I thank the member for her question
I guess I would say at the outset that I certainly appreciate that perspective, and again an appreciation for the statistics is very important.
The CBSA unfortunately does not necessarily have the same domestic mandate in tracking or addressing issues of human trafficking or suspected cases and their prosecution.
We do participate with our police of jurisdiction, national policing partners, in ensuring the continued awareness. The identification of indicators, trends and warnings is shared to inform police of jurisdiction in their domestic investigative processes as well as to provide greater awareness across federal partners of all departments. Therefore, we are definitely recognizing that awareness is absolutely key, aside from our ability to support our domestic policing partners. That is not necessarily something that we track or identify.
Again, the only thing that I would also add to support your question would really be that, based on a variety of different methods of arrival within Canada, people can often be deterred from reporting incidents of human trafficking. It's important to again recognize that many of these people are susceptible to coercion, to fraud and to potential indentured service. In addition, they may be fleeing persecution, natural disasters, dictatorships or discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, religion, race or colour—whatever that might be—so there might also be a tendency to shy away from reporting certain incidents to authorities based on the fact that they may have arrived from countries where there may not be the same type of trust in their national law enforcement or national security partners.
In terms of the statistics and the ability to address the issue domestically, I would definitely have to defer to our domestic policing partners.
Thank you for that question, madam.