Evidence of meeting #90 for Justice and Human Rights in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was trafficked.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
If I may, Mr. Chair, it was a huge responsibility and very difficult, with all the travel we did, to put together the meetings. I've had the privilege of being on dozens of different trips, but I have to tell you that nobody did a better job of it than those who work with us here.
Chloé, Lyne, Julie, and Emma, you did an outstanding job making this all work. I know I speak for everybody on this committee when I say how much we appreciate the wonderful job you did for us. Thank you very much.
4:10 p.m.
Some hon. members
Hear, hear!
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Anthony Housefather
You're absolutely right that you speak for all of us.
We echo those comments on the incredible work you all did. Thank you so much. Please pass this on to Emma, who is not here today.
Thank you all so much for joining us today. It's a pleasure to convene this meeting of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights as we resume our study on human trafficking.
As my colleague Rob Nicholson mentioned, we just got back from a cross-Canada tour where we hit Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, and Vancouver. We had a chance to hear first-hand from literally hundreds of Canadians who are involved in this issue. We very much appreciate your coming before us and adding to our understanding.
I'd like to introduce the witnesses today and welcome them here. From Victoria, British Columbia, we have Dr. Cecilia Benoit, a Professor and Scientist at UVic. Ms. Tara Leach is a Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner. From the Ottawa Coalition to End Human Trafficking, we have Ms. Sherry Lacey, Head of the Youth Committee and a Social Worker in Youth and Family Therapy. We also have Ms. Jodi Mosley, Head of the Community Presentation Committee.
From the Ottawa Police Service, we are very pleased to welcome Sergeant Damien Laflamme and crime analyst Karine Casagrande, both from the Human Trafficking Unit.
Welcome and thank you for being here.
We will proceed in the order of the list I have here.
We'll go by the list the way I read it, which means we'll start with Dr. Benoit.
You have eight minutes. The floor is yours.
4:10 p.m.
Dr. Cecilia Benoit Professor and Scientist, University of Victoria, As an Individual
Thank you.
Just so that I don't miss any points, I'll read my presentation.
I gather your study aims to shed light on human trafficking in Canada. Understandably, we are all interested in making sure that vulnerable people are not exploited or taken advantage of. Such criminal behaviour needs to be prevented, detected, and prosecuted.
Despite sensational claims, the good news is that human trafficking is not widespread in adult prostitution in Canada. In fact, it appears that most adults who sell sexual services in our country have freedom of movement to work and are not coerced or exploited by others. I draw this conclusion from the accounts of over 1,200 people whom my colleagues and I have interviewed in different studies in the last two decades. As there is no random sample to select from, we used a variety of strategies, including Internet sites, community contacts, and participants' own networks to capture the experiences of a wide group of people.
We found that many of our participants belong to informal groups where they have friendships with other workers, share safety strategies, develop regular clientele, and create connections with those operating escort agencies and massage parlours. We have found, overall, that these networks increase the health, safety, and well-being of individuals engaged in adult prostitution. Further, these networks mean that when human trafficking is happening on the ground, our participants are likely to hear about it. Even though their past negative experience with the police and in the justice system are major barriers to reporting activities, which I'll note below, our participants were very frank in their interviews with us.
Today I want to touch on a few of our research findings. More results are available in our peer-reviewed articles, but first I'll give a short summary of our participants from a recent Canadian study. In 2012-13, we interviewed 218 individuals from six Canadian cities. To take part, participants had to be 19 years of age or older, legally able to work in Canada, and have exchanged 15 or more sexual services in the last 12 months. Participants ranged in age from 19 to 61, and most were in their thirties. Their median annual income was just under $40,000. Three-quarters identified as women, and 20% identified as indigenous. The average age at which they first sold a sexual service was 24 years. Eighteen per cent said they had done so before age 18. Over half worked independently off the street, 20% worked independently on the street, and 25% said they worked mainly in a managed setting, such as a massage parlour or an escort agency.
Pertinent to this study, 6% had been forced or exploited to sell sexual services at some point in their lifetime, but none said they were currently being controlled by what is commonly called a pimp. The vast majority said the main reason they got involved was the need or desire for money, which is similar to the reason for most Canadians' working occupations. Also, 35% were involved in other kinds of work as well as prostitution, and 20% were enrolled in an educational program.
