B.C. prof shines light on modern-day slavery
Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking
By Benjamin Perrin
Penguin, 224 pages, $32
THE content of this compelling look at human trafficking in Canada is as brilliant as the timing of its publication.
Invisible Chains has come out less than three weeks after the release of Manitoba MP Joy Smith's proposal for a national plan to combat human trafficking, less than two weeks after Manitoba's first-ever human trafficking charge was laid and less than one week after an Ontario court ruling struck down key Ontario sex trade laws.
There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of human trafficking victims in Canada every year, for both sexual exploitation and forced labour. Due to the illicit nature of the activity, it's impossible to gather accurate statistics.
B.C. law professor Benjamin Perrin is a strong writer whose work is accessible despite its disturbing nature. He offers concrete strategies for ending human slavery in Canada. His goal is to see Canada become "an international leader in the abolition of human trafficking" and "to end modern-day slavery."
He applauds Manitoba-based activists such as Rosalind Prober of Beyond Borders and MP Smith. Smith championed a stiff Criminal Code amendment for child traffickers, and Perrin supports her desire to devise a co-ordinated federal effort to combat human trafficking.
He also compliments Ma Mawi Chi Itata Centre, which assists First Nations youth in Winnipeg. The same organization runs Spirit of Our Little Sisters safe house in Winnipeg for those trying to escape sexual exploitation. Perrin says the organization requires greater funding to expand its services.
He also supports Manitoba's StreetReach, where community outreach workers identify missing or runaway children and assist them.
Perrin's heartbreaking stories offer step-by-step accounts of how victims are created. They also demonstrate that human trafficking knows no socio-economic barriers.
For example, a 19-year-old woman in Vancouver from a middle-class family "fell in love with a man who turned out to be a human trafficker." Her parents thought she was working at a restaurant for three months before discovering she was "being prostituted on the high track in Vancouver."
Her trafficker controlled her by "threatening to tell her parents if she ever tried to stop or go to the police."
Perrin notes that trafficked persons are "victims of crime and should be treated with compassion, dignity and respect."
He details how Internet websites such as Craigslist have been used by human traffickers.
His book is easy to read because it's extremely well-written and well-organized.
Invisible Chains is such an excellent and important work that deserves to attract a wide readership.
Brenlee Carrington, a Winnipeg lawyer and mediator, is the Law Society of Manitoba's equity ombudswoman.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 9, 2010 A1
Source: Winnipeg Free Press
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