Hi there. My name is Holly Wood, and I'm representing Brave Education for Trafficking Prevention.
I'm a Master of Legal Studies student at Carleton University, currently finishing my thesis focused on police responses to sex trafficking and sex work in Ontario. I hold a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Law from Carleton.
I'm a nationally licensed human trafficking prevention educator with Brave Education, where I assist with building and delivering sexual exploitation prevention curricula for grades K to 12 and adults. I serve as vice-chair of the Ottawa Coalition to End Human Trafficking and chair of the advocacy committee. I have worked for the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services with foster care youth who are at risk of or actively being trafficked. I've worked at the Elizabeth Fry Society of Ottawa with women who were criminalized as a result of being trafficked, and I have worked in criminal defence; the firm I worked for successfully defended a human trafficker.
For my first example in support of Bill S-224, I look to the experience of a survivor whom Brave has worked with. Out of respect, I will speak of this survivor anonymously.
As a 19-year-old girl, she was trafficked by a man she loved and who she thought was her boyfriend. She had a relationship with her trafficker. He trafficked her in five cities across Canada. After years of being trafficked, she learned what trafficking was. She learned that she had, in fact, been trafficked.
She pursued legal action against her trafficker. When asked to attend court to provide a victim impact statement, she got on the stand in the courtroom in front of her trafficker. She looked out into the courtroom and locked eyes with him. She immediately felt feelings of love and dependence flood her body. She ran out of the courtroom and did not testify, because regardless of the fact that she knew she had been trafficked, she was so in love with him that seeing him in that courtroom triggered an emotional response of love, not fear. She was not afraid of her trafficker. She was in love with him. To this day, she tells us that she would go back to her trafficker in an instant, because he made her feel more loved than her family and friends did.
She is a prime example of why this bill is so important. Even when victims of trafficking know they have been trafficked, the feelings of love and attraction to their traffickers do not disappear. The effects of the manipulation, coercion, love bombing, etc., do not end just because a survivor has been pulled out of their situation. Hence, it is important, more now than ever, to remove the requirement to prove fear, so that survivors of human trafficking can pursue justice without the unfair burden of proving fear and without having to worry about the years of an emotional relationship with their trafficker getting in the way of securing a conviction for the crime they endured.
Human trafficking and exploitation can affect anyone, not just women and girls. For my final example, I will look into my colleague Ena Lucia Mariaca Pacheco's published research on male exploitation and familial trafficking. According to Ena Lucia's research, there can be several reasons that men or boys may be hesitant to show fear after being trafficked or exploited.
Societal expectations in Canada place emphasis on men being strong and tough and suppressing their emotions. Therefore, many men and boys may feel pressure not to show that fear or weakness. They may believe that expressing fear or vulnerability is not productive or helpful, and they may choose to internalize their emotions to maintain a sense of control or to try to forget about their trauma. Male victims may experience feelings of shame or embarrassment, judgment or stigmatization if they show that they are fearful or unable to protect themselves from their male or female perpetrator.
Therefore, by taking out fear and showing male victims that it is okay to finally speak out about their exploitation, hopefully we will see an increase in disclosures and convictions. It is important to approach this bill with empathy and understanding, recognizing that in any response to trauma, you are shaped by a complex interplay of personal, cultural and societal factors. Fear can look like different things to different people and, in many cases, is not what the current provision deems fear at all.
I thank the committee, Mr. Colin Carrie and all other parliamentary bodies for paying long-overdue attention to the devastating crime of human trafficking. Bill S-224 is one of many steps we must take to protect our communities and, most importantly, those affected by the crime of trafficking.
The fact of the matter is that our current laws in Canada are not evolving at the same pace as the crime of human trafficking is. In the anti-human trafficking movement, we have a common saying—it is a legal system, not a justice system.
For me and my team at Brave, Bill S-224 can change the narrative for our legal system and make justice more accessible for victims of human trafficking. Most importantly, Bill S-224 will reinforce that trafficking of individuals in Canada is not acceptable, will not be tolerated and will be punished accordingly, in line with the rights and dignities of victims who, with the help of Bill S-224, will feel more inclined to stand up to their traffickers in a courtroom in order to protect current and future generations.
Thank you.