As I mentioned, we wanted to know more about their views on the justice system, and here is what they told us. Two-thirds said they had little or no confidence in the police, which is four times higher than other Canadians. They had three main reasons for feeling this way. Their first concern was discrimination. Half of them had experienced judgmental treatment in the justice system, caused by stigma towards and about them. One participant said, “They're disrespectful. Police say if you're going to get paid for sex, then you can't be raped.” Another participant said, “I had one cop tell me I'm just a native whore.”
Their second concern was fear of being arrested. One participant stated, “I've known sex workers who reported the crime that they were a victim of, but when the police found out they were in street sex work, they ended up getting arrested instead of the person who had committed violence against them.”
Their third concern was targeting of their workplaces. Participants said that the police made their work “harder and less safe by targeting escort agencies and other safe workplaces when they should be going after traffickers”. One participant put it this way: “You know sexual slavery is going on, yet the police don't do anything but waste their time going after small agencies that run well.” These actions undermined our participants' trust in the police, increased their suspicion of law enforcement, and discouraged reaching out when someone else was or they themselves were in danger. In contrast, some participants countered with positive accounts of police officers who were respectful and used discretion in law enforcement. Also noteworthy was the variation in police confidence among the cities that we studied.
In closing, I would like to leave you with these take-away messages. First, adult consensual sex for money is not human trafficking. It is vitally important not to conflate the two so that we are better able to address actual cases of human trafficking.
Second, adults who sell sexual services are more diverse than they are usually portrayed, and their access to health and safety services should be non-conditional and non-discriminatory.
Third, coercion and exploitation in adult prostitution are much less common than is claimed.
Fourth, police need to improve their relationships with people who sell sexual services so they feel confident in reporting crimes without fear of being prosecuted or put under surveillance.
Finally, targeting commercial sex locations forces workers to find clients in other ways, which may make them more vulnerable and also waste police time and resources that would be better used to find actual traffickers and victims.
Thank you for this opportunity to present these research findings. I look forward to your questions.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
4:15 p.m.
Tara Leach Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner, As an Individual
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights for inviting me here today. I am thrilled to see the committee is interested in hearing about the intersections of health care and human trafficking.
As mentioned, my name is Tara Leach. I am a Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner. For the past 20 years I've worked with victims of violence within both primary care and emergency settings, both within Ontario and in many of the northern states of the U.S.A. I have worked with ages across the spectrum, spending time in facilities that focus on children, youth and adolescents, and adults. While I had already been exposed to patients who are experiencing human trafficking, I did not come to know the term until I was introduced approximately seven years ago through my husband's politics class. In truth, as a health care professional, I had never been taught about human trafficking: what it was, how to identify someone, or how to intervene or respond effectively. In fact, if I had waited for an opportunity from my professional organization or institutions I had worked for to teach me about human trafficking, I would still be waiting.
With this in mind, I present to you what I feel is a significant gap when I look at Canada's strategies to address human trafficking. Research tells us that a health care provider is one of the few professionals likely to interact with trafficked women and children while they are still in captivity. Studies have reported that upwards of 84% of trafficked individuals saw a health care professional while still in captivity. This represents a serious missed opportunity for intervention. Health care providers are in a unique position to identify victims of trafficking and provide important physical and psychological care to victims while in captivity and after.
The health care problems in victims of trafficking are largely as a result of several factors, including deprivation of food and sleep, extreme stress, hazards of travel, both physical and sexual violence, and hazardous work. Because most victims do not have timely access to health care, by the time they reach a clinician it is likely that health problems are well advanced. These women are at higher risk of acquiring multiple sexually transmitted infections and a sequelae of multiple forced and unsafe abortions. Physical abuse and torture often occur, resulting in broken bones, contusions, dental problems, and cigarette burns. From my experience, this population has a significant incidence of strangulation-type injuries.
Psychological violence results in high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicidal ideation, drug addiction, and a multitude of somatic symptoms. In my experience in working with victims of trafficking, victims are less stable, more isolated, have higher levels of fear, more severe trauma, and greater health needs, more than any other victims of crime I've previously served. In fact, one study even quoted that one trafficking victim can take the same amount of the provider's time as about 20 domestic violence victims.
