Thank you very much for inviting me here today to share my thoughts on how to combat human trafficking, especially human trafficking of youth in Canada.
Creating Opportunities and Resources Against the Trafficking of Humans, or CORATH, works with youth and young adults aged 12 to 24 in and around the Ottawa area who are experiencing or are at risk of human trafficking, most often for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
Having been with the Roberts Smart Centre and CORATH for nearly two years, I have seen first-hand how vulnerable youth are to being trafficked and have observed a significant shift in the age of our clients. Since CORATH's inception, we have observed the average age move from 16 to 12 and 13. This may be linked in part to changes around the online browsing habits of youth since the start of the pandemic.
Social media is a powerful tool for our youth and provides instant access to people they may not have met otherwise. In one instance, we had a youth who friended somebody via Instagram and within the hour was engaging in sexual activities. It can take mere minutes to make friends online, assume they are safe and then meet them in real time.
In this digital age, smart phones provide 24-7 access to hypersexualized media and pornography. It's easy to access, it's free and it's hard core.
Dr. Gail Dines noted that the average age of first viewing of pornography, whether intentionally or accidentally, is estimated by some researchers to be 12 and anecdotal research suggests as young as eight. This type of online exposure undermines the healthy development of our children and youth, and has contributed to school boards taking on an almost frontline role, seeing the need for bold action against the threat of sex trafficking of school-age children.
We have also seen important changes to how youth are being exploited, making it clear that a combination of approaches is needed to protect our youth.
The place to start is with education and awareness. We need youth, their families and the public to know about the risks of human trafficking, to understand the tactics that traffickers use to recruit and to ensure youth have the tools they need to protect themselves.
Many of the youth we see at CORATH have benefited from learning about recognizing unhealthy relationships, strategies for setting clear boundaries, online safety and transportation safety. Many youth take public transit to get around without adult supervision. This is a prime recruitment location. Many are also trafficked via public transit.
In another instance, we had two 12-year-olds who were bored during COVID and began to ride the buses and trains. Within a couple of weeks, they had met some older youth, started using substances, changed their makeup and were appearing with new gifts.
To that end, we need public transit personnel trained to identify and intervene in cases of human trafficking, knowing what sexual exploitation can look like, recognizing instances of grooming and understanding how to intervene. Similar to public transit, training should also be available to hotel employees and others in the service industry, who may encounter human trafficking.
You may have heard the saying that human trafficking can happen to anyone, regardless of their socio-economic status. That is true, and we have seen cases with youth from all backgrounds. However, we can't ignore that some youth demographics are more at risk than others. Many youth who are at risk of being trafficked come from vulnerable populations, such as those experiencing poverty, homelessness, familial rejection due to gender identity, cultural discrimination or trauma. We refer to these as the invisible identities.
It is critical that we have systems in place with readily available access to support and with resources, including safe housing, mental health services, education and job training. A one-size-fits-all approach to reaching and servicing these communities will not work.