Evidence of meeting #55 for Status of Women in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was awareness.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Executive Director, Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking
Absolutely. I often hear from survivors that had there been one adult they could trust, they could go to and who could show them they were loved and that they had options, it would have made all of the difference.
I think it's about equipping our faith communities with information about the realities of human trafficking.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you. We have to carry on, because we're getting over time here.
I'm going to pass it to Luc for the next two and a half minutes.
Luc Thériault Bloc Montcalm, QC
Thank you.
Ms. Drydyk, at the end of your presentation earlier, you talked about the limitations of the justice system. Ms. Clark talked about police methods, including rehearsed testimony. You say at the very end that one in ten charges results in a conviction. And so you advocate other types of evidence that are not testimony-related.
What other types of evidence do you mean?
Executive Director, Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking
FINTRAC has done work to trace some of the financial proceeds and gains from illicit crime. Usually, it is also connected to other forms of illegal activity. That's where you can see other forms of money laundering. It can also be tied to guns and drugs.
Currently, we are working with other organizations to explore the use of artificial intelligence and alternative sources of data. However, Canada's lack of a regulatory system to do so ethically, while protecting the civil liberties of all Canadians, makes that very challenging.
If we can find a way to work collaboratively, so that we can get forms of evidence that aren't solely based on victim testimony, it could go a long way towards achieving higher rates of justice.
Bloc
Luc Thériault Bloc Montcalm, QC
In terms of artificial intelligence, concretely, what sorts of things are you are talking about?
Executive Director, Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking
This is very hard because it's hard to think about how to do it in a way that does not conflate human trafficking with consensual sex work. We do see that there can be trends through online escort sex work ads, where the same phone number is used, and other potential indicators of human trafficking. Again, the potential risk, in terms of impinging on individual civil liberties and safety and conflating human trafficking and sex work, is very hard, but it is something worth exploring.
Bloc
Luc Thériault Bloc Montcalm, QC
So you want us to address the problem based on the fact that a very powerful tool, namely artificial intelligence, is used to recruit people. That's interesting.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you so much, Luc.
The final round of questions goes to Leah Gazan for two and a half minutes.
NDP
Leah Gazan NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Thank you so much, Chair.
Building on what you said, Ms. Drydyk, strategies to keep people safe are often decided by individuals who either don't have any experience or currently aren't being impacted by systems. I'm a big proponent of investing in communities and frontline organizations that really lift up the voices of the people who are involved.
In saying that, certainly, that's my bias. People who are involved or have been impacted should be setting the agenda and deciding how they can be best protected.
Do you have any thoughts about that? I'd also ask Kyla Clark.
Executive Director, Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking
Engaging and including individuals with lived experience as part of decision-making, but also program design, is just simply evidence-based best practice. How would someone without any experience of what this looks like be able to come up with a solution out of the blue? It's not how the world works.
I completely agree that we need to make sure there are survivors who are a part of every stage of the solution to human trafficking, and doing so in a way that does not just exploit them for their own lived experience and story but involves them more meaningfully as to what the solutions actually look like. We're starting to see a lot of emerging best practices in that across the country.
Program Coordinator, Creating Opportunities and Resources Against the Trafficking of Humans
Just to add to that, conversations like this one are really important, so that we can bring in those survivor voices and that lived experience to really make our work trauma-informed. This is how we, instead of going downstream, go upstream and pull people out of that river.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
I would like to thank Kyla and Julia. Thank you so much for coming to today's meeting.
Before everybody escapes the room, last week you would have been sent a media advisory regarding the human trafficking study. I want to have approval so that we can send that out. I wasn't sure if we had given ourselves blanket approval or not, but I'm wondering if we can get a motion to approve it.
There is a motion to approve from Michelle Ferreri.
(Motion agreed to)
Fantastic.
Today's meeting is going to be adjourned in a second, but thank you so much to the witnesses, once again.
We'll be meeting again on Thursday at 3:30.
The motion to adjourn is coming from Marc.
Today's meeting is adjourned. That's awesome. Thank you.