Evidence of meeting #99 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 work.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4 p.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Allow me to thank all the witnesses for their testimony. It has been incredibly helpful, and no doubt we will be drawing on some of the things you have been directing our attention to.
The first question I have is for Senator Jaffer. Thank you so much for your testimony.
The one issue you identified, which we've heard about loud and clear everywhere we travelled across the country with this committee, was human trafficking during international sporting events. There is no doubt that much more needs to be done. One of the recommendations you provided was that the CBSA and Immigration should be more vigilant and do a better job on their end.
However, it appeared to us going across the country that there's a national ecosystem here. Looking at it domestically, what more do you think needs to be done to deal with this issue?
4:05 p.m.
Senator, British Columbia, Lib.
That's a very important question, and I think domestically what needs to be done is that we need to prosecute when there is an international event. We will be firm about that. I haven't heard—and you may have heard—of one prosecution.
The other thing—I could go on and on, but you've heard it all—is on how to protect girls, especially our aboriginal girls coming from reserves. I won't tell you any more because you know it. I think that's a bigger issue that you have to handle.
The first step is to stop women from being brought here, and then, of course, to protect our girls too.
I don't have a firm answer for you, because you already know. You've already heard all about it, so I don't want to go back into it.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
Thank you. I have one follow-up question.
I had the pleasure of reading a report that you prepared in 2011 with the human rights committee of the Senate. One of the recommendations was the creation of a national children's commissioner.
Could you give us an update? It would appear that in the context of human trafficking, that would be a very helpful development as well.
4:05 p.m.
Senator, British Columbia, Lib.
I'm always hoping that before I leave the Senate, we will have a children's commissioner. A children's commissioner would really focus on protecting the rights of children on many issues. This is one thing that the children's commissioner could work on with the authorities in protecting the children.
At the moment in our country, there is no one who speaks for the children. If there is one recommendation—I don't know how many times we've made this recommendation; we've almost forgotten it now—it's that a children's commissioner would lead the way. It would not just be protecting our children—that would be the mandate—but indirectly also protecting children around the world.
I truly believe that on the sex tourism issue, on the international games issue, Sweden plays a very important role. They gave us thousands of dollars to stop women from going into Germany. We are behind. We should also be doing that.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
Thank you.
Senator McPhedran, thank you so much for your testimony.
You pointed out that there is a dearth of information in our country insofar as understanding this challenge and trying to tackle it. You talked about how there were some suggestions about creating a course at the University of Winnipeg.
Given the years that have gone by, do you see more Canadian expertise being developed? One of the problems, the challenges, we definitely have is that we're having a hard time coming up with Canadian solutions, as opposed to constantly relying on international reports.
How do you think we have fared on that particular front?
4:05 p.m.
Senator, Manitoba, ISG
I think there is merit in relying on evidence. I think the evidence we have is that the Swedish model—it should more accurately be referred to as the Swedish model rather then the Nordic model—is actually the only legislative scheme in the world that is producing reduced numbers in sex trafficking.
In fact, I did create the course. It's been running now for over five years, and it gets quite consistent high enrolment. That course has relied on both global and local experts. To the point of research, those experts, for the most part, are not academics. Those experts are on the ground. Those experts are in communities dealing every day with the reality of what sex trafficking means to vulnerable members of their communities, many of them racialized communities, the majority being indigenous.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Anthony Housefather
You're just at the five-minute mark. Thank you very much.
Mr. Rankin.
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Murray Rankin NDP Victoria, BC
Thank you to all the witnesses.
My question is for Mr. Fortin.
I agree with what you said about member of Parliament Maria Mourani's bill C-452. It is indecent and embarrassing that we are still postponing its enactment. I agree entirely with you on that.
The bill includes two aspects. First, there are the consecutive sentences. It has been said that they might not be constitutional under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Also, the burden of proof is reversed in the case of pimps who are charged with exploitation and human trafficking. Does that also raise constitutional issues?
