'Human trafficking' or the 'trafficking in persons' involves the recruitment or ransportation or receipt of people, largely women and children, for the purpose of exploitation.
Each year, the UN estimates approximately 1-4 million people are trafficked, making it the third largest illegal market after drugs and arms. The RMCP believes that some 800 of these victims end up on Canadian streets annually.
Human trafficking is not new. Since the late 1800s, social reformers have tried to stop the traffic. Canada has signed 5 international agreements on human trafficking since 1904.
From the U.N.'s web site:
"What is “trafficking in persons”?
“Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of
sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;
Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, which supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime"
Trafficking is Illegal in Canada according to Bill C-49, passed 25th November 2005
This enactment amends the Criminal Code to:
(a) create an offence of trafficking in persons that prohibits a person from engaging in specified acts for the purpose of exploiting or facilitating the exploitation of another person;
(b) create an offence that prohibits a person from receiving a financial or other material benefit that they know results from the commission of the offence of trafficking in persons;
(c) create an offence that prohibits concealing, removing, withholding or destroying travel documents or documents that establish or purport to establish another person’s identity or immigration status for the purpose of committing or facilitating the offence of trafficking in persons; and
(d) establish that a person exploits another person if they cause them to provide, or offer to provide, labour or a service by engaging in conduct that could reasonably be expected to cause the other person to believe that their safety or that of someone known to them would be threatened if they failed to do so or if, by means of deception or the use or threat of force or of any other form of coercion, they cause the other person to have an organ or tissue removed.
Documents on Trafficking in Canada
Bruckert, Christine and Colette Parent. "Organized Crime and
Human Trafficking in Canada: Tracing Perceptions and
Discourses", RCMP, 2005.
Future Group, The. Falling Short of the Mark:An international study on the treatment of human trafficking victims, March 2006.
Gervais, Christine. Report on Promising Practices for the Prevention of Human Trafficking, National Crime Prevention Centre, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada, 2005.
Langevin, Louise and Marie-Claire Belleau. "Trafficking in Women in Canada: A Critical Analysis of the Legal Framework Governing Immigrant Live-in Caregivers and Mail-Order Brides," Status of Women Canada, 2000.
MacDonald, Lynn, Brooke Moore and Natalya Timoshkina. "Migrant Sex Workers from Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union: The Canadian Case", Status of Women Canada, 2000.
Oxman-Martinez, Jacqueline, Andrea Martinez and Jill Hanley. "Human Trafficking: Canadian Government Policy and Practice," Refuge, York University.
Oxman-Martinez, J., Torrente, J. "Echecs à répetition: nouveau regard sur la problématique de la négligence", La maltraitance : Regard pluridisciplinaire, Editions Hommes et Perspectives, Revigny-sur-Ornain, avril 2001, p. 113-140.
(Oxman-Martinez, J., Hanley, J. "The traffic of Women in Canada: Gendered Experiences of Immigration Policies", Journal of International Migration and Integration, Vol. 2, No. 3, Summer 2001, pp. 297-313.
Oxman-Martinez, J., Krane, J., Ducey, K. "Violence Against Women and Ethnoracial Minority Women: Examining Assumption About Ethnicity and Race", Canadian Ethnic Studies, Vol. 32-3, 2001, pp. 1-18.
Oxman-Martinez, J., Hanley, J. "Ethical Issues Raised by Human Trafficking", National Conference: Women's Health and Diversity. Proceedings of April 26-28, 2001 Montreal CESAF, Université de Montréal, pp. 43.
Philippine Women Centre of B.C. "Canada: The New Frontier for Filipino Mail-Order Brides," Status of Women Canada, 2000.
Stewart, Donna E. and Olga Gajic-Veljanoski. "Trafficking in women: A Canadian perspective," in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, July 5, 2005, 173 (1).
Toronto Network Against Trafficking in Women, The Multicultural History Society of Ontario and The Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic. "Trafficking in Women Including Thai Migrant Sex Workers in Canada,"
Status of Women Canada, 2000.
Governmental and Non-governmental Web Sites
Interdepartmental Working Group on Trafficking in Persons
Trafficking in Women from Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Fact Sheet from Public Safety Canada
Canadian Council for Refugees
The Future Group
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
Shelternet
International Organizations
United Nations (UN) Office on Drugs and Crime, Trafficking in Human Beings
International Organization for Migration (IOM), Counter-Trafficking
Organisation for Security and Economic Co-operation, Special Representative
on Trafficking in Human Beings
Other Organizations and Sites
Human Trafficking and Modern-day Slavery - Country directory
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (US)
HumanTrafficking.org - Includes useful training materials
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