Status of Women Committee on March 20th, 2023

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the 55th meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted on Tuesday, February 1, 2022, the committee will commence its study on human trafficking of women, girls and gender-diverse people.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of June 23, 2022. Members are attending in person in the room and remotely using the Zoom application.

I'd like to make a few comments for the benefit of the witnesses and members.

Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. For those participating by video conference, click on the microphone icon to activate your microphone, and please mute yourselves when you are not speaking. For interpretation for those on Zoom, you will have the choice at the bottom of the screen of floor, English or French. For those in the room, you can use the earpiece and select the desired channel. All comments should be addressed through the chair. For members in the room, if you wish to speak, please raise your hand. For those on Zoom, please use the “raise hand” function.

As usual, we're going to do our trigger warning, because that's what we do here in status of women. Before we welcome our witnesses, I would like to provide this trigger warning. This will be a difficult study. We will be discussing experiences related to abuse. This may be triggering to viewers, members or staff with similar experiences. If you feel distressed or if you need help, please advise the clerk.

Just like we have done in the previous studies, if there are any issues at any time, just let us know and we can work together to move forward.

I'd now like to welcome our guests for the first panel. From the Canada Border Services Agency, we have Daniel Anson. He's the director general of intelligence and investigations. From the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, we have Michelle Van De Bogart, director general, law enforcement. From the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, we have Superintendent Kimberly Taplin, director general, national crime prevention and indigenous policing services. As well, we have Captain Jennifer Demers, national human trafficking section.

We'll be providing you each with five minutes. When you see me start rolling my pen around, that means you have about 15 seconds to wrap up. If we can keep that as close as possible to five minutes so we can get all of our questions through, that would be wonderful.

To start our presentations, we will pass it over to Daniel Anson.

Daniel, you have five minutes.

[Daniel Anson, Director General, Intelligence and Investigations, Canada Border Services Agency]

Thank you very much.

Greetings to all members of the committee.

My name is Daniel Anson, Director General, Intelligence and Investigations, Canada Border Services Agency.

I will only take a few minutes to clarify for the committee the Canada Border Services Agency’s role and responsibilities in identifying and combatting international human trafficking.

As this committee is aware, the administration and enforcement of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, IRPA, falls under the responsibility of several government departments and agencies.

While Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has the primary responsibility to develop admissibility policy which sets the conditions for entering and remaining in Canada and to administer the IRPA, the CBSA shares responsibility with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for enforcing the IRPA. In the pursuit of its mandate, the agency shares information and intelligence with other government departments and law enforcement partners, as required.

More specifically, the CBSA prevents, identifies and interdicts suspected human traffickers in the cross-border movement and exploitation of victims; detects instances of trafficking, including those for the purposes of forced labour; contributes to the safety and security of potential victims by separating them from the control of suspected traffickers and refers them to appropriate government services; and supports the investigation and prosecution of offenders.

The CBSA and RCMP have a complementary approach in relation to immigration offences. While the RCMP is responsible for immigration offences related to organized crime, human trafficking and national security, the CBSA has responsibility for the remaining immigration offences under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, or IRPA, which includes offences related to human smuggling, fraudulent documents, misrepresentation and the “General Offences” section under the act. The agency will engage the RCMP should it discover indicators of human trafficking while investigating other offences. The CBSA refers all suspected human trafficking cases to the RCMP for investigation, and it refers potential victims to IRCC for support.

As human trafficking and human smuggling are often confounded, I thought I would use this opportunity to differentiate the two offences.

On one hand, human trafficking occurs when one party violates another's rights by depriving them of their freedom of choice for the purpose of exploitation. It can occur across and within borders, and it may involve extensive organized crime networks. It involves recruiting, transporting or harbouring individuals through force or other forms of coercion and deception. For example, these victims may be exploited for the sex trade, forced labour or domestic servitude.

Human smuggling, on the other hand, is a form of illegal migration that involves the organized transport of a person across an international border, usually in exchange for a sum of money and sometimes in dangerous conditions. When the final destination is reached, the business relationship ends and the smuggler and individual part company.

A person who has agreed to be smuggled into the country, however, may also become the victim of human trafficking at the hands of the smuggler. What is consistent is that the relationship between a human trafficker and victim is continuous and extends beyond the border crossing. Victims may suffer abuse from the traffickers and face severe consequences if they attempt to escape.

Since 2