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Murray Rankin NDP Victoria, BC
So, why is there a problem? You said that the Prime Minister had justified his inaction by claiming that the lawyers did not agree and that this law could be unconstitutional. What is the problem?
May 29th, 2018 / 4:10 p.m.
Québec debout
Rhéal Fortin Québec debout Rivière-du-Nord, QC
As far as I'm concerned, there is no problem.
According to what I understood, the government detected a potential problem following advice received from the Canadian Bar Association. The Barreau du Québec had provided positive advice according to which all of Bill C-452 could be brought into effect. For its part, the Canadian Bar Association said that there was no problem except for clause 3 regarding consecutive sentences. It said that this clause could run counter to the Charter and be considered as... I don't remember the term but it doesn't matter. The Canadian Bar Association thought there could be a problem with the Charter.
That is the pretext or the reason invoked by the government to justify its decision to withdraw clause 3 to be able to study it in committee and bring it in later after making sure that it was properly worded. As for clauses 1, 2 and 4, it said that they could come into effect immediately. That is what the government said in February 2017.
All I am saying is that if we agree that clauses 1, 2 and 4 do not pose a problem, I don't understand why they have not been brought into effect. At a minimum, this would reverse the burden of proof, the presumption. This seems important to fight against pimping and the prostitution of young girls.
My colleagues know this as well as I do, and people spoke to us about this in the House on many occasions; there were press conferences and all of that. We agree that this is urgent. In 2011, we were saying this was urgent. We are now in 2018. We recognize that this is urgent since we keep adopting bills that say the same thing. Let's stop saying the same thing and bring the law into effect.
I don't claim to be an expert on constitutional law, but I don't think there is any problem regarding the consecutive sentences. If the government thinks there is one, let's work on that, but let's do it now because this is urgent.
Every day we wait counts. Last year, some 900 young girls had prostitution-related issues. We all have young girls in our families, whether they are our daughters, granddaughters or nieces. Would we like to see them caught up in this type of situation? We mustn't think that we are immune. We are not. That is why it is urgent that we act.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Murray Rankin NDP Victoria, BC
Mr. Chair, given the time, I won't have much, but I presume we're going to come back and continue.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Anthony Housefather
You have two more minutes. When we come back, we're going to have another panel. That's the issue. I'd like to make sure we finish questioning this panel and then come back to the next panel, because we're going to be late already.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Murray Rankin NDP Victoria, BC
There are so many questions, but so little time. I'm so sorry, but I had a question for Senator McPhedran, which I can ask very quickly. It's more of an observation.
You talked about the racialization of sex trafficking, but isn't it more about class and poverty? Isn't that why people go into this business? It has a disproportionate number of people who are poor, are indigenous in places like Winnipeg. That's obvious, so I wonder if you can definitively say that it's a function of...except it's a disproportionate number because they're poor. That's my question.
4:10 p.m.
Senator, Manitoba, ISG
I'd be happy to embrace the most inclusive description of the problem: racialized, poor, disadvantaged in a whole range of ways. I think what you're addressing is applying intersectional analysis to that, and I embrace that.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Anthony Housefather
Thank you very much. I want to thank all the members of the panel. We're very sorry to cut it short. We can't control the votes.
I am extremely grateful for your presence here with us today.
We're going to recess until the next panel. When we get back, hopefully the next panel will be ready to go.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Anthony Housefather
I am going to call this meeting back to order with our second panel of witnesses.
I would like to welcome, from the Family Services of Peel, Mr. Charles MacLean, who is the Executive Director of the Peel Institute on Violence Prevention, and Ms. Sandra Rupnarain, Director of Client Services from the Peel Institute on Violence Prevention.
We also have, as an individual, Mr. Peter Warrack from Bitfinex, who is on video conference from Toronto. Welcome. Thank you very much for joining us.
Also, from the Pivot Legal Society in Vancouver, we have Frances Mahon, who is a lawyer for Pivot. Welcome, Ms. Mahon.