Further to this, we now know through research that trauma has life-long effects and that it itself can be considered a chronic illness, one that will prove costly to our system if not properly managed. When I look at Ottawa, my home community, I reflect on how many primary health care providers are employed within hospitals and walk-in clinics, places where it is known that victims of human trafficking access care. How many do you think have taken a personal interest and continued with this interest, like I have, to evoke change and recognition to our health care system? How many do you think understand human trafficking, know how to recognize and respond to human trafficking, and work in environments that even support care of trafficking victims? As you may have guessed, not many have.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Anthony Housefather
Ms. Leach, I'm sorry. Could I ask you to slow down a little bit, please? The interpreters are apparently having some issues.
4:20 p.m.
Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner, As an Individual
I'm sorry. I talk fast anyway, let alone when I'm nervous.
4:20 p.m.
Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner, As an Individual
When I look at our very stressed health care system, I understand competing interests and needs. I understand that the patients I have described contradict the “treat and street” funding philosophy of our health care system, that the “one problem” that may get focused on is the most obvious and the one that health care providers may know how to treat.
Health care professionals are not aware of human trafficking, as there is no mandated education on human trafficking. There are no requirements for licensing that this be learned within professional reporting requirements. There is no developed standard education, within medical schools or nursing schools, to even open the awareness that this could be a potential patient. Health care providers are not aware and they do not have the tools, or even sometimes the permission, to spend the necessary time with patients to navigate their needs.
I would like to propose that health care providers be seen at more tables when issues like this are discussed. We need the opportunity to discuss how our current health care system is in fact inaccessible to victims of human trafficking. We need to discuss the stigma and shame that silences victims and prohibits disclosure, because our system is not trauma-informed and it should be. We need to discuss that care is not coordinated and often in keeping with often changing and very dynamic needs of those who have been trafficked.
For clients, previous experiences with stigma, judgmental attitudes, and punitive treatment by providers negatively influence health care engagement, especially among marginalized patient groups. Despite laws recognizing trafficked persons as victims of crime, the perception that survivors are complicit in criminality persists.
Research and practice indicate that human trafficking survivors experience stigma, discrimination, marginalization, institutional violence, and distrust of official systems, which includes health care professionals. Too often, I hear patients recognized as “being in the sex trade” and not identified as being trafficked. The change of language will change referral sources and the frame of mind when caring for somebody of this experience.
Because of the high rates of abuse and violence, human trafficking is associated with substantial trauma. Limited research exists to develop an effective model of health care delivery for human trafficking survivors, but practices that have been effective in other marginalized groups provide an initial road map. An example of this is actually based here in Ottawa. Voice Found, a survivor-led organization, has opened up Canada's first health care clinic focused on human trafficking. I happen to be the lead health care provider for this clinic. The HEALTH clinic is one example of a trauma-informed, survivor-centred, comprehensive health clinic that provides long-term primary and preventative health care as well as case management to survivors of human trafficking aged 13 years and older.
Innovative practices implemented at our clinic are derived from principles of trauma-informed care and psychological literature for a phase-based model of trauma treatment. A trauma-informed approach to treatment encourages therapeutic engagement with health care services and fosters health care access behaviours. While clinics like this can provide rich data to your committee, challenges related to financial sustainability need to be overcome. Our clinic has only three-year funding, provided by our province, and has the capacity to be open only two days a week, which already isn't enough for our demand.
As you gather your data, remember our clinic here in Ottawa and health care professionals like me. I took personal interest and continued to invest my own time to learn more because clients need me to. Oftentimes advocates are born from personal experience. I am not such an individual. Instead, I have been inspired by the strength of survivors, and have taken note of where health care has not been accessible because they did not have the right card or the right attitude. Health care providers cannot ignore human trafficking as an issue, and our government can no longer ignore the fact that health care is challenged and often inaccessible to persons who need it most.
Health care is an important partner to consider when looking at strategies and how to address human trafficking. No matter the moment, health care is generally part of a person's experience, and prevention efforts need to be framed to match a person's needs.
I thank you for your time and for offering me this opportunity. I look forward to your questions.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Anthony Housefather
Thank you very much.
We'll go now to the Ottawa Coalition to End Human Trafficking.
4:20 p.m.
