an interview.

She said addressing “root causes” of commercial sexual exploitation, including improving inadequate child-protection programs, should be the focus of protecting vulnerable young people.

“Supporting families to stay together, reducing poverty for families, for children, I think these are all critical issues that need to be looked at,” she said. “That’s 47 individuals (the police arrested). I’m quite sure there are hundreds more.”

With files from Cherise Seucharan

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