We try to deal with the witnesses first on video conference to make sure we don't lose them before we can actually hear from them.
Mr. Warrack, the floor is yours.
4:55 p.m.
Peter Warrack Bitfinex, As an Individual
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen.
I really appreciate the opportunity to present before this committee on the subject of human trafficking in Canada.
By way of background, earlier this month I retired from the Bank of Montreal where I worked from 2013 in anti-money laundering, and previously at the Royal Bank of Canada in a similar role, having come to Canada from the U.K. in 2002 from a career in law enforcement and the military. I'm currently the chief compliance officer of Bitfinex, a digital assets trading company, and I also sit on the board of the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking. One of the purposes of the centre is to establish a national hotline for human trafficking reporting in Canada.
I'm going to talk to you about Project Protect. In December 2015, I attended an anti-money laundering conference in Toronto and responded to a call from the floor from a survivor of human trafficking, a wonderful lady, Timea Nagy, who was accompanied by an RCMP officer, Lepa Jankovic. They appealed to the audience of financial institutions, including banks, for assistance in identifying both traffickers and their victims through the patterns of their financial transactions.
I didn't have to think about it for a second; I pledged to help. Fortunately, I sat down next to a representative from Canada's financial intelligence unit, FINTRAC, and he immediately pledged to help. Out of that, Project Protect was born.
Human trafficking in Canada primarily relates to sex trafficking. Approximately 90% of victims are domestic victims, the remainder having come to Canada from abroad, as in Timea's case. Victims are predominantly female, but not always, and they come from all walks of life, not just from disadvantaged communities. Victims are recruited by their traffickers in many ways. Traffickers can be male and female, as can victims. Victims are recruited at shopping malls, online, in schools, in every way you can think of.
Once recruited and forced into the lifestyle, victims work under their traffickers' supervision in motels, hotels, including brand-name hotels, rental apartments in all major Canadian cities, and travel the corridors between those cities regularly. Victims on average, and in my understanding, are expected to earn their traffickers between $1,000 and $1,500 per day, every day. Many traffickers have many victims working for them, so there's a lot of money to be made.
The traffickers need the financial system for many reasons: to be paid by their customers, their clients; to book their travel, their accommodation; and to run their sordid operations. Project Protect launched in January 2016. We brought together in true partnership anti-money laundering, AML, representatives from all the Canadian banks; other financial entities such as money service businesses; law enforcement; payment companies; NGOs; technology companies; professional associations in the banking and hospitality industries; Grant Thornton of Canada; and not least, FINTRAC, Canada's financial intelligence unit.
Financial institutions such as banks are mandated by law to do a couple of things: to identify and report suspicious transactions or attempts as they relate to suspected money laundering and terrorist financing. This includes the proceeds of human trafficking. Banks make these reports to FINTRAC. FINTRAC collates those reports, enhances the intelligence, and shares that information and intelligence with law enforcement.
Until the launch of the project in January 2016, financial institutions were largely unaware, as I was, of the problem and scale of human trafficking in Canada and, indeed, what to look for. In the year prior to launch, institutions had made about 500 suspicious activity reports relating to human trafficking in Canada to FINTRAC. FINTRAC disclosures to law enforcement in the year prior to the launch was small in number, 19 in total. Most of those disclosures were reactive. What that means is a response to a law enforcement inquiry as to whether FINTRAC holds information.
When we started the project, the first thing we did very quickly was to make ourselves aware, educate ourselves by talking to victims and by doing regression analysis on the data that we held that we believed previously may relate to human trafficking. We really started to educate ourselves. Things moved very quickly. Just one month after launch, a total of 500 reports were made to FINTRAC. That is the same total of the previous year, in one month. At the end of 2016, there were over 2,000 reports. At the end of 2017, there were 4,200-something reports made to FINTRAC, and it just keeps increasing.