Sherry Lacey Head, Youth Committee, Social Worker (Youth and Family Therapy), Ottawa Coalition to End Human Trafficking
Thank you to the standing committee for the opportunity to present on behalf of the Ottawa Coalition to End Human Trafficking.
The coalition is a volunteer-based network that works to meet the service and resource needs of those affected by all forms of human trafficking. To our knowledge, we are the only organization offering an established training program for service providers to develop their ability to identify a trafficked person and to know how to respond appropriately.
As mentioned, my name is Sherry Lacey. I've been the Head of the coalition's Youth Committee for about three years. I've also been working as a Social Worker with Youth and Families, including victims of trafficking, for about 12 years.
I will begin with a declaration that human trafficking is modern-day slavery that is alive and well in Canada. It exploits for profit by extracting sex, labour, or human tissue and organs through deception, coercion, or force. It is a gross violation of a person's most basic and fundamental human rights. Sadly, no person or community in Canada is immune.
The focus of our coalition work is on the response. It is important to recognize that an appropriate response that is effective is also extremely complex and must consider the following factors.
First, before a victim exits a trafficking situation permanently, they typically return to that situation multiple times. For a response to be effective, it must understand and take into consideration the reasons behind this in order to prevent it.
Secondly, the needs of trafficked victims are unique to the experience of each person. No two situations or sets of needs are the same. Why, might you ask? Consider this. We have seen victims forced to have children with their traffickers. We have seen youth who have been trafficked out of the bathroom stalls of their high school or over their lunch hour. We have seen adult victims who are incapable of giving legal consent to exit a trafficking situation because their trafficker has forced them into a drug addiction and a constant state of psychological fear. The needs of these victims are vastly different; therefore, a one-size-fits-all approach will ultimately be unsuccessful.
The obstacles faced by trafficked persons in trying to access services and resources allow the coalition to conclude that the current response to human trafficking does not take the above factors into consideration in a meaningful way. To that end, I would like to highlight the need for a renewed national action plan to combat human trafficking that includes all provinces, territories, and indigenous communities. This plan should be driven by input from grassroots front-line professionals who work directly with trafficked persons within established codes of conduct. These workers understand the wide range of unique needs and challenges in accessing services and resources.
Second, it should include standardized data collection about the human trafficking landscape in Canada so that it may inform the development of an effective response.
Third, there is a need for the advancement of services dedicated to factors that link with human trafficking, including addiction and homelessness. The needs of specific groups, such as youth, indigenous peoples, LGBTQ individuals, and migrants, must also be incorporated.
Lastly, all forms of human trafficking need to be addressed in the plan, including trafficking for labour exploitation and trafficking for organ harvest and removal. In Canada the demand for organs by patients in need of transplants far outweighs the available supply. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some of the demand is met by Canadians purchasing organs from the “red market”, which is known to extract organs from donors by force or without their knowledge or consent. More work is needed to better understand this form of human trafficking.
I will now turn this over to my colleague, Jodi Mosley, for a more detailed look at the gaps.
4:25 p.m.
Jodi Mosley Head, Community Presentation Committee, Ottawa Coalition to End Human Trafficking
Thank you.
My name is Jodi Mosley. I am the Head of the coalition's training committee, and have been so for a number of years now. I'm also the Co-Director of a foster care agency here in Ottawa that specializes in high-risk youth from all over Ontario, as well as Co-Founder of A New Day, which is the first-ever residential treatment program here in Ottawa that is dedicated to victims of human trafficking in the NCR area. I know for a fact that I've been working with human trafficking victims for at least four years now, but putting on the new lens it's probably the last 30 years that I've worked with high-risk youth. We're just looking at it through a different lens now.
As head of the training committee, I would like to begin with a word about training. It is true that the spotlight on human trafficking has increased awareness and resulted in progress. The police now have human trafficking in their formal initial training, and we have a human trafficking team, and steps are being taken to train those employed in the aviation industry. The Canadian Federation of Medical Students, in collaboration with organizations like ours, is working to include human trafficking as part of the medical curricula. This is great news. However, we have a long way to go.
