Status of Women committee  That's part of what that $1 million that I explained is for—

Status of Women committee  One thing I can note that the committee might find interesting is that human trafficking cases often involve a significant number of charges, many more charges than regular cases. That will be in your human trafficking juristat, which I'll ensure you get links to. We see a wide range of different offences.

Status of Women committee  I would just note that the human trafficking task force, which is run by Public Safety, brings all of the implicated departments together on a regular basis so that we're sharing information regularly and assisting each other in the work we do, as appropriate.

Status of Women committee  Do you mean in the context of human trafficking?

Status of Women committee  I assume that you mean what the penalties are in the code. There are technically six offences. There's a main trafficking offence, and that has a maximum penalty of 14 years or life, depending on whether aggravated assault, aggravated sexual assault or kidnapping was also committed.

Status of Women committee  That was part of my introductory remarks. They need to prove the act element, which is recruiting, transporting or harbouring someone, and they need to prove that the act element was done for the purposes of exploiting the victim, meaning that the person doing it is the one exploiting them or for the purposes of facilitating their exploitation by someone else.

Status of Women committee  All I can do is refer you back to the human trafficking juristat, which provides the numbers for both accused and victims.

Status of Women committee  I will ensure that it is sent to you.

Status of Women committee  I understand that Statistics Canada officials are to come before you in April. I'm very happy to send you the juristats. It would be worth your while to take a quick read through them before they arrive. You can ask them all of these questions. They may have more information than we do.

Status of Women committee  Thank you. I think that was for me. There is a variety of reasons for a lack of trust and low reporting. You mentioned juristat. There are a lot of references to the research on those important issues as to why that might be the case. It notes, for example, that victims may be unwilling or unable to report due to trauma they've suffered or pre-existing vulnerabilities.

Status of Women committee  That's an excellent question. It's a bit outside my expertise, since I deal with the criminal laws that apply to human trafficking in the human trafficking context. On Monday, you had my colleague from Public Safety before you. She explained the public awareness measures Public Safety is developing.

Status of Women committee  Maybe I need to explain what our role is. I'm from the criminal law policy section. We are responsible, from a policy perspective, for the Criminal Code. That includes developing legislation to amend it.

Status of Women committee  As I said, what we know is from the juristats. The juristats do provide numbers on the number of victims each year in each individual human trafficking case. I don't have them memorized right now, but that should help you.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question. I'd like to direct you to Statistics Canada's juristats. The two most recent ones were released in 2022 and 2021. Both of them have criminal justice statistics with the types of numbers you're looking for. Human trafficking is a complex crime and often difficult to detect.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the opportunity to address the committee on human trafficking. I'd like to begin by acknowledging that I'm speaking from the traditional unceded territory of the Anishinabe nation. I propose to provide a brief overview of the relevant international legal framework, Canada’s criminal law framework addressing human trafficking and relevant jurisprudence.