More importantly, the disclosures made by FINTRAC to law enforcement have similarly increased. Since the project was launched, there's been an increase of approximately 1,400% in reports by FINTRAC to law enforcement. More importantly, these reports are now made proactively. FINTRAC no longer waits for law enforcement to ask if they have any information on this person. FINTRAC proactively discloses to law enforcement information on traffickers and their victims by association that law enforcement may previously not be aware of. That's very, very important.
Action by law enforcement has significantly increased, resulting in arrests, the location of missing people, and the identification of victims. Just by way of example, this year, Toronto police, the largest human trafficking police unit in Canada, successfully took down an international trafficking operation identified through the project involving Portugal, 115 victims, and at least $3 million in the proceeds of crime.
Awareness drives the project, and the members of the project, who are too numerous to mention individually now, act as ambassadors and educate other people. I don't know the number, but it must be in the tens of hundreds or thousands now within Canada that the project has reached and made people aware.
I'd like to share a few lessons learned from the project, which has been running for two and a half years now. I hope this will inform the committee and shape continued action to address the problem of human trafficking in Canada.
Prior to the project, many police forces did not have units dedicated to human trafficking, and in some cases, those that did addressed it reactively. The number of units has certainly increased since the launch of the project, but not all police forces have such units, dedicated units, for human trafficking. Certainly prior to the project, from my observations and knowledge, which is fairly extensive, police officers investigating cases of human trafficking did it myopically. They investigated locally. They would have a local report of human trafficking. They didn't gather the financial intelligence for that case, but they went on the assault of the victim and their trafficker. Had they done so, they would have seen a more holistic view and seen that the trafficker that, for instance, they were looking at in Calgary the week before was in Montreal, Winnipeg, or Toronto, etc.
Financial intelligence provides that holistic view, but I still see silos of effort, well-intended effort, within law enforcement and indeed amongst people in anti-human-trafficking organizations and NGOs, who are competing against each other for funding, effectively, and are still very siloed in their efforts. This is a big observation by me, one I would like to resolve, but it's not going to happen overnight.
In a similar way, I see government funding and local government funding siloed in delivery. Often it is one-off funding, providing an unsustained impact. An organization is funded for six months or a year; after that it's on its own. The good news is, as I've said, that there's certainly been an increase in the number of police forces now having dedicated units and sharing intelligence with each other in FINTRAC. However, a lot more needs to be done, in my opinion. More police forces need to have dedicated units, and they need to work together more collaboratively and proactively with each other, as opposed to in isolation. Police also need funding. I was talking to one police force that would love to do more but just doesn't have the funding to do that.
I would also like to see an increased use of financial intelligence in prosecutions, to take the burden of proof away from the victims, in a way, and focus to a larger extent, with the traffickers, on their proceeds of crime; for instance, charging them with money laundering. I would like to see police officers receive training on the financial aspects of human trafficking. I know that there are courses at the various police colleges, but the banks aren't invited. The banks can certainly educate police officers, and the crown as well, as to what to look for in financial transactions. It's very, very powerful evidence.
Project Protect is a model of public-private partnership. It's been recognized by many organizations—such as the United Nations, the OECD, the Financial Action Task Force, the Egmont Group of financial intelligence units, the Vatican's campaign to end modern slavery—as a best practice in how the public and the private sectors can work together, in this case the regulator and the regulated, the regulator FINTRAC and the banks, etc. It's also been heavily featured in the media, as you may be aware, including CNN, and The Economist actually produced a documentary this year on the project.
There's a lot more that needs to be done. I was stunned to realize that there are no reliable national statistics on human trafficking in Canada. Not all police forces report or are required to report their statistics. That stunned me. Hopefully, the national hotline will go a long way to coordinate an effort, producing data—
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Anthony Housefather
Sorry, Mr. Warrack, you've gone a little bit over time. Can I just ask you to try to wrap up in the next minute? We have two other witnesses and then questions. You're giving us new information, and it's valuable and appreciated. I just need to make sure everybody can get in.
