A Rosedale couple’s agency obtained a $1.5 million federal grant to rescue women from prostitution in Toronto. A Star investigation reveals the agency’s taxpayer-funded project appears to be a sham — no prostitutes, no programs.Unbeknownst to a group of 26 Toronto women, their innocent attendance last year at a “leadership and empowerment” event at a cafe led to their names being connected to a federal project with the stated mission to transition sex workers to a new life. The women all work in marketing, public relations, consulting and government. “I was so angry to learn that my name was put forward as a prostitute,” said one woman, part of the group identified by francophone non-profit La Passerelle I.D.E. to be in danger. She holds a senior marketing job in Toronto.La Passerelle is the Toronto-based francophone agency that is in hot water over misusing thousands of dollars of sports and concert tickets. It is run by executive director Leonie Tchatat and her husband, Guy Taffo, the agency’s accountant.“I was furious,” said another woman interviewed by the Star. She works in fundraising. “I am not a prostitute, it is unbelievable to me that this has happened.”The lawyer for La Passerelle, Peter Downard, said the anti-prostitution program is real and the program his clients are running will help young, immigrant francophone women escape from “informal prostitution,” which he describes as entering into several intimate relationships “based on economic dependence.”Read more:Sports and concert tickets meant for low-income kids used instead by Rosedale couple, staff at their government-funded non-profitOpinion: Non-profit fails the trust test by misusing tickets meant for needy kidsGovernment-funded agency that misused sports and concert tickets meant for low-income kids will no longer get free passesWomen who unwittingly had their names included in the La Passerelle p ...
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