Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
MP targets human trafficking
Winnipeg Tory Smith pressing for action
OTTAWA -- Manitoba Conservative MP Joy Smith is applying pressure to get her government and the provinces to adopt a national strategy to combat human trafficking.
Smith said Canadians have ignored human trafficking for too long.
"Canadians have always thought this happens in another country," she said. "They are wrong. Our country needs a national action plan and we need it now."
She said it's time for governments to develop a common plan that includes more investigations and prosecutions, better victims' services, increased awareness campaigns and an attack on the demand for prostitution by criminalizing the purchase of sexual services.
Those are the elements of Connecting the Dots, a plan Smith unveiled last month. It was developed with the guidance of B.C. law professor Benjamin Perrin, a human trafficking expert who recently wrote a book on the issue in Canada.
On Wednesday, the plan received the backing of more than 20 national and local agencies, including the Canadian Police Association, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and Beyond Borders.
Perrin said human trafficking -- the recruitment and transportation of people for the purpose of exploitation -- is "all about the money."
He said a Canadian woman or girl is worth $280,000 on the "flesh market" to traffickers, who are often organized crime operators who can make big money.
"Traffickers have a plan, but Canada does not," Perrin said. "Canada is one of the best countries in the world to be a human trafficker."
Since human trafficking was added to the Criminal Code in 2006, only five people have been convicted, but the number of investigations and people charged is rising.
There are 40 human trafficking cases before the courts in Canada, according to RCMP statistics. Five of those cases arose in October, with arrests in Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener and Milton, Ont., and Burnaby, B.C.
The first charge of human trafficking ever laid in Manitoba came last month when a 38-year-old woman was arrested after allegedly forcing a 21-year-old into prostitution after befriending her.
The advocates said there's an urgent need for better co-ordination of victims' services.
Perrin said the two biggest provinces, Ontario and Quebec, don't have co-ordinated victims' services. He cited the example of an 11-year-old girl who was imprisoned in an immigration cell in Montreal for a month after escaping her traffickers.
Perrin planned to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to sell the plan Wednesday.
Smith said adopting the plan will be a decision of cabinet, but also needs the buy-in of provincial governments if it is going to work.
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
Smith said Canadians have ignored human trafficking for too long.
"Canadians have always thought this happens in another country," she said. "They are wrong. Our country needs a national action plan and we need it now."
She said it's time for governments to develop a common plan that includes more investigations and prosecutions, better victims' services, increased awareness campaigns and an attack on the demand for prostitution by criminalizing the purchase of sexual services.
Those are the elements of Connecting the Dots, a plan Smith unveiled last month. It was developed with the guidance of B.C. law professor Benjamin Perrin, a human trafficking expert who recently wrote a book on the issue in Canada.
On Wednesday, the plan received the backing of more than 20 national and local agencies, including the Canadian Police Association, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and Beyond Borders.
Perrin said human trafficking -- the recruitment and transportation of people for the purpose of exploitation -- is "all about the money."
He said a Canadian woman or girl is worth $280,000 on the "flesh market" to traffickers, who are often organized crime operators who can make big money.
"Traffickers have a plan, but Canada does not," Perrin said. "Canada is one of the best countries in the world to be a human trafficker."
Since human trafficking was added to the Criminal Code in 2006, only five people have been convicted, but the number of investigations and people charged is rising.
There are 40 human trafficking cases before the courts in Canada, according to RCMP statistics. Five of those cases arose in October, with arrests in Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener and Milton, Ont., and Burnaby, B.C.
The first charge of human trafficking ever laid in Manitoba came last month when a 38-year-old woman was arrested after allegedly forcing a 21-year-old into prostitution after befriending her.
The advocates said there's an urgent need for better co-ordination of victims' services.
Perrin said the two biggest provinces, Ontario and Quebec, don't have co-ordinated victims' services. He cited the example of an 11-year-old girl who was imprisoned in an immigration cell in Montreal for a month after escaping her traffickers.
Perrin planned to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to sell the plan Wednesday.
Smith said adopting the plan will be a decision of cabinet, but also needs the buy-in of provincial governments if it is going to work.
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 28, 2010 A6
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/mp-targets-human-trafficking-105988823.html
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