Status of Women Committee on Oct. 17th, 2006

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Ms. Mourani, you'll be the last questioner.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

I would like to know how many employees you have at the present time.

[Florence Ievers]

One hundred and thirty-one.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

Do you believe that once $5 million has been cut, you will have to cut back the number of employees?

[Florence Ievers]

Yes.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

By how many, in your opinion?

[Florence Ievers]

It's difficult to say at this time. We will clearly try to maintain all the gains we have made, but considering the size of the cuts, we will have to reduce our staff.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

There is one thing that bothers me. Earlier, you said that the Minister and you had met various women's groups during the summer and since early fall. Let's say there were meetings that began in the fall of 2005, as well as consultations on funding mechanisms and eligibility criteria for the Women's Program, among other things. Then there was an election in 2006. As a result, the Minister had meetings with people. You talked about different groups.

Can you name some of those groups? Do you know them? Could we have a list of these groups? I requested that the last time. Who are the people you met with?

[Florence Ievers]

The Minister has met with a great many people since she took up her post. I can tell you that she has met with Aboriginal women, people representing various national groups, some individuals, and people from various constituencies that are interested in the status of women.

I can't tell you that I have any lists, but she continues to do that on a regular basis.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

Do you believe that this change in direction is the result of those consultations? Did certain women's groups make it known to the Minister that there are structures within Status of Women Canada that are totally useless or that changes needed to be made in the criteria for the Women's Program? Was it following those consultations that the philosophy or direction changed?

[Florence Ievers]

That is a question that you should put to the Minister.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

It's quite intriguing, because there were consultations beginning in the fall of 2005, and there was even some talk at one point of increasing the program funding. Then, all of a sudden, everything changed and the Minister had consulted people. So, maybe she was given another opinion that we are unaware of. But you're right: I should put the question to the Minister.

Earlier, Ms. Claxton, you said that some groups would not be eligible under the Women's Program. Could you give me an example and tell me why?

[Jackie Claxton]

I appreciate your giving me an opportunity to explain. We are talking about activities. Following these changes, the process, as I see it, will involve continuing to work with groups and assessing which parts of their activities will continue to be eligible.

So, it's more a matter of the activities of certain groups no longer being eligible.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

That would mean that funding for certain groups would be reduced; in other words, they would be entitled to funding, but not the same amount, given that some of their activities would no longer be eligible. Is that right?

[Jackie Claxton]

It isn't operating funding per se. We finance strategies, group activities. That is the way we've been operating for some time now: we review their activities, analyze budgets and determine what groups need to pursue those activities.

As Ms. Ievers mentioned, because the focus is on results, for some years now, we've been working with groups to ensure that, as part of the budgets we allocate them, they have resources set aside for activities such as evaluation. In terms of achieving results, we start working on that as soon as the activities begin, because projects and initiatives have to be submitted with an action plan, outcome indicators, and an assessment plan.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

We are out of time, but I want to thank the witnesses.

I am going to move now that we deal with votes 110 and 115, and do them separately.

CANADIAN HERITAGE

Status of Women--Office of the Co-ordinator

Vote 110--Operating expenditures..........$11,489,000

(Vote 110 agreed to)

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

We will now deal with vote 115.

Status of Women--Office of the Co-ordinator

Vote 115--Grants and contributions..........$11,750,000

(Vote 115 agreed to)

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much to the witnesses for giving us all this information. It was very helpful, and I wish you luck with the challenges you have. I'm sure you'll do well and do a good job of balancing those things.

[Florence Ievers]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

We'll suspend for a moment while the witnesses leave.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I will call the meeting back to order.

Our witnesses are Ms. Morency, who is senior counsel, criminal law policy section for the Department of Justice, and Adèle Dion, director general, human security and human rights, Department of Foreign Affairs.

Thank you very much for coming this morning. We appreciate your patience as we start on a very important subject.

I am going to turn the floor over to Ms. Dion, if you would like to start.

[Adèle Dion, Director General, Human Security and Human Rights, Department of Foreign Affairs]

Thank you.

I wish to begin by expressing my appreciation to the Committee for inviting us to discuss the Government of Canada's efforts to combat human trafficking. There can be no question that human trafficking constitutes a criminal violation of the most fundamental of human rights: the right to life, liberty and security of the person.

I would like to begin by giving you an overview of the situation, then talk a little bit about the interdepartmental working group, and finally, say a few words about our international activities and our bilateral cooperation with the United States.

Collaboration is integral to the fight against this global scourge. Canada continues to support the efforts of other countries and organizations to eradicate trafficking in persons at both regional and global levels.

At the same time, we recognize that more can and must be done to address this phenomenon, which we know disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable members of our societies, predominantly women and children, and in particular girls.

The clandestine nature of trafficking in persons makes it difficult to ascertain its true magnitude. We know that no country is immune to this crime. The UN estimates that more than 700,000 persons are trafficked globally each year and that human trafficking now constitutes the third most lucrative illicit trade, after drugs and arms smuggling.

While we continue to grapple with identifying reliable data on the extent of trafficking within our own boundaries, we know that Canada is primarily a country of destination for trafficked victims as well as a transit country for trafficking to the U.S.