We still have law enforcement who cannot distinguish between cases of human trafficking and those of domestic violence. We have doctors and teachers who don't know how to identify human trafficking, and academic and medical institutions that don't have protocols for properly responding to the cases of human trafficking. Just two weeks ago, we were made aware of a case where a trafficker, dressed in medical scrubs, accessed his victim, who was a patient in a local hospital where supposedly security measures had been put in place. There is a clear need for investment in establishing protocols that outline step-by-step courses of action, with built-in security features, that are supplemented by ongoing training.
Building on the required elements of an effective response as outlined by Sherry, which includes training as I've just outlined, there is also a need for improvement within the criminal justice system in how it deals with human trafficking. The current legal framework that requires witness testimony, thereby revictimizing the victim, is ineffective and serves to discourage victim testimony. Traffickers need to be held accountable, prosecution needs to be a real threat, sentencing needs to be severe, and victims need to be assisted through the court process in a meaningful way, with professionals and mentors, so that their criminal justice system experience contributes—and I highlight “contributes”—to their healing journey.
Another key element of an effective response is a well-targeted information campaign that delivers information about the availability of services directly to persons in a trafficking situation. This campaign needs to be informed by grassroots front-line workers so that it is delivered in a way that does not put the victim at further risk. For example, information campaigns that splatter a hotline number all over the media and ad posters will trigger traffickers to check the phones of their victims for these numbers, and that could put the victims' safety at further risk.
Lastly, I would like to talk about licenced establishments. We know that legitimate businesses, such as strip clubs, massage parlours, spas and hotels, have also been known to be venues of human trafficking. We also know that new private member clubs are opening up, don't have a store front, and don't always have a business name prominently displayed. They exist in a clandestine way, and if you need to know of them you seek them out. The explicit descriptions of their services on the website make it obvious that sex is sold on site, yet they have managed to acquire liquor licences and ATM machines, which enhance their legitimacy as a business and hide traces of monetary transactions. Anecdotal evidence suggests that trafficked female victims are being dropped off and picked up at these clubs by their traffickers. It is unclear whether the owners or operators are aware of this. Hence, it is important for the government to conduct a review of the regulatory policies governing the establishment and operations of these types of businesses, coupled with a heightened level of enforcement.
Further, as these establishments are disproportionately linked with human trafficking, it should be mandatory for them to post information on site on available services for trafficked persons. This information should be posted in prominently visible areas, similar to advertisements on gaming sites regarding gambling addictions, photos of the consequences of smoking on cigarette packages, as well as health and safety and victims' services that happen in government buildings.
I would like to conclude by saying that while much work is needed so we have a meaningful impact on this issue, consultations such as this make us hopeful that we will get there.
Thank you.
4:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Anthony Housefather
Thank you very much.
We'll now move to Sergeant Laflamme of the Ottawa Police Service.
4:30 p.m.
Sergeant Damien Laflamme Human Trafficking Unit, Ottawa Police Service
Good day. I'd like to thank the members of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights for the opportunity to be here today. It's both a pleasure and a privilege to be able to contribute to your study on human trafficking in Canada.
If you put together everything you know about a kidnapping victim, a domestic violence victim, a rape victim, a child abuse victim, and a person with addictions, you have the reality and mindset of many of the human trafficking victims we encounter. More needs to be done to understand these individuals and to support them.
I'd like to begin by telling you a bit about the makeup of our team here in Ottawa, our mandate and goals, as well as our approach to working collaboratively with survivors of human trafficking. Our Ottawa police human trafficking unit was officially created on January 23 of last year, after a lengthy pilot project. Our six-person team is comprised of four investigators, a full-time crime analyst, and me, the sergeant who oversees the unit's activities and investigations.
In the last year alone, we have seen a 21% increase in active investigations where we have laid charges. This equates to approximately 10 additional investigations per investigator for the year. Our mandate is to identify victims and survivors of human trafficking through both proactive and reactive investigations and to support the prosecution of the traffickers. Our unit's main objectives are to render assistance and offer support services for any and all survivors wishing to exit the sex trade work. We diligently investigate and prosecute any traffickers once survivors are ready to come forward, provide statements, and proceed through the judicial system. We raise awareness and educate partners and stakeholders about human trafficking. We also treat every victim and survivor with the utmost respect and dignity.
