TORONTO - The federal justice minister says Craigslist appears to have pulled prostitution ads from its Canadian websites after prolonged pressure from Ottawa and several provinces.
The San Francisco-based company's "erotic services" section did not appear on the majority of its Canadian homepages Saturday morning, however some ads were still on Halifax site and a detailed search of the Toronto site brought up an ad posted as recently as Friday.
Justice minister and Attorney General of Canada Rob Nicholson says he's pleased the ads seem to have been removed.
He says the government was concerned such ads could facilitate serious criminal offences like child prostitution and human trafficking.
The pulling of the section blatantly selling sex --which often carried explicit pictures and price lists -- comes after nearly four months of repeated requests from Canadian governments.
The company removed its "erotic services" section from its U.S. sites in September after several U.S. attorneys general said there wasn't enough protection against blocking potentially illegal ads promoting prostitution.