Asia, Africa, and eastern Europe tend to be primary source regions for persons being trafficked to our country.

In May 2002 we ratified the United Nations protocol against trafficking in persons, which lays the groundwork for international collaboration against human trafficking and also provides an international definition for trafficking in persons. Canada took a lead role in the elaboration of the protocol. The protocol is still relatively new, and Canada's own anti-trafficking objectives are guided by the international, multi-pronged response to trafficking referred to as the three Ps: prevention of trafficking, protection of victims, and prosecution of offenders.

Canada has also ratified other relevant instruments, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991 and, more recently, the optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which addresses the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography.

I'll say a few words about the federal interdepartmental working group. A complex and multi-faceted problem such as this requires a multi-sectoral response. The federal interdepartmental working group on trafficking in persons was established first in 1999 to coordinate Canada's negotiating positions on the text of the trafficking and smuggling protocols. In 2004 the working group's mandate was expanded so that it could act as the focal point within the federal government to coordinate responses for combatting trafficking in persons.

The working group brings together seventeen different departments and agencies. It's co-chaired by me and Carole Morency. Some of our key partners include the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, Human Resources Development Canada, RCMP, CBSA, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Status of Women, and CIDA.

The working group provides a forum for information exchange between government departments and agencies, fosters a whole-of-government approach, and ensures that the Government of Canada has a coordinated domestic and international approach to this issue. The group is also committed to collaborating with the provinces, territories, and civil society.

I have a couple of quick examples.

In May 2005, the Government of Canada organized the Pacific Northwest conference on human trafficking in Vancouver, which brought together policing organizations, victim service agencies, government officials from federal, municipal, and provincial levels, and NGOs to talk about solutions to the problem. A similar conference is being planned for Atlantic Canada from November 6 to 8 in Halifax.

I might also mention that a representative from the Government of B.C. joined a federal delegation to Venezuela in March 2006 to share provincial experiences and best practices on how to combat human trafficking within OAS member states.

With regard to international activities, as I mentioned earlier, in recognizing the importance of collective global action, Canada actively encourages countries to ratify the convention I mentioned earlier, the UN convention against transnational organized crime and its trafficking protocol, and the optional protocol to the convention on the rights of the child that I mentioned concerning the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography.

We also participate in multilateral and regional fora, such as the OAS, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the regional conference on migration, the UN, and the G-8, of course, to negotiate resolutions that will reinforce international commitments. We also work within those groups to develop and respond to questionnaires on activities to combat trafficking and to develop guidelines with a goal of improving regional cooperation and improving the understanding of the extent of this problem.

I might also mention that since 1996 Canada has been a donor to the International Labour Organization's international program for the elimination of child labour. This program operates in over 75 countries.

We support efforts to raise awareness among source countries abroad in an effort to prevent trafficking from happening in the first place. In this regard, my own department provides program support to combat trafficking internationally through the human security program as well as through our $2 million annual contribution agreement with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, which is located in Vienna. They support the implementation of international legal instruments covering this crime. They also do a lot in terms of raising awareness.

I have a couple of other examples.

We have partnered with the International Organization for Migration, which is disseminating an animated drama video, called Shattered Dreams, that is aimed at raising awareness among vulnerable adolescents to the risks associated with trafficking. The video is being used in local communities in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

We've also funded anti-human trafficking workshops through the OAS in Haiti, where our RCMP colleagues made a presentation on investigative techniques to the Haitian police force.

We supported the IOM to organize a workshop for government and private media partners, with the objective of sensitizing the media to report the reality of trafficking in persons in Central America and Mexico.

Our Canadian embassies abroad are also active proponents in this fight. For example, I might just mention that over the past year our embassy in the Ukraine hosted and provided financial and logistical support for two training seminars on human trafficking. They did this in cooperation with the OSCE, Ukrainian NGOs, and Ukrainian government officials.

Our embassy also supported training by the IOM's newly established centres for migrant advice. This training was for call centre operators across the Ukraine regarding requirements for legally working in and immigrating to Canada; thereby, again, increasing knowledge and awareness and supporting the prevention of trafficking to Canada.

CIDA supports the prevention of trafficking by addressing many of the factors that contribute to the vulnerability of people to being trafficked or involved in commercial sexual exploitation by addressing causes such as poverty; gender inequality; children's rights and protection; discrimination; and other factors, such as poor governance.

In the last decade, CIDA has funded and supported significant anti-trafficking initiatives using bilateral, multilateral, and local mechanisms in all regions--eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Finally, I'll say a few words concerning bilateral cooperation with the United States.

Government officials cooperate very closely with our U.S. counterparts, and we are currently developing a joint assessment to better understand the cross-border nature of human trafficking and identify areas for potential future collaboration.

The assessment is due to be presented at the cross-border crime forum in November of this year--next month--that is taking place in North Carolina. It is also a component of the security and prosperity partnership between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada that calls for enhancement of efforts to combat smuggling and trafficking.

I think I'll stop there and turn to my colleague from the Department of Justice to talk about Canada's accomplishments from a domestic perspective.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Ms. Dion.