5:10 p.m.
Bitfinex, As an Individual
Certainly.
Very quickly, I hope the chiefs of police association hears from the committee on this subject and does more to bring together the silos.
Finally, I'd like to pay tribute to my peers in the financial industry, and also to FINTRAC, of course, without which this would not have been possible.
Thank you.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Anthony Housefather
Thank you so much.
We'll move to Pivot Legal Society now.
Ms. Mahon, the floor is yours.
5:10 p.m.
Frances Mahon Lawyer, Pivot Legal Society
Thank you.
My name is Frances Mahon, and thank you very much to the committee for inviting me to discuss how human trafficking enforcement is working in Canada. We applaud the government for giving this urgent issue the attention it deserves.
I'm speaking to you today from Vancouver, British Columbia, and I would like to acknowledge that these are the unceded and traditional territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.
I'm a criminal, immigration, and refugee lawyer. I frequently represent individual sex workers, as well as sex work advocacy organizations like Pivot Legal Society. In 2014 I appeared as a witness to the Senate standing committee considering Bill C-36, which overhauled the prostitution provisions in the Criminal Code.
Pivot Legal Society is a human rights organization in Vancouver. One of its primary activities is working with communities of sex workers in Vancouver and elsewhere, and bringing this community perspective to lawmakers as part of its law reform work. Pivot intervened at the Supreme Court in Bedford, and also provided submissions to the House of Commons and to the Senate considering Bill C-36.
We urge this committee to develop a nuanced, evidence-based, and effective strategy that takes into account both the human rights and dignity of sex workers and the need to protect vulnerable groups from trafficking. Creating an environment where sex workers can enjoy respectful and trusting relationships with law enforcement will facilitate the investigation and prosecution of genuine cases of trafficking.
I'm going to speak to you on two issues. The first is the lack of a clear definition for human trafficking that complies with international standards. The second is very close to my heart, and one I frequently encounter with my clients, which is abusive police and immigration enforcement of sex workers and trafficking victims under the guise of human trafficking investigations.
On the first issue, I want to address a point Mr. Warrack made, which is around the lack of statistics on human trafficking in Canada. I believe this is exacerbated by the fact that we do not have a clear definition of human trafficking. We often don't know what's being referred to—labour exploitation, sex trafficking, or indeed consensual adult sex work. This committee must give thought to what human trafficking is, and what it is not.
I represent both sex workers and victims of exploitation, and I appreciate that this is a complex issue. Individual situations may not always be so clear-cut between what is truly consensual and what is not, but the current criminal law framework for both sex work and human trafficking has a detrimental impact on the most vulnerable members of our society, particularly indigenous and immigrant individuals.
Canada's human trafficking law is much broader than the internationally accepted definition of human trafficking, and may, in addition to catching victims of human trafficking, also criminalize sex workers and third parties who are legitimately working in the trade as consenting adults.
I would like to draw the committee's attention to the definition of human trafficking, as provided by the United Nations protocol to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in persons. This definition requires an element of coercion for the recruitment and movement of persons for the purposes of labour exploitation.
The crime of human trafficking in Canada does not actually require a coercive element, and this significantly widens the net in terms of who may be caught up in it. For example, simply moving a person, if it's done to facilitate their exploitation, could be enough to find criminal liability. This matters because it creates the possibility that victims of trafficking may themselves be criminalized. I would like to refer you to the testimony of Ms. Lori Anne Thomas, who spoke to you on May 22 about how one of her clients was charged with human trafficking despite being herself a victim.
Although the crime of human trafficking requires an element of exploitation, this does not solve the problem, because exploitation as defined also does not require an element of coercion. No evidence of the victim's actual state of mind or experience is required. This has the potential to remove a victim's autonomy and experience from the process, but it can also criminalize third parties who are legitimately working with individuals in the sex trade.
Now I'd like to move on to the impacts of aggressive human trafficking enforcement on both victims of trafficking and people who are working in the trade.