Here are some of the successes and best practices that I can share from our experiences in Ottawa. At the Ottawa Police Service human trafficking unit, we aim to conduct as many proactive initiatives as possible. We participate in national and provincial initiatives, including the Northern Spotlight initiative, where we work collectively with other agencies to identify and locate victims of sex trafficking.
During high-profile sports events, such as the 2017 Grey Cup and the week leading up to it, we reached out to 21 sex trade workers. I'm happy to report that our unit, in conjunction with the Gatineau police service, managed to rescue two sex trade workers who opted to take our support services and leave their traffickers. Although from a police perspective no charges were laid, these two cases are most certainly viewed as successes, in our eyes. With the assistance of our victim support community and their resources, one of the survivors was safely returned to her family and friends in another province.
Our team has always had a “victim first” approach, and we always aim to reach out in a very non-threatening manner. We make it clear that we are there to help rather than prosecute victims. We connect victims with community resources, and offer safety plans for those not yet ready to exit the sex trade.
At the Ottawa Police Service human trafficking unit, we make it a point to treat each and every one equally, as we only get a glimpse into their lives, stories, or experiences. In the words of Maya Angelou, “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” We have had much success with this approach, and we are hopeful that more police agencies will respond in the same manner. If all police agencies took this approach, I feel we would see much more co-operation and willingness to provide information about traffickers. The trust in police would grow exponentially. As well, in the future we would aspire to bring along outreach workers with lived experience to better relate and empathize with survivors, thus increasing the trust in us and the process of exiting the sex trafficking world.
In terms of the challenges we continue to face, I would say that education continues to be an area where much more work needs to be done. As I mentioned, we exponentially increased education and awareness of trafficking through meetings, information sessions, presentations to organizations such as law enforcement training facilities, community organizations, border services, and regional hotel associations.
We have started to work with post-secondary institutions, and would like to expand our outreach to transportation hubs, such as airports and bus and train terminals. This has certainly generated an enormous increase in investigation and follow-ups from various community groups, school boards, as well as stakeholders. As a result of our increased community partnerships, we've been able to identify more sex trade workers, maintain contact with victims, and connect them with ongoing community services and assistance.
Despite our efforts to raise awareness, we have noticed that increased understanding of the realities and the complexities of human trafficking victims would be beneficial at the judicial level. It's quite an extensive process to assist our survivors during the judicial process until their trial goes to court. They are always revictimized by preliminary hearings and then the actual trials. Making some concerted efforts to minimize their testimony and accept their sworn audio and video statements in court would go much further in instilling and restoring faith in the judicial process for all our survivors throughout the country.
Prosecuting traffickers has proven very difficult. As I mentioned, most survivors have been manipulated and convinced to be distrustful of police. Subsequently, court testimony has been a major hurdle for our investigators. More often than not, traffickers have managed to affect and threaten our survivors in a negative way prior to their testifying in court. Numerous survivors refuse to testify, and recant their statements while awaiting trial, putting lots of the investigations in jeopardy.
We anticipate much success in the wake of the Ontario Court of Justice project appointing judges to bail hearings, specifically in our jurisdiction. This concerted effort by the Ministry of the Attorney General will assist in increasing the prospect of detaining traffickers pretrial.
We are aware of the push to have Criminal Code amendments that would remove preliminary inquiries. This would certainly minimize any revictimization of our survivors prior to trial. With the hard work of our investigators and prosecutors over the last few months, we have seen some very successful convictions on human trafficking cases within our provincial courts. These types of investigations are being recognized for their complexities.
To conclude, I would leave the committee with these observations about addressing the needs of human trafficking victims. Coordinated efforts by police, community support organizations, and the judicial system continue to be at the source of our success stories. When it comes to the service provided and offered to our survivors, we will need to continue to strengthen our partnerships with stakeholders for the benefit of these survivors.
Thank you very much for your time. I'm happy to answer any questions the committee would like to bring forward at this time.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Anthony Housefather
Thank you so much to all our different witnesses.
We'll now go to questions, and we'll start with Mr. Nicholson.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Thank you very much.
Thank you to all of you for your testimony here today.
Ms. Leach, you said that you've been in the business of trying to help out for the last seven years, that you were completely unaware of most of the aspects of human trafficking, and that you might still be there today if you hadn't gotten involved with this. One of the things we are doing here, by having this study and going across the country, is part of an effort that I think we're starting to see in this country to raise the awareness of human trafficking.
