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A Review on Human Trafficking in Canada

Almost every country is affected by human trafficking either as a place of origin, a place of transit, or a destination itself. It is one of the most lucrative illegal businesses with estimates of global profits around $31.6 billion a year [source]. Paired with the numbers provided by the International Labour Organization on victims, it would total to an annual profit of $13,000 per victim [source].

On April 30th, 2021, CASTLE held a speaker event featuring Cassaundra, a service provider from ACT Alberta (The Action Coalition on Human Trafficking Alberta), to talk about the scope of human trafficking in Alberta as well as the impact of COVID-19 on the program. Through speaking with Cassaundra, it becomes even more apparent that Alberta is not free from human trafficking either. As services move online and become more dependent on technology, we decided to take a closer look at the impact of human trafficking on Alberta.

1. About the Legality of Sex Work in Alberta

In Canada, there is no explicit prohibition against the exchange of sexual services for profit. Although there is Bill C-36 (which has sparked great controversy and criticism from human rights and sex work advocates) and several provisions that make offences relating to prostitution illegal, it is still difficult for law enforcement agencies to determine whether or not something is sex work or sexual exploitation. The general idea is that sex work is still legal in Canada but the purchase of the service is not (source).

2. Implications of Technology and Social Media

Traffickers integrate technology into every stage of the process, from recruitment to exploitation. The internet has allowed traffickers to reach a larger audience and thus gain more earnings through broadcasting and advertising online. There is also a factor of anonymity that grants traffickers the freedom to build a business that is not directly traceable to themselves.

Reports of nonconsensual pornography uploaded to platforms with online streaming websites such as OnlyFans, Instagram, and other pornographic websites have recently been brought to light. Out of all of these videos, a great portion of them sensationalize nonconsensual relations while some of them may actually be depicting real cases of sexual exploitation. Young people may also be exploiting themselves without being used by traffickers, utilizing social media to sell services.

Overall, ACT Alberta warns people to stay away from media reports which sensationalize human trafficking and cloud the issue with stereotypes and bias.

3. Impact of the Pandemic on Human Trafficking in Alberta

Hundreds of thousands of Albertans have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. A portion of these include sex workers, voluntary or involuntary. To make matters worse, it is harder to connect with clients online due to extra barriers during lockdown. For example, physical abuse becomes harder to identify without video evidence.

Perpetrators are also taking advantage of the fact that vulnerable people are at home and online, turning to hunting and fishing tactics to recruit victims into their illicit businesses. With the profits one can make from human trafficking, it becomes obvious why traffickers are not slowing down during the pandemic.

4. Key Takeaways

During the pandemic, barriers to working with human trafficking victims are heightened with everyone moving online. Oftentimes, reaching out to a victim via technological means may create more harm than intended, because their traffickers may be monitoring the victims. Chances are, victims may also be stuck in the same location as their traffickers, creating more harm should they already be experiencing psychological injury. Human trafficking is ever so prevalent in Alberta and we encourage people to learn about the issue so they know the warning signs, how to assess a situation, and help fight it

5. How to Help

ACT Alberta offers trainings on the third Thursday every month where they talk about different forms of human trafficking, how to assess, recognize, and the supports that are available. They are one of the many support organizations that respond to human trafficking by conducting community-centered research, creating evidence-based recommendations, and increasing awareness through education. As Caussandra informed, human trafficking affects all demographics across the globe and every experience differs. Encompassing all of this is to do no harm. As outsiders, we do not know the situation nor the extent to which their life is at risk if you take action. Always reach out to organizations first to know what the response protocols would be.

Further action can be taken with the government to help address poverty, unequal opportunities, education, cybersafety, and other issues tied to human trafficking.

Volunteering, raising funds and raising awareness, reporting to Crime Stoppers, becoming involved in an organization in your area are all great ways of fighting human trafficking.

CASTLE encourages Albertans to look into reports of online hotspots for human trafficking and to do research into these internet organizations. As students, our role is to learn how to assess, support, and prevent through learning and educating, so here are some resources you can check out:

ACT Alberta Human Trafficking 101 Training

UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons

An Introduction to Human Trafficking: Vulnerability, Impact and Action

Community Perspectives on the Landscape and Realities of Human Trafficking in Calgary

How to Tell if Someone in a Porn Video is a Trafficking Victim

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Trafficking in Persons

COVID-19 and Human Trafficking - the Amplified Impact on Vulnerable Populations

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The Trafficking of Indigenous People in Canada

One of the most at-risk groups of Human trafficking in Canada is the Indigenous community. Despite being a very small percentage of the population, they have a disproportionately high rate of being trafficked. Even more at risk are the young women and girls in Indigenous communities. Let's look at the stats, why this is happening, what is being done and what you can do.

The Stats:

While exact numbers are difficult to pin down, most estimates put the number of Indigenous women and young girls being trafficked between 30-70% of all trafficking victims in Canada, all while only making up about 4-5% of the population, half of which are women. This means an average of 2.5% of the population makes up about 50% of all human trafficking victims in Canada.

In addition, the number of missing Indigenous women in Canada is believed to be over 1300 since 1980.

The Why:

Many of these women come from vulnerable situations and are more susceptible to trafficking. For example, a lack of transportation could lead to tendencies of hitchhiking, lack of education opportunities makes it harder to find jobs, which often leads to Indigenous people being exploited by their employer or co-workers. Generally, bad conditions on the reserves have made exploitation of Indigenous groups far more common. 

Many of the issues stated above can be traced back to the ongoing effects of colonization in Canada. Through systems of racism such as residential schools, intergenerational trauma continues to have a massive impact on the Indigenous community; systemic racism, poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, and a lack of social support all stem from the colonial agenda of European settlers. Additionally, people whose friends and family were traumatized by the experience carry the weight of the trauma into their own life, often becoming victims of abuse indirectly. 

What the Government is doing:

The Canadian Government has been very vocal about wanting to do something about this but noticeable changes are yet to be seen. In 2012, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government set out a plan to help fight human trafficking in Canada but results were stagnant and worse, the funds raised were mismanaged and were still not enough to help victims of human trafficking. The Liberal government has also taken similar steps with equally lackluster results.

This is not to say the government is doing nothing, but most agree that the root of the issue lies in the vulnerability of the Indigenous communities that are being ignored by institutions. Putting money into helping these communities develop themselves into strong and resilient groups that are less vulnerable to exploitation should be a higher priority for the government, including education and increased awareness on the issue.

What you can do:

Apart from donating and volunteering, you can support Indigenous communities by educating yourself and reading up on the roots of racism in Canada. The more people are empowered by knowledge, the more people feel ready to engage in discussions. Talking to your MP and voting for officials that advocate for inclusion and support of Indigenous communities are more direct ways of helping. Connect with Anti-Human trafficking organization and organizations -- becoming involved is the first step of many.

Finally, the issues that face Indigenous people come from all levels of our society. Be mindful of the struggles that Indigenous people face while discussing human trafficking. Talk to your coworkers, friends, and family about the issue. A vigilant populace armed with the power of knowledge holds just as much power as a government-level initiative in fighting human trafficking.

Sources:

Human trafficking survivor says Indigenous women and girls especially at risk. Social Sharing

https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/bridget-perrier-human-trafficking-mmiwg-1.5189625

Human Trafficking and Historical Trauma in Indigenous Communities

https://atlanticmidwest.org/posts/human-trafficking-and-historical-trauma-indigenous-communities

Trafficking of Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada

https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/JUST/Brief/BR10002955/br-external/NativeWomensAssociationOfCanada-e.pdf

THE TRAFFICKED

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-trafficked-sexual-exploitation-is-costing-canadian-women-their-lives/article28700849/

Canada’s stolen daughters: Sex traffickers target indigenous Canadians

https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/23/world/canada-indigenous-sex-trafficking/index.html

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Human Trafficking in Latin America

Human trafficking is one of the most profitable crimes in the world, surpassed only by drug trafficking. As it continues to be an issue across the globe, international organizations such as the United Nations strive to take action. However, individual governments must act too, creating policies specific to their countries.

What does human trafficking look like in Latin America, and what are their governments doing about it?

Victims and Cases

Latin America is the main source of victims trafficked to the United States. It’s estimated that every year, tens of thousands of Latin Americans are trafficked internationally. Within Latin America itself, there are approximately two million victims of sex trafficking and labour exploitation.

According to Polaris, an anti-human trafficking organization based in the United States, the victims tend to be women and girls, largely from high poverty regions. The majority are between the ages of fifteen and twenty years old. Most are recruited by their family, romantic partners or job offers, and are then trafficked into brothels, cantina bars, or escort services.

An example of this comes from the gold mines near Puerto Maldonado in Peru. In the jungle surrounding these mines were a number of brothels, many of which worked in relation with the mines. In this case, the traffickers recruited with promises of employment as cleaners. Some of the victims experienced bonded labour, where their traffickers told them they had to work to pay for their transportation, food and accommodation. In February 2019, authorities cracked down on an illegal gold mining operation, finding sixty-nine women and fifty-one girls, and bringing them out of their situations.

According to a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the statistics on human trafficking in Latin America are generally improving. In 2014, 10% of processed cases ended with a conviction – compared to 26% in 2016. There are a large number of human trafficking investigations in South America, though the amount in Central America and the Caribbean is lower. In Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, the number was in the hundreds. However, less than half are prosecuted, and less than a third of these prosecutions lead to convictions.

Policies and Protocols

Most Latin American governments have signed and ratified international protocols. As of 2016, there were only two Latin American countries that did not have policies that aligned with the United Nation’s Trafficking in Persons Protocol, which was brought into force in December of 2003. Before this time, the majority of these countries had laws that only criminalized certain parts or types of trafficking. This included international trafficking or sexual exploitation. However, with the introduction of the protocol, these countries changed their laws to comply, adding offenses for domestic trafficking.

Historically, many Latin American governments haven’t done much to help the recuperation of the victims. Very few offer shelters for them, especially for male victims. Women sometimes aren’t allowed to bring their children to the few shelters that do exist. Because of these difficulties, many can’t find a job or a place to live. The focus of anti-human trafficking work by these governments has mostly been on legislation, and not on victim support.

That’s not to say that no action is being taken on the victim support front. Six years ago in Ecuador, Article 91 of the Organic Comprehensive Criminal Code was introduced, bringing in harsher human trafficking laws. Ecuador made efforts to improve on the victim support side of things too, creating social entities that offered education, health and psychological care, and legal support to the victims.

Some experts say that the problem with the effectiveness of these policies is that they require resources and political will that these countries lack. Other crimes, like drug trafficking, are rampant – and they’re seen as bigger issues than human trafficking. Corruption and instability is another factor. Some countries simply don’t have the financial resources or interest to invest in making the protocols effective.

Anti-human trafficking legislation is obviously incredibly important, but governments can do more than that too. They can invest in more anti-trafficking law enforcement staff, like Chile and Honduras did in 2014. They can hire more prosecutors who specialize in human trafficking investigation, like Peru did in 2015. Both of these things would be important to improving the prosecutions to convictions ratio, ensuring that more traffickers receive sentences for their crimes. And, as mentioned earlier, governments can improve services for victims, offering more support.

Sources

Moloney, Anastasia. Sex trade flourishes in Peru's Amazon despite crackdown on illegal mining. https://in.reuters.com/article/us-peru-trafficking-mining/sex-trade-flourishes-in-perus-amazon-despite-crackdown-on-illegal-mining-idUSKBN1ZF0KE

Nikolau, Lisa. Human trafficking victims lack government support in Latin America. https://www.humanosphere.org/human-rights/2017/05/human-trafficking-victims-lack-government-support-in-latin-america/

Gagne, David. Latin America’s Success (and Struggles) in Fighting Human Trafficking. https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/latin-america-success-unodc-human-trafficking/

Pachico, Elyssa. Peru to Send Investigators to Human Trafficking Hotspots. https://www.insightcrime.org/news/brief/peru-investigators-human-trafficking-hotspot-mining/

UNODC. Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2016. https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/2016_Global_Report_on_Trafficking_in_Persons.pdf

Seelke, Clare Ribando. Trafficking in Persons in Latin America and the Caribbean. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33200.pdf

Carranza, Camilo. Human Trafficking Conviction Rates on the Rise in Latin America. https://www.insightcrime.org/news/brief/human-trafficking-conviction-rates-increasing/

Polaris. Sex Trafficking in or from Latin America Research Overview. https://polarisproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Sex-Trafficking-in-or-from-Latin-America.pdf

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Why Does Human Trafficking Take So Long to Track? (And what you can do about it)

In Canada, most human trafficking cases take twice as long to complete as other violent offence cases and average four times more charges. The more charges are laid, the more complex the case becomes and the longer it takes to complete. Why is this the case? Let’s break down the crime of human trafficking from different perspectives.

Legality:

By nature, it is already difficult to calculate the scope of human trafficking in Canada, let alone track individual crimes. Unlike many other offences, trafficking in persons violates the victims’ autonomy through acts or threats of violence, which consequently leads to further criminal charges. Research (source) shows that when human trafficking cases manage to proceed into the Canadian court system, they often do so because of these other related charges.

Statistically, cases that proceed without human trafficking charges more often resulted in a guilty finding, but these cases were less likely to result in a sentence of custody or probation than guilty cases involving at least one human trafficking charge. According to the Statistics Canada’s Trafficking In Persons In Canada, 2018 document, six in ten cases where human trafficking was the most serious charge are more likely to be stayed, withdrawn, dismissed, or discharged, than result in convictions. A majority of the 582 completed cases involved more charges, took longer to complete, and were less likely to result in a guilty verdict when compared to other criminal cases.

Traffickers continue to find their way around the law, turning from brothels to private buildings and online networks. Many trafficking cases go unreported and unnoticed because the trafficker can manipulate and threaten the victims, who might also not be able to communicate their issues due to language barriers or shame (source). There is a huge factor of psychological control. In addition, many victims are on their own with no family or support system. All of these conditions make it difficult for the police to prosecute human trafficking.

The Victim’s Side:

Trafficked persons may be escaping extreme poverty, unemployment, inadequate social programs, inequality, political unrest, war, conflict, and corruption in their country of origin. Traffickers lure people in with perceived financial rewards from exploitative and cheap labour practices, as well as the promise of a better life. For many victims, anything is better than staying in a place of turmoil. Few of them self-identify as trafficking victims and most see no value in getting help from the police and the legal system. They may also be seen as breaking prostitution or migration laws rather than as victims of trafficking (source), making them even more unwilling to testify against traffickers.

How To Help:

Prosecution is complex. Protection of potential and identified victims is essential but many programs are either underfunded, lack a long term strategy, or are deprioritized. Prevention strategies are hard to integrate into policies. Progress is slow. The truth is human trafficking is difficult to detect, let alone report and track. But together, we can fight it. Here are some ways to help in your local community and on a larger scale. 

Help report. If you are not sure if what you see is human trafficking, look online for resources. Act Alberta is hosting monthly Zoom workshops on identifying and approaching potential human trafficking situations (register here). Human trafficking is a type of crime that requires proactive investigation. If a crime is not reported, there is technically no record of occurrence and thus, the crime does not “exist”. Most local police officers perform “reactive policing”, meaning they respond to a reported crime rather than proactively initiate investigations. Many human trafficking cases slip into the void because of data scarcity. This will lead to issues in identifying actual victims as well as decreased incentives to fund training for law enforcement because according to the record, there is no human trafficking in their community. 

If you are not comfortable with getting so directly involved, you can always volunteer and educate. By learning about human trafficking, you can educate others and feel empowered to join discussions. CASTLE holds regular workshops and education events, and works to connect students with volunteering opportunities in local non-profit organizations. Help spread awareness and train people on how to recognize trafficking and support survivors. Volunteer with outreach programs and donate to organizations.

Most importantly, communicate and talk about the issue. There is still stigma and shame surrounding the victims of human trafficking. We need to address many issues beyond the act of trafficking itself, such as its roots in socio-economic instability like unemployment, poverty, and lack of health services and education. Discussion helps fight human trafficking. 

Resources:

Amy Farrell & Colleen Owens & Jack McDevitt. “New laws but few cases: understanding the challenges to the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking cases”.

Trafficking in persons in Canada, 2018. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2020001/article/00006-eng.htm

National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking. https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/ntnl-ctn-pln-cmbt/index-en.aspx

Dina Francesca Haynes. “Used, abused, arrested and deported: extending immigration benefits to protect the victims of trafficking and to secure the prosecution of traffickers”.