Victims of demand

Canada’s First Nations: the often forgotten victims of human trafficking

By Craig Macartney and ChristianWeek Senior Correspondent | February 10, 2014

OTTAWA, ON—Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. According to the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, it is the third most lucrative criminal activity globally, rivalled only by illegal drug and firearms trafficking.

United Nations reports estimate global human trafficking revenues as greater than $31 billion US annually. Half of that revenue is generated in industrialized countries.

Countless reports indicate that the majority of victims are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation, an industry that is on the rise in Canada, with increasing numbers of Canadian women and girls falling prey to this heinous trade.

“Domestic trafficking is logistically less complicated than international trafficking,” says Michelle Brock, co-founder Hope for the Sold, an Ontario-based organization focused on raising awareness about human trafficking. “Victims can be moved with no opportunity for border detection, while getting a victim through a port of entry from another country requires traffickers to take more precautions.”

Brock says domestic traffickers typically target marginalized people groups to recruit victims for commercial sexual exploitation. She says Canada’s historical colonization of First Nations communities has left Aboriginal women and girls at an elevated risk.

“Aboriginal women and girls are over-represented in street prostitution across the country. The sex industry is, by nature, very predatory, and just as a lion hunts down the weakest animal in the herd, traffickers prey on the least protected in society.

"Hundreds of First Nations girls and women have gone missing in the last two decades.”

Brock recently met a woman of partial European, part Aboriginal descent. The girl’s features were more European, while her sister’s features were more Aboriginal.

“Her sister was always more targeted by predators, and was eventually trafficked,” says Brock. “In every country my husband and I have visited for trafficking research, there is racism toward a particular people group. Though non-Aboriginal Canadian girls are also being targeted by traffickers, many Aboriginal girls face obstacles as a result of Canada’s horrific treatment of First Nations people through history.”

Any marginalized people group is vulnerable to traffickers, however, frequent issues of poverty, homelessness and discrimination have left Aboriginals especially vulnerable. The risks are compounded for individuals struggling to overcome a history of child abuse, sexual abuse or who face ongoing substance abuse problems.

Diane Redsky, a project director with the Canadian Women’s Foundation, says traffickers generally target girls from a young age and emphasizes the heightened vulnerability of girls with a history of sexual abuse.

“Traffickers receive a higher financial gain for girls under the age of 18, making vulnerable young girls particularly at risk of being forced into prostitution,” she explains. “The Canadian Women’s Foundation met more than 150 women who were survivors of sex trafficking. The majority of these women told us they were trafficked for the first time by age 13.”

Redsky says trafficking of Canadian women and girls is very organized and methodical. She says traffickers frequently use the internet, especially dating sites, to lure young girls.

Brock explains that it often comes down to emotional manipulation.

“It is quite common for men or older teenage boys to lure girls through the ‘lover-boy’ method,” she states. “They pretend to fall in love, while gradually grooming their ‘girlfriends’ for prostitution. For a young girl, bounced around between foster homes and struggling with low self-worth, the promise of love and a future can be irresistible.”

But beyond all the vulnerabilities, Brock says human trafficking is driven by only one thing: the increasing demand for paid sex in Canada.

“Men who pay for sex are absolutely at the root of this problem. If there was no demand, there would be no supply.”

However, Brock has hope for the future. Awareness of domestic human trafficking has been increasing dramatically in recent years and numerous charities and government agencies have been working to protect the marginalized.

RCMP spokesman Greg Cox says the agency has developed and distributed more than 17,800 human trafficking awareness toolkits.

Hope for the Sold is also working to raise awareness though a recently released a documentary called “Red Light Green Light.” The film examines the effects of prostitution and prostitution laws in 10 countries.

Brock says Sweden has taken an innovative approach: it decriminalized the selling of sex, but criminalized the purchase of it.

“The responsibility was placed solely on those purchasing sex. As a result, they’ve seen both prostitution and trafficking drop in the last decade. Right now we are at a critical point in Canada’s history. The Supreme Court [of Canada] just struck down three anti-prostitution laws, but if there is enough pressure from Canadians, Parliament could bring in a similar approach to preventing a boom in commercial sexual exploitation.”