You said, among other things, that health care is “inaccessible” to the victims. How so? Can't they go to a hospital? Can't they see a doctor? What's the holdup?
4:40 p.m.
Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner, As an Individual
I guess it depends on what the goal looks like. So yes, if I had a broken bone I could indeed go to an emergency room and I could have that broken bone fixed. The likelihood of my attending follow-up in the situation that I'm in, the likelihood of the full root of the problem being uncovered as part of a health care visit—that's what I mean by inaccessible. Certainly people can go to a walk-in clinic, an emergency room, and have that need attended to, but the underlying awareness of what human trafficking is, understanding what the root of that person's problem might be, maybe understanding the behaviour, perhaps questioning how that broken bone occurred versus the history that might have been given—that's what I mean by that.
Also, if I don't have a health card, then I'm not able to go to an emergency room or a walk-in clinic. If I don't speak the language, then I'm generally not able to.... Sometimes the translator who might be provided might be the person who brought me to the emergency room, who actually might be my trafficker. When I look at health care and at what that client is really there for versus what might be obvious, that's what I mean by it being inaccessible.
Also, keep in mind that substance abuse and mental health are very closely linked. Oftentimes when people access places like emergency rooms and walk-in clinics, they may not be their best selves, so sometimes they are asked to leave. Behaviour isn't recognized as being defensive, it's only seen as being aggressive.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Fair enough.
Ms. Lacey, you talked about a new aspect of this, that there are people outside this country being human-trafficked for their organs. You pointed out that there is a shortage of organs to assist Canadians, and that Canadians need. Would it be helpful, do you think, if we got rid of that sort of thing; if we decriminalized the purchase of organs, or the payment to individuals who provide...they become surrogate mothers and that kind of thing?
4:45 p.m.
Head, Youth Committee, Social Worker (Youth and Family Therapy), Ottawa Coalition to End Human Trafficking
I think the reality with that issue is that it does require more research and more information specific to it. We are only, as a coalition, starting to scratch the surface a little bit in that research ourselves. I think it would be kind of inappropriate for me to take a position on that at this point.
I do think that the health care systems in our country are a little bit fragmented in the sense that health is provincially funded, and that there are kinds of other systems internationally that could be looked at for further observation or further research.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Fair enough.
Ms. Mosley, you said that there should be more done to investigate the businesses where there are sex workers and all that. We hear both sides of this here. On the one hand, we hear that this is a legal business and as long as the individuals get the necessary labour rights and freedoms that they are entitled to have, that's okay. On the other hand, we get people who tell us that these businesses are just fronts for human traffickers.
Which is it—or is it a combination of both?
4:45 p.m.
Head, Community Presentation Committee, Ottawa Coalition to End Human Trafficking
I believe it is a combination of both. I have worked with a few girls who say they get dropped off by their pimp in the morning and then at the end of the day they are walking out and handing their money over. When we look at strip joints, these are designed to sell sex, which people are going in and buying, and paying for this. I mean, if you have a strip joint that says “new girls every day”, that's not where someone says, “I have a job working 40 hours a week, and I'm going in there because it's my choice”. Those are people being trafficked through different organizations. One young lady said, “I had a choice: I could be a dancer or I could be an escort. I chose to be an escort because of the people who would call to purchase the escorting. A lot of times, my friends—you know, just the boys—could be showing up at a strip joint, and I would be there, dancing in front of them. It would be more public, for them to know.”
So we know there is a combination of both that is happening, but when I look at victims in general, or people who are being trafficked, if they don't know the services that are out there, how do we legislate? In every organization you own or work for, you have to have health and safety. You have to have posters everywhere about violence against women and domestic violence. Maybe it's time to look at our legislation that way and how we are going to hit every organization. Whether they are in a hotel, in a hospital, or working for the government, being trafficked in the evenings, they would at least have this in front of them so that they know.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Before I run out of time here, I want to thank you, Sergeant Laflamme, for the comment—we've heard it before—that these victims are always revictimized by preliminary hearings. Certainly the whole question of preliminary hearings is something we have heard about. I am quite sure it will be part of our recommendations. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
4:45 p.m.
Liberal