In Canada, a 2008 Strategic Intelligence Brief by the Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada says that organized crime syndicates and family based networks were recruiting girls and trafficking them inter and intra-provincially. Further, victims are often middle-class females between 12 and 25-years-old and earned between $300 to $1500 daily for their traffickers. RCMP reports also reveal that there is a high proportion of First Nation women and girls trafficked throughout Canada. There is no doubt that we must take action to end human trafficking in Canada and abroad.
In September 2010, I released a proposal for a National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking called Connecting the Dots. The complex and clandestine nature of trafficking in persons and the rapidly increasing occurrence of human trafficking demands a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach that draws together the existing frameworks, stakeholders, and agencies.
Connecting the Dots has been well received across Canada by law enforcement, non-government organizations, advocacy agencies, and faith communities. In response, the Canadian government has committed to develop a National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and support organizations that provide assistance to victims.
Yet there is still more to be done. The underlying principle of Connecting the Dots is that modern day slavery cannot be defeated by one organization, government, or agency. Rather, it will take a coordinated effort of many organizations and individuals.
This past summer, I was sharing Connecting the Dots with a gentleman in British Columbia. At the end of our conversation, he stood up and stated "I am proud to be a Dot." He wholeheartedly saw that each and every one of us has a critical role to plan in combating human trafficking. It is a growing movement of individuals committed to using their skills and resources to take on the slave trade.
In September, the Connecting the Dots principle was taken to a whole new level when [free-them], a Toronto based anti-human trafficking organization founded by Shae Invidiata, launched the "Proud to Be A Dot" campaign at their second Annual Freedom Walk in downtown Toronto. With over 500 people in attendance, Shae Invidiata called for each person to be a part of the solution to end human trafficking.
As a Member of Parliament and a proud Dot, I have most recently introduced a Private Members' Bill called Bill C-310, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (trafficking in persons). Bill C-310 is a follow up to my Bill C-268 which passed in 2010 creating the first child trafficking offence in Canadian history.
Bill C-310 will amend the Criminal Code to add the current trafficking in persons offences [s.279.01 and s.279.011] to the list of offenses which, if committed outside Canada by a Canadian or permanent resident, could be prosecuted in Canada. While Canada has adopted stiff penalties for criminals who traffic victims into, through, and from Canada, it is important that we also take responsibility for Canadians who traffic or enslave vulnerable people in other countries.
The second amendment will enhance the current definition of exploitation in the trafficking in persons offense [s.279.04 of the Criminal Code]. Currently the definition does not provide specific examples of exploitive conduct. My amendment will add an evidentiary aid for the Court to provide clear examples of exploitation such as the use of threats, violence, coercion, and fraudulent means. Examples of similar evidentiary aids can be found in s.153 (1.2) and s.467.11 (3) of the Criminal Code.
Canada needs more Dots. Today you can be a Dot and take action to combat human trafficking. Here are four simple steps you can take as someone who is 'Proud to be A Dot.'
1. Educate yourself about human trafficking. Visit my website for a list of links to anti-human trafficking websites.
2. Contact my office for a free human trafficking resource kit so you can help raise awareness in your community.
3. Support Bill C-310 by writing to your Member of Parliament and asking for their commitment to support this legislation.
4. Get involved with organizations like [free-them] that educate the public and raise funds for survivor NGOs.
Will you be a Dot and help abolish modern day slavery?
After the 2011 Manitoba Prayer Breakfast wrapped up at the Canad-Inn Polo Park Saturday morning, Conservative candidate for the St. Paul/Kildonan riding, Joy Smith, hosted a press conference on human trafficking, which was also the theme of this year’s Prayer Breakfast.
“Human trafficking is a global issue; it happens every day, but it also happens in our country every day, where children are bought and sold,” Smith said.
Smith called on Manitobans, Canadians and all levels of government to work together to stop this “horrendous” crime.
Brian McConaghy, a 22-year RCMP forensic scientist who was instrumental in the investigations of Canadian serial killer Willie Pickton, was on-hand to discuss his experiences, which have led him to start Ratanak International, a humanitarian organization that provides aid to help trafficked and sexually-exploited children in Cambodia.
“The whole issue of human trafficking is under the table and people don’t realize it’s very real; these are real lives, real young people that will disappear, and even the ones that don’t disappear are horribly abused,” McConaghy said.
Unlike “one-off” sexual assaults, McConaghy added that human trafficking is a “slow way of murdering them from the inside-out.”
By raising awareness of the human trafficking with Canadians, Smith and McConaghy hope citizens will pressure government to allocate more resources to fighting the crime.
Uniting against human trafficking
Vietnamese girls, one as young as 8, sit on a bed in a brothel in the Cambodian village of Svay Pak in 2002. A government crackdown on brothels to stop sex trade rackets have failed to put an end to the industry in Cambodia, where sex with underage girls can easily be bought. CNS photo from Reuters27 million slaves in world today, according to AAMS
Image via WikipediaOctober 27, 20`0 By BIAN LILLEY, Parliamentary Bureau | |||
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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
