Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, members of the committee. I'm Professor Amir Attaran, professor of law and medicine at the University of Ottawa.
Thank you for asking my opinion on Bill C-310. You know the subject of today's hearing, of course. It's human trafficking.
The image attached to the crime is at times caricatured but nonetheless meaningful. For example, it is that of a woman from eastern Europe who is induced to come to Canada by false promises or threats, and upon arriving she's forced into prostitution, just as Timea said.
That sort of thing happens, surely, but it is only one example of the phenomenon. Men are trafficked too. They can be coerced into agricultural labour, farming, or domestic help. Certainly, women in Canada who are not immigrants but Canadians themselves are trafficked too. It seems as though first nations women have it especially bad in that regard.
In this context, Bill C-310 is a very helpful bill. It's necessary. It's constitutional. It definitely should pass. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the people behind it are heroes. I'm surrounded by heroes on each side right here.
The heart of the bill is really those provisions that clarify the meaning of exploitation and trafficking and that make trafficking a Canadian crime worldwide. Let me explain those a bit.
When trafficking is committed abroad by Canadians or persons normally resident in Canada, at the moment they cannot be prosecuted in Canada. The bill will change that. It will enable the prosecution of Canadians or permanent residents who do this sort of thing abroad. That sort of global criminalization is a large step in the direction of what lawyers call “universal jurisdiction”.
The clarification of exploitation in the bill means that traffickers who use psychological pressure to control their victims, rather than brute threats of force and violence, will be criminals. For years, they slipped through this loophole. They could use all the psychological pressure they wanted, and as long as they didn't resort to physical endangerment, they were innocent. That's foolish.
So I'm delighted that all parties seem to agree on closing that loophole and invoking universal jurisdiction. Bravo. Please pass the bill.
But now, as clear as I am in my praise, let me also be clear and at times brutally honest in some criticism. Why is this House so under-ambitious? Although you're doing a wonderful thing by toughening the laws on human traffickers, haven't you forgotten about the victims to some extent?
Bill C-310, much as I like it, does nothing for the victims. Earlier I put in evidence to the clerk, and I hope it is now with all of you, the United States law on trafficking. It's here, and the citation is “28 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 1100, Subpart B”.
Look at what the American law does that Canadian law does not, even after Bill C-310. American law requires the trafficking victims be housed and be given legal help and medical treatment as victims. They are not imprisoned as criminals.
In America, the law gives foreign trafficking victims the right to stay lawfully in the country with protection so they can turn star witness and help put the trafficker in prison. If you deport them, you can't do that. But in Canadian law, we don't have those victim protection measures right now.
Listen to me on this, please. You cannot deal successfully with human trafficking by only taking aim at the trafficker. You also need to think of the victims. That is what Bill C-310 currently does not do.
Put yourself, please, in the shoes of being a trafficked, prostituted woman yourself. I know this is very hard. Thank goodness it is very far away from our experience, those of us in this room. But put yourself in those shoes anyway. When you're not on your back being sexually exploited, probably the thing you want is for someone in uniform to kick in the door and slip handcuffs on your trafficker. Imagine how that wish can easily turn into a nightmare when it happens, because the men and women in uniform come into the room and they slip handcuffs on you. Why? Because the trafficker, for example, tore up your passport—that's part of the control—and now you don't have a valid visa to be in Canada. So the handcuffs go on you.
That trafficked, abused victim who you've hypothetically imagined yourself to be has just been locked up in a jail cell and treated like a criminal. Are you going to tell the men and women in uniform what they need to hear to lock up your trafficker? Are you going to turn crown witness and help them bust the large organized ring of criminals that brought you to this place? No way, because you simply won't trust the authorities.
It's a question of trust. That is why I say Bill C-310 is an extremely worthwhile bill, but it's also inadequate. Both can be true. Pass the bill, please, but don't come out of here, any of you, saying that you're making Canada a world leader against trafficking. You aren't. You simply aren't. The best that can be said is that Canada moves from being absolutely appalling on human trafficking, which is our present reality, to merely being backwards, somewhere behind the United States and the American law that I told you about. The U.S. law will still be miles ahead.
Enough of my tongue-lashing. Thank you for being patient and hearing it out. But, friends, friends in this House, members, members of all parties, I really applaud you for doing this, but surely you can do better. Do you want Canada to be a second-rate, also-ran country? I'm sure you don't. Here's your chance to be first-rate in this bill and in the next steps that need to take place. Be ambitious and beat trafficking.
Thank you.