Last Updated: January 4, 2011 7:43pm
When city cops rescued three immigrant women from forced prostitution in a west-end massage parlour in September 2009, they didn't realize what they were getting into.The three women — one from China and two from Fiji — had been completely controlled by their captors. They were told when to eat, when to sleep, what to wear, how to think.
It was the first time in Western Canada that police laid human trafficking charges.
But the women's nightmare didn't end after police freed them, explained Staff Sgt. John Fiorilli, head of the Edmonton police vice squad.
"The victims were lost," he said. "It's nobody's fault, but we weren't prepared for the amount of time needed to spend with the victims. We had victims' service and counselling in place, but when you're dealing with a victim of human trafficking, the trauma is at a level that we did not expect. We were not ready for that level of damage."
At first, they were too terrified to cooperate with the police.
Once some trust had been built up, a new problem arose. The women had become so conditioned to having someone else do their thinking for them that they expected the police to take over where their captors left off.
"We were dealing with what's called transference of control," he explained.
Det. Steve Crosby, one of the investigators, said one victim called him up to ask permission to buy groceries.
Then the women would phone at all hours of the night in emotional crisis.
The cops knew that they needed special attention and patience for their own well-being, but also because in human trafficking cases the victims' testimony is critical. They must get strong enough to go to court.
That's where the Edmonton-based Chrysalis Network's newly launched national support hotline comes in.
Police across the country can refer human-trafficking victims to a toll-free number (1-866-528-7109) and speak to a counsellor.
"These cases are intense," said Jacqui Linder, the networks' head. "The burden on these officers - they've done an amazing job of trying to investigate the crimes and hold the victims together, mentally and emotionally."
Linder, who has her own counselling practice and teaches psychology at City University in Edmonton, got the idea for the hotline while presenting at a national human trafficking conference earlier this year.
Most people who get trafficked into the sex trade, she said, "have been through so much abuse. (Many) are coming to this experience with extreme early childhood trauma — they're coming out of violent families, incest, alcoholism and the like — and then they find themselves in a situation where they're captured, manipulated, threatened and coerced. There's a lot going on emotionally."
When she saw what police had to do, Linder put together a "coalition of the willing."
The hotline is staffed by post-graduate psychology students, who will get special training from the police.
At first, the line will be staffed from noon to 6 a.m. every day, and eventually will be opened around the clock.
"In many ways, Canada is just beginning to recognize and prosecute this crime. Across the country we are working to create a support system for those affected," Linder said.
andrew.hanon@sunmedia.ca
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Source: edmontonsun.com
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