Ms. Morency.

[Carole Morency, Senior Counsel, Criminal Law Policy Section, Department of Justice]

Good morning.

Trafficking in persons has often been described by many as a modern-day form of slavery. To understand that, we need to have a clear understanding of what kind of conduct we're actually talking about.

Human trafficking involves three key elements.

First, it involves a physical act; namely, the recruitment, transportation, or harbouring of a person across international borders, or within borders.

Second, it involves the use of such means as threats, force, coercion, or deception. With respect to children, although it's irrelevant whether any such means are used, they nonetheless often involve the abuse of power or position of authority over the child or the giving or receiving of consideration to obtain the consent of the person who has authority over that child.

The third key element is that it's carried out for the specific purpose of exploiting its victims, usually for sexual exploitation or for forced labour.

It is the means--principally coercion--and the exploitative purpose that distinguishes trafficking from similar crimes such as human smuggling and makes it so abhorrent, whether a person is forced to work in a garment factory, on a farm, or as a domestic servant or to perform sexual services. No matter the form of human trafficking, it's always an affront to human dignity and a fundamental violation of their human rights.

There are many different types of exploitation involved in human trafficking, such that it has been linked to other issues, for example, prostitution. And although there are some linkages between human trafficking and prostitution, particularly when we're dealing with child prostitution, there are differences that warrant treating the issues separately.

Adèle has already outlined the magnitude of human trafficking as we understand it domestically and internationally, which makes us appreciate even more the importance of having a strong, coordinated domestic response in place.

Canada recently strengthened its criminal justice response to trafficking. In November 2005 Parliament enacted the former Bill C-49. These new Criminal Code offences created an important step towards strengthening our ability to protect victims of human trafficking by ensuring that Canada's legal framework clearly recognizes and strongly denounces and deters this terrible crime.

It does this by creating three new indictable offences to better address human trafficking—in whatever form it may manifest itself.

To begin with, the main offence of trafficking in persons prohibits anyone from engaging in specified acts, such as recruiting, transporting, harbouring or controlling the movements of another person for the purpose of exploiting or facilitating the exploitation of that person. This offence is punishable by up to life imprisonment, reflecting its severity and its harmful consequences for its victims and Canadian society.

Secondly, Bill C-49 deters those who seek to profit from the exploitation of others by making it an offence to receive a financial or material benefit knowing that it results from the trafficking of persons. This offence is punishable by up to ten years' imprisonment.

Thirdly, Bill C-49 prohibits the withholding or destroying of travel or identity documents in order to commit or facilitate the trafficking of persons. This offence is punishable by a maximum of five years imprisonment.

Bill C-49 reforms will strengthen our current responses to trafficking by building upon existing provisions in the Criminal Code that already address trafficking-related conduct, such as forcible confinement, kidnapping, sexual assault, and aggravated sexual assault, and these reforms also complement the trafficking-specific offence that exists in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Bill C-49's new criminal offences, together with the existing offences, provide a broader framework for all criminal justice personnel with a significantly enhanced ability to ensure that the offence charged is the one that best responds to the facts of each trafficking case.

The federal government is also addressing human trafficking through other non-legislative measures, which is a reflection of the reality that an effective response to such a problem requires not only a strong legal framework but also multi-sectoral collaboration to ensure that victims are protected and to enhance our awareness and understanding of the problem.

For example, in 2006 the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration introduced measures to strengthen Canada’s response to the unique needs of trafficking victims who find themselves in Canada but are foreign nationals. These measures include guidelines that will assist immigration officers in issuing short-term temporary resident permits to trafficking victims for a period of reflection of up to 120 days, and this permit can be renewed. Victims are also exempted from the temporary resident permit processing fee and given access to the interim federal health program to ensure that they receive the medical attention they need, which could include emergency health services and trauma counselling.

The government has also undertaken numerous awareness-raising measures within Canada. For example, we have a website on trafficking in persons that can be accessed through the Department of Justice website. The website provides useful information for the public, describing the problem and providing related links.

Public education and awareness is being fostered through the development and broad dissemination, within Canada and through Canadian embassies, of a poster—available in 17 languages—and an information pamphlet—available in 14 languages—to help prevent human trafficking victimization.

We have brought with us a sampling of those materials to leave with the committee. These have been really widely disseminated and sought as materials for persons organizing conferences.

Professional training and education about human trafficking and enforcement-related issues is under way and began with a training seminar in law enforcement in March 2004, co-hosted by the Department of Justice and the International Organization for Migration. A similar seminar was held in May 2005 in Vancouver, hosted by the RCMP, and another will be held in November 2006 in Nova Scotia.

As you have already heard from Adèle, we've supported prevention and awareness efforts in source countries, and we continue to look to build partnerships here at home and abroad. The interdepartmental working group on trafficking in persons is committed to our mandate to continue to coordinate all federal anti-trafficking measures, and we continue to work with our provincial counterparts and civil society to ensure an effective, comprehensive response to this terrible crime.

With that, I will end my remarks. We will be happy to answer any questions the committee may have.