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Showing posts with label Ontario. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ontario. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Police get funding to fight human trafficking - Niagara Falls Review - Ontario, CA
Image via WikipediaJuly 19, 2011
By Niagara Falls Review
Updated 6 hours ago
The province will divvy up $1 million in funding to seven different police forces – including Niagara Regional Police – to combat human trafficking in Ontario.
The announcement was made by St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley, Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, in front of the Whirlpool Bridge in Niagara Falls Monday morning.
The bridge is one of Niagara's four ports of entry into Ontario, making the region a prime locale for preventive measures, said Bradley.
"Many of the victims are young women forced to work in the sex industry," he said. "Human trafficking is a heinous crime. It makes victims of particularly vulnerable members of society."
Often described as modern day slavery, human trafficking is a lucrative criminal industry. Unlike human smuggling,in which a person willingly hires someone to help them illegally cross a border, trafficking involves people held against their will, usually forced into manual labour or the sex trade once they enter the country.
"Human trafficking is one of the most outrageous and appalling crimes that we face in Ontario, in Canada and around the world," said Bradley.
The funds will help police with special investigations into the sex trade, create education campaigns for potential victims and witnesses, increase surveillance, improve officer training and support human trafficking investigators.
"Traffickers range from opportunistic individuals to sophisticated criminal organizations," said Niagara Regional Police chief Wendy Southall. "The Niagara Region has been identified as an important and frequently used link in the human trafficking chain across Ontario."
In addition to Niagara, police services in Peel, Windsor, Hamilton, York and Halton will share the funding, along with the Ontario Provincial Police in partnership with Anishinabek, Nishnawbe-Aski and Treaty Three Police services.
The RCMP estimates about 600 to 800 people are trafficked into Canada every year.
"The numbers cannot adequately express the horror that human trafficking represents," said Andrew Fletcher, deputy chief of Halton Regional Police and chair of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police.
"Each crime is nothing short of modern day slavery. It exploits innocent people, often from the sex trade, or in the forced labour industry."
He said the masterminds behind the operation will often use "an array of methods" to control their subjects, "including physical, sexual and emotional abuse."
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty did not attend the event.
While he applauds any effort to stop human trafficking, Niagara Falls NDP candidate Wayne Redekop has doubts $1 million will make much of a dent.
"Our concern is that a million dollars spread over seven communities and regions isn't going to go terribly far," he said. "Particularly if it's only a one-off commitment.
"If you want to tackle human trafficking, make a real impact and put those who participate in the crimes into jail … you've got to allocate significant resources and make sure the police services involved can do the work."
Source: Niagara Falls Review - Ontario, CA
Saturday, October 9, 2010
B.C. prof shines light on modern-day slavery - Winnipeg Free Press
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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Monday, October 4, 2010
Tory MP sees ‘the nation as the pimp’ if prostitution ruling stands - The Globe and Mail
Jane Taber
Globe and Mail Update
Posted on Wednesday, September 29, 2010 11:11AM EDT
“My goodness we would have the nation as the pimp and that’s wrong and we can’t afford that,” she said in an interview Wednesday morning before going into caucus.
Ms. Smith is a bit of an expert on these issues. Just before the Senate rose for the summer, it passed her private member’s bill calling for a five-year minimum sentence for traffickers of minors.
Sex trafficking and prostitution are linked, she argues, noting studies she says show that where prostitution is legalized there is a significant increase in the expansion of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. For example in Amsterdam, Ms. Smith says there is an influx of human trafficking victims and some brothels have had to be closed down as a result.
Other countries where prostitution is legal have also experienced human trafficking problems.
“So why in the world would Ontario – I am speaking not for my government but for myself based on what I have done over the years – why in the world would this be happening? It’s astounding is what it is.”
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has said that the government is “very concerned” about the ruling. He is seriously considering an appeal.
“I am not the Justice Minister,” Ms. Smith said. “But I would strongly support that. There are so many women and children at risk. And I am astounded at this kind of thing would come forward in Ontario.
“We have to protect our women and children. We can’t afford [to decriminalize prostitution].”
Indeed, Natasha Falle, the head of Sex Trade 101, an organization based in Toronto that represents victims and survivors of the sex trade, refers to Ms. Smith as an “angel.” Ms. Falle knows of what she speaks, having worked as a prostitute for 12 years, beginning at age 14 and then being “trafficked across the country” by her pimp, who she married at 17.
“We are so happy to have her voice,” Ms. Falle told CTV of the Conservative MP. “It’s only been in the last few years since all those missing and murdered aboriginal women turned up dead did anybody care about us. So to have her speak out the way she is against this – what this means is so empowering.”
Ms. Falle wants the ruling appealed, too. She says it does nothing to protect sex trade workers. Calling the ruling “misguided,” she said, for example, the issue of where a sex-trade worker conducts her business – behind closed doors or in “outdoor locations” – makes no real difference.
“I’ve worked at both indoor and outdoor locations and they are equally dangerous,” she said. “In fact, working behind closed doors put me at a greater risk than working on a street corner because at least on a street corner I was visible to the public.”
Ms. Smith, meanwhile, is continuing to support the victims of human and sex trafficking. Recently, she put together a national strategy that she has given to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other cabinet ministers. It calls for counseling for victimized women, educational opportunities and support for them after they are rescued from trafficking rings.
Tory MP sees ‘the nation as the pimp’ if prostitution ruling stands - The Globe and Mail Source: The Globe and Mail
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