As an organization dedicated to supporting survivors and challenging the systems that enable sexual violence, we believe cultural moments like this require clarity and unwavering solidarity. We believe that all survivors deserve to be seen and believed. We must listen to the survivors who are choosing to speak now with courage and persistence, about their experience of Jeffrey Epstein’s organized abuse and sexualized violence.
Bravery is an understatement. When any survivor chooses to speak out, regardless of the power, wealth or global influence the perpetrator holds, they are going up against systems that were not built to believe them, in a society that continues to silence them.
As we’ve named during the Hockey Canada and the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trials, the reluctance to publicize the Epstein files is not an outlier. These are not isolated incidents. They do not occur in a vacuum. Sexual violence is about power and control, and perpetrators are continually protected at the cost of survivors. When harm is caused by people outside of these positions of public power — by friends, family members, coworkers, strangers, or partners — the response is the same: disbelief, minimization, and systemic failure.
Virginia Giuffre, an advocate for survivors of sex trafficking and a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein, speaks to this directly in her recent memoir:
“For all that’s happened to expose Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes, more action is needed. Because some people still think Epstein was an anomaly, an outlier. And those people are wrong. While the sheer number of victims Epstein preyed upon may put him in a class by himself, he was no outlier. The way he viewed women and girls – as playthings to be used and discarded – is not uncommon among certain powerful men who believe they are above the law. And many of those men are still going about their daily lives, enjoying the benefits of their power.”
Virginia’s words matter. They cut through the noise and name the systemic patterns: the normalization of sexual violence, the systemic silencing of survivors, and the way wealth and power function as a shield. The current pursuit of public accountability demonstrates the power of collective action. Survivors have been fighting for years to bring the truth to light. To expose prolific networks of perpetrators, enablers, and powerful people who believed they were untouchable. Money and influence can no longer be a pathway to protection for predators.
The Public Narrative Is Shifting
But as we’ve seen many times, when people like Epstein or Prince Andrew make headlines, media attention shifts toward them, their reputations, their families, their lifestyles, while the survivors become the side story. We cannot let Epstein and Prince Andrew become the symbolic ‘sacrificial lambs’ or ‘bad apples’ that obscure the reality and distract from the truth. Hundreds of people were involved in letting this operation thrive for years. Entire networks were built solely to exist to enable sexual violence and ensure silence. The whole network must be exposed. When we name this openly, we send a clear message to anyone who believes they have a right to other people’s bodies: this violence will be uncovered, your actions will not remain hidden, and there will be accountability.
Survivors are changing this narrative. And while every survivor’s path to healing is different – some seeking public accountability, some choosing private healing – all pathways are valid and deserve space and support.
Virginia Giuffre’s, and other Survivors, Voices Have Been Sounding the Alarm for Over a Decade
Giuffre chose to speak publicly, openly, and with raw honesty about her life and the harm she experienced at the hands of Epstein, Prince Andrew, Ghislaine Maxwell, and the many others who believed they had a right to use her body as ‘playthings to be used and discarded.’ Her memoir is not just a personal account, it is a story about power, corruption, industrial-scale sexual abuse, and how institutions repeatedly sided with perpetrators over victims.
This post cannot capture the entirety of her life or book. What we want to name is that Virginia has been speaking publicly since 2011, becoming the first of Epstein’s accusers to relinquish anonymity. Her voice was instrumental in prosecuting Epstein, and her words are being heard loudly now.
We have to ask ourselves: what does it say about our society that survivors must risk everything, even their lives, before we truly listen and respond?
We owe all survivors more than a reactive response to the Epstein files. We owe them sustained care and collective action — not just in reaction to high-profile cases, but in the everyday ways we show up.
Addressing Harm Perpetuated by Women
Ghislaine Maxwell must be named here. The memoir and news make clear that many women actively recruited girls to Epstein’s ring by using trust, familiarity, or shared identity. School friends, relatives, and community members were key parts of this network — a truth that complicates the simplified, sensationalized story the public often hears. We must reject the myth that recruitment for sexual harm is exclusively done by men. The involvement of women in this ring fundamentally is what allowed it to thrive and have a constant influx of hundreds of women and girls. Accountability must reach all who commit or facilitate abuse. For Ghislaine – she did both.
“Over time, I would come to see Epstein and Maxwell less as boyfriend and girlfriend, and more as two halves of a wicked whole.”
Sex Work ≠ Trafficking – And We Must Be Precise
Salal’s position is clear: Sex work is work. People have agency. Criminalization of sex work causes harm.
High-profile trafficking cases often fuel harmful narratives that conflate consensual sex work with coerced exploitation. Sex workers across Canada face over-policing, surveillance, arrest, and deportation under immigration and anti-trafficking frameworks. Forced participation in the sex trade (trafficking) and consensual sex work are distinct experiences and we must not fuel harmful narratives that conflate the two.
But two things can be true at once: Many people choose sex work and deserve safety, dignity, and labour rights. And people in positions of power use systems like patriarchy, capitalism, and colonialism to coerce and exploit those they see as less valuable – disproportionately targeting marginalized genders.
Some people’s agency is intact. Some have nuanced relationships with their agency. Some have their agency removed entirely through coercion, manipulation, and/or violence. Our role is not to act as saviours. Our role is to believe survivors, understand the systems that shape their experiences, and challenge the conditions that allow exploitation to thrive.
The Reality of Grooming and Shame
Giuffre writes about the shame imposed on survivors who returned to Epstein’s spaces after being abused:
“So many young women, myself included, have been criticised for returning to Epstein’s lair even after we knew what he wanted from us… But that stance discounts what many of us had been through before we encountered Epstein, as well as how good he was at spotting girls whose wounds made them vulnerable.”
An intended side effect of the patriarchal, misogynistic world we live in is that femme-presenting people often feel used, ashamed, and disgusting due to whorephobic narratives and lack of understanding about harm. For survivors like Virginia, she refers to this as feeling ‘scooped up.’ Society rarely responds with kindness or compassion to these feelings, which compounds shame, stigma, and can affect survivors’ ability to leave, sometimes leading them to return.
“I felt that familiar scooped-out, empty feeling.”
Many girls and young women targeted by Epstein had already experienced sexual violence, poverty, homelessness, or neglect. Many were girls “no one cared about,” as Virginia writes – girls who were isolated, unprotected, and already navigating trauma long before they were recruited.
Epstein exploited these wounds with precision, with girls as young as 11 years old. He offered what looked like a lifeline: mentorship, opportunities, stability, money, connections, even the illusion of safety. He promised dance lessons to those who wanted to be dancers, acting roles to those who dreamed of performing, and glamorous futures to those desperate for escape. His wealth created a world that felt aspirational, luxurious spas, gold bathtubs, pristine resorts, and for many in survival mode, these spaces originally felt like hope.
“Epstein pretended to care. A master manipulator, he threw what looked like a lifeline to girls who were drowning.”
Grooming is not a failure of a survivor’s judgment. It is the intentional strategy of a predator. It thrives in systems where marginalized people are already devalued and ignored. When society asks, “Why didn’t you just leave?” it reveals a profound misunderstanding of trauma, coercion, and the structural barriers that shape survivors’ lives.
The images we often see of trafficking survivors – women in chains, girls in dark corners – are deeply harmful. They depict survivors as passive and powerless, waiting for salvation. These narratives erase agency, resilience, and the complexities of exploitation. Many survivors, like Virginia, return to their abusers due to shame, manipulation, trauma, systemic failures, and a lack of safe alternatives. Without understanding grooming, coercion, and the impact of poverty, abuse histories, and societal stigma, the public continues to ask the “Why didn’t you just leave?”
The release of the Epstein files is forcing this conversation into public discourse – but these dynamics have always existed. Most survivors will never have national attention, investigative teams, or public outrage behind them. Many remain unheard, unbelieved, or blamed for the harm done to them. It is our responsibility to understand the reality, not the myths, of how rape culture and sexual violence operates.
“A familiar emptiness flooded me. How many times had I put my faith in someone, only to be hurt and humiliated? I could feel my brain begin to shut down. My body couldn’t escape from this room, but my mind couldn’t bear to stay, so it put me on a kind of autopilot: submissive and determined to survive.”
Virginia describes beautifully how survivors survive in different ways.
The Weight of the Epstein Files
The implications of these files are immense. They confirm what survivors have been saying for years: this was a coordinated network of abuse upheld by money, institutions, and influential individuals who felt they had a right to other people’s bodies and they expose the scale and coordination of the harm. But while these revelations dominate headlines, we cannot lose sight of the broader truth – these systems exist everywhere.
For many survivors, this kind of public reckoning is not their reality. Many survivors will never see their perpetrators named publicly. Many will never see justice. Many continue to navigate daily life carrying the weight of trauma in systems that have already failed them.
We hope this moment becomes a catalyst for real change – not only for high-profile cases, but for every survivor whose story has been dismissed, disbelieved, or silenced.
To All Survivors
To every survivor watching these events unfold – those speaking publicly, those healing privately, those unsure how to feel – we see you.
You do not need to be in the headlines to matter.
You do not need to pursue legal action to be believed.
You do not need to disclose your story to be valid.
Your courage is not measured by visibility. It is measured by survival in a world that continually fails to hear you.
At Salal, we will walk with you – whatever your pathway to healing and justice looks like. We will continue to challenge the systems that silence you. We will continue to push for a world where survivors are met with belief, care, and dignity the first time they speak.
To The World
Listen.
Believe.
Refuse silence.
Refuse complicity.
Choose courage.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, you are not alone. Our crisis line is available 24/7, and we offer confidential, trauma-informed support rooted in intersectional feminist, anti-oppressive, decolonial care.
24-Hour Crisis & Information Line
Lower Mainland: 604-255-6344
National toll-free: 1-877-392-7583