In Ontario, for instance, most of the organizations funded by the Ministry of Community and Social Services for anti-trafficking activities focus primarily on sexual exploitation. They provide important services, like housing, mental health supports, legal advice, employment opportunities, and education. These organizations, which serve marginalized populations, particularly in the areas of sexual assault and violence against women and girls, are often starved for resources. When the government allocates millions of dollars towards fighting trafficking, it reshapes the priorities and approaches of these organizations.
To make the government's funding mandate fit their needs and vice versa, my early findings demonstrate that organizations are having to redefine some of their existing or incoming clients, who often experience a form of exploitation, violence, or coercion as victims of trafficking, or to redefine their programs as trafficking-specific services. This is often done with the intention of casting a wider net of support than was possible before the funding was available. However, as a result, it also inflates the scale of human trafficking in Canada.
For instance, one organization, which is not an indigenous organization, explains, “We offer the services to every indigenous woman…. We said to the ministry that you need to let us adapt the definition to fit our needs. We recognize that indigenous women are at high risk, and homeless women are at risk. So every homeless indigenous woman who comes to our shelter, we perceive her as being at risk of human trafficking or of sexual exploitation…. These women aren’t being brought from hotel to hotel, but they are being sexually exploited from couch to couch, so for us, that’s the definition that fits our needs.”
To be clear, my research shows that most organizations don't usually deny services to people who don't self-identify as victims of trafficking, but they will still label them as such in their funding reports and for other purposes, such as educational and promotional materials. As one organization notes, “We don’t request that women identify as being trafficked. That’s an intimidating label to give yourself. We will support every woman with the premise that she is at risk of being trafficked if she hasn’t been already.”
One service provider even suggests, “Any young girl is at risk nowadays. Any woman is at risk because we’re vulnerable to wanting to be loved and cared for.”
We can see here how the definition of “victim of trafficking” is socially and politically constructed and reinforced through funding priorities. There are exceptions to this, and certainly not all organizations funded by the government are imposing the trafficking label irresponsibly. Overall, however, my findings indicate that for cash-strapped agencies, the possibility of extra money or another grant can be understandably very enticing, especially since these extra resources could mean the continuation of one of their current programs, or even additional staff contracts. It becomes a cyclical issue. Organizations receive funding, which allows them to continue to engage in important work, but must, bureaucratically, define their clients as trafficking victims in order to do so. This allows government funders to show a high level of success based on organizational reporting data on the numbers of trafficking victims served. Funders are then more likely to continue allocating resources to those organizations accordingly. These numbers in turn feed back into increased police resources and expansion of criminalization, which has its own detrimental impacts, as you've heard from others here today.
Thank you.