It's an unfortunate reality, and something that I'm frequently consulted on, that both sex workers and victims in trafficking are the victims of crime because they're experiencing harassment and abuse from clients, they've been robbed at work, or they're just dealing with employment-related issues that don't rise to the level of trafficking. The problem is that they're afraid to make police complaints because of the uncertainty around the legality of their work and concerns about drawing attention to immigration status or to their fellow workers. This is especially unfortunate because it's people in the industry who are the best placed to identify victims of trafficking and bring that to the attention of law enforcement.
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that police enforcement often brings along the Canada Border Services Agency to human trafficking investigations, which can result in deportation of victims of trafficking out of Canada, as well as deportations for people who are working here by their own consent. This is something that I have also seen a lot of in my experience as a lawyer, both in Vancouver and in Toronto.
Even when it doesn't result in deportations or loss of immigration status, it does serve to drive the clients away, meaning that those who are paid per client, rather than per hour, may have to work longer, and it leaves sex workers with pervasive anxiety about their work.
These intrusive police strategies erode trust between victims and sex workers and the police. I'm going to give you a few examples of these abusive police tactics that I've come across in my own experience or that have been the subject of some media.
In Operation Northern Spotlight, which I'm sure this committee is familiar with, 11 people were arrested during a sting in April 2015. These people were held without the ability to contact anyone else and ultimately deported without having received any assistance whatsoever from community organizations. Because the police used a very common tactic, which is arranging fake dates with sex workers in order to gain access to their workplaces, which are often their homes, Operation Northern Spotlight and similarly styled investigations continue to generate fear and mistrust.
Migrant sex workers have also experienced a great deal of abuse at the hands of the police. More than 40% of women contacted by the Toronto-based organization Butterfly, which works with migrant sex workers, reported that they had experienced abuse, such as seizing condoms as evidence, or in some cases, police pulling up their dresses to see if they were wearing underwear as proof of whether they were working as sex workers.
As a local example, here in Vancouver we had a disgraced detective from the counter-exploitation unit, who recently pleaded guilty after he sexually assaulted minor victims of sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
It's not surprising that in a survey conducted by SWAN, here in Vancouver, 95% of the immigrants they work with stated that they would not contact law enforcement if they experienced a violent crime.
The human trafficking investigations and prosecutions also lead to dangerous assumptions of guilt by association. Immigrant sex workers in particular, who may not have very good English or French skills, depend on the assistance of their others, whether they're colleagues or their managers, in order to make their work both safe and viable. For example, they rely on others to help them place ads so that they do not have to be based on the street, and to find work spaces so they can be working indoors, which has been accepted by the Supreme Court of Canada as by far the safest way to exist in the sex trade. However, under the trafficking and the procuring laws, they fear implicating their friends and their co-workers, who could face serious charges merely for being an associate.
I'll give you an example of a report that Pivot received from Butterfly regarding a woman who was detained for two weeks by the police as a trafficked person despite her insistence that she was working voluntarily.
She was never criminally charged, but her phone was seized as evidence. She was forbidden from making calls to anyone including legal counsel, and the police seized $10,000 of her money as evidence as part of their ongoing investigation. It has not been returned to her.
After a search of her hotel room, the police came across a photo of her and her friend and arrested her friend. Although that person was eventually released, she did lose her housing in the process. During that process, the sex worker herself actually disclosed to the police that she had recently been sexually assaulted and robbed, but no investigation was undertaken into the crimes committed against her.
This is unfortunate, and it's very common in my experience for both sex workers and victims of crime to have these experiences with law enforcement. I'm frequently contacted by people who are experiencing harassment or who have been assaulted but are too afraid to go to the police to make a complaint. In some cases, I've been retained to actually make the complaint myself to the police on behalf of third parties. Not every police officer is willing to accept such a complaint from a lawyer who is not actually involved in the crime. Again, this leads to under-reporting and under-investigation of crimes that are actually occurring against sex workers and victims.