Image via WikipediaBy KJ Mullins
In Canada stats for human trafficking are few and far between. Police know that it happens, they see the results of enslaving a person. They see the fear in the eyes of victims to afraid to seek out their aid.
Not every person who is taken into the human traffic market goes unwillingly to begin with. Many women have dreams of entering a nation like Canada. A woman may believe the are about to be smuggled into a country that will offer them a better future only to discover once across the border they have no passport, no papers and have been sold to the highest bidder.
Many do not understand that the police will help them escape their life of slavery and exploitation. When a person has been tricked into slavery the police will help them obtain a Temporary Resident Permit, which includes health care, and they are fed and sheltered for up to 18 months.
In 2004 Bill C-49 was passed to make it a felony for those who recruit, transport or conceal a person for the purpose of exploiting them.
Michael Wai Chi Ng was the first person charged under the bill but was acquitted of the 22 counts human smuggling charges and convicted of five lesser charges. He was sentenced to nine months for two counts of falsifying immigration documents and an additional six months for the charges of keeping a common bawdy house and two counts of procuring a person to have illicit sexual intercourse with another.
It took four years for a conviction, in May 2008 Imani Nakpangi was the first person in Canada to be charged with human trafficking after he forced a girl, 15, into prostitution. He was sentenced in early June 2008 with a 3 year sentence, minus time already served.
Michael Lennox Mark was sentenced for trafficking a 17-year-old girl to two years, only serving a week due to the time he had served awaiting his trial.
Jacques Leonard-St. Vil was sentenced to 3 years for trafficking a 20 year old. His time served prior to the trial though allowed him to skip that sentence.
In April 2008 Joy Smith, a Conservative MP said that human trafficking was "Canada’s best-kept secret and it’s a shameful secret.” While many think only of the women who are thrown into a life of sexual exploitation in human trafficking men are also victims. Migrant workers are part of the traffickers 'crops.'
Workers are lured with the promise of big money for jobs only to find that they are housed in filthy basements with their passports removed. It's thought that at least 800 workers are brought into Canada each year by the "modern-day slave trade."
The Toronto Star wrote about one of those men, Edwin Canilang in 2008. Canilang lived in San Carlos when he came to Canada, believing he would be building icebreakers for $23 an hour. Instead he dealt with alleged trafficker Bob De Rosa doing menial work with threats of deportation. The ordeal ended with welder Eric Martinez escaped in Hamilton, Ontario alerting the Philippine embassy officials. Days later all of the men that had come with Canilang were rescued by Filipino consular staff.
"We didn't believe such scum existed here," Canilang, 32, said recently from the safety of a new home and job in Saskatoon. "Canada has such a great reputation worldwide."
There are far too few stats about human trafficking in Canada. There is no reliable data on the number of persons trafficked within Canada.
Aboriginal women are disproportionately affected according to the 2007 Report of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, Turning Outrage into Action to Address Trafficking for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation in Canada.
Until the government takes their heads out of the proverbial sand then human trafficking will continue to be Canada's dirty little secret.
Many do not understand that the police will help them escape their life of slavery and exploitation. When a person has been tricked into slavery the police will help them obtain a Temporary Resident Permit, which includes health care, and they are fed and sheltered for up to 18 months.
In 2004 Bill C-49 was passed to make it a felony for those who recruit, transport or conceal a person for the purpose of exploiting them.
Michael Wai Chi Ng was the first person charged under the bill but was acquitted of the 22 counts human smuggling charges and convicted of five lesser charges. He was sentenced to nine months for two counts of falsifying immigration documents and an additional six months for the charges of keeping a common bawdy house and two counts of procuring a person to have illicit sexual intercourse with another.
It took four years for a conviction, in May 2008 Imani Nakpangi was the first person in Canada to be charged with human trafficking after he forced a girl, 15, into prostitution. He was sentenced in early June 2008 with a 3 year sentence, minus time already served.
Michael Lennox Mark was sentenced for trafficking a 17-year-old girl to two years, only serving a week due to the time he had served awaiting his trial.
Jacques Leonard-St. Vil was sentenced to 3 years for trafficking a 20 year old. His time served prior to the trial though allowed him to skip that sentence.
In April 2008 Joy Smith, a Conservative MP said that human trafficking was "Canada’s best-kept secret and it’s a shameful secret.” While many think only of the women who are thrown into a life of sexual exploitation in human trafficking men are also victims. Migrant workers are part of the traffickers 'crops.'
Workers are lured with the promise of big money for jobs only to find that they are housed in filthy basements with their passports removed. It's thought that at least 800 workers are brought into Canada each year by the "modern-day slave trade."
The Toronto Star wrote about one of those men, Edwin Canilang in 2008. Canilang lived in San Carlos when he came to Canada, believing he would be building icebreakers for $23 an hour. Instead he dealt with alleged trafficker Bob De Rosa doing menial work with threats of deportation. The ordeal ended with welder Eric Martinez escaped in Hamilton, Ontario alerting the Philippine embassy officials. Days later all of the men that had come with Canilang were rescued by Filipino consular staff.
"We didn't believe such scum existed here," Canilang, 32, said recently from the safety of a new home and job in Saskatoon. "Canada has such a great reputation worldwide."
There are far too few stats about human trafficking in Canada. There is no reliable data on the number of persons trafficked within Canada.
Aboriginal women are disproportionately affected according to the 2007 Report of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, Turning Outrage into Action to Address Trafficking for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation in Canada.
Until the government takes their heads out of the proverbial sand then human trafficking will continue to be Canada's dirty little secret.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/289949
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