Raising awareness of the reality of human trafficking. Stella had only been home for a week because of the pandemic when she became very interested in a young man over the internet. He was fifteen and he was so handsome in his picture.
They had the same interests and he seemed to have the same frustrations she did at not being able to join her friends on her soccer team for games. She could hardly wait to get to her computer every day to see what news he had about what he was doing. They soon started calling each other girlfriend and boyfriend. She could hardly wait to meet him.
That opportunity came when he asked her if they could meet at a local park. It was cold outside, but she was anxious to meet her boyfriend in person. They agreed on a time, and a location in the park to meet. When she got to the park, she found three older men. It did not turn out well. They took her to a motel where she was forced to sexually service men. They let her return home under the threat if she told anyone, they would kill her. They gave her a phone and called her from time to time.
She saw their car parked on her street, so she knew they were watching her. She was terrified with nowhere to turn. This young girl called me at my office and told me her story. We acted quickly, and today she is safe, and she and family are in our Intervention Program to recover from their ordeal. An ordeal hidden in plain sight, right from the young girl’s computer while she was living at home.
Human trafficking is a serious crime against our youth. It is a violation of human rights. Public Safety defines human trafficking as recruitment, transportation, and control over a person’s movement to exploit them typically through sexual exploitation or forced labour. Human trafficking is driven by the demand for paid sexual services throughout the Globe and here in Canada. Human trafficking is the second largest source of illegal income in the world, exceeded only by drug trafficking. Traffickers earn more than $280,000 per victim per year. Most believe sex trafficking happens only in other countries.
93 percent of Canadian victims in sex trafficking are born in Canada and trafficked across our nation.
Combatting human trafficking
I was able to pass both Bill C-268 which amended Canada’s Criminal Code to create a new offence for child trafficking with a five-year mandatory penalty, and Bill C-310, which now enables the Government of Canada to prosecute any Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada for trafficking in persons abroad.
Today, human trafficking is an offence under the Criminal Code of Canada and the Immigration and Protections Act.
Combatting human trafficking must be a multifaceted approach. It is not just a policing issue, a social services issue, or a health issue. It takes a nation to stop our youth from being lured, either by social media or the internet or otherwise.
It takes every church, every parent, and every student to be empowered with the knowledge of how human traffickers operate, and how to recognize the luring signs so they can protect themselves from these predators.
The National Human Trafficking Education Centre
The current pandemic has left our youth open even more to be lured over the internet. It is an isolated, quiet space, much like the isolation the pandemic presents to every Canadian Citizen. Human trafficking cases have skyrocketed during this pandemic.
That is why we launched The National Human Trafficking Education Centre last October to address the increasing human trafficking issue that presents itself during this time of pandemic. Over 90 percent of our calls for help over the past two years have come from families within our Christian community. Families are unaware that human traffickers target our youth. They do not understand the techniques traffickers use to gain the trust of their victims. The virtual on-line Education Centre provides free and valuable information for parents, teachers, law enforcement, immigrants, and others on what human sex trafficking looks like in Canada today and how it can be prevented.
Prevention and intervention
The Prevention and Intervention Strategies on this online venue, provide the information necessary to fully engage youth and their families in the prevention and intervention to keep all families safe from predators.
The Prevention Program gives congregations and families the tools to recognize the signs to watch for when one of their youth is being groomed. The Prevention Program describes in detail safety tips for youth to empower them to prevent traffickers from luring them and grooming them into sexual exploitation. It also provides our congregations as well as the youths’ families with tools to better understand what they can do to safeguard their children from being exposed to the luring of human traffickers.
This is some of the information that the Prevention program contains so our Christian communities can identify early warning signs – such as when a victim is being targeted by a predator.
The Intervention program reveals the truth about the aftermath of trauma-related experiences. This program helps the victims, and their families heal and empowers them to restore their lives. They will learn about abuse-related trauma and its effects on their daily lives. This information assists the victims, their families, and their siblings to bridge their way back to healing and empowering them as they restore their lives and recover from their ordeal.
What congregations can do
Contact the Joy Smith Foundation for the free Bible Study: The Christian Response to Human Trafficking. It is a Bible Study with Bible based teachings on what God says about human trafficking and how we as Christians can take the leadership role in preventing this from happening. It has testimonies from a victim, a trafficker and a john who grew up in the church, later got involved in human trafficking and returned to tell their story of redemption and renewal. This powerful Bible Study will empower our congregations to take action, not turn away from the issue, but bravely educate their families and themselves so they can be safe.
Joy Smith holds a Bachelor's Degree (B.Ed.) and a Master's Degree (M.Ed.) in education and was a teacher for 23 years. She is also a best-selling author and a recipient of the Hedley Award for Excellence in Research. She was nominated as Manitoba's Woman Entrepreneur of the Year. She is also a wife and mother of six children. Joy Smith served as Member of Parliament for Kildonan - St. Paul (2004-2015) and Member of the Manitoba Legislature (MLA) for Fort Garry (1999-2003) and served as critic for Justice, Education, and Intergovernmental (Urban) Affairs. She also led the Manitoba Task Force for Building Sustainable Communities.
Mrs. Smith is recognized as one of Canada's leading anti-human trafficking activists. Following her election in 2004, Mrs. Smith led the discussion on human trafficking at a national level which resulted important changes in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Her continued efforts to raise the issue of human trafficking on the Status of Women Committee resulted in an intensive study of the issue by the committee and the release of highly regarded report on human trafficking in 2007 called Turning Outrage Into Action. One of her major achievements was the unanimous passing by the House of Commons in 2007 of her Private Members Motion M-153 on human trafficking which called on Parliament to condemn the trafficking of women and children across international borders for the purposes of sexual exploitation and to immediately adopt a comprehensive strategy to combat the trafficking of persons worldwide.
Mrs. Smith worked with federal Ministers on key legislation to further combat human trafficking and protect its victims.
Mrs. Smith has also been acknowledged for securing federal funding to fight the trafficking of Indigenous women and children from First Nations communities from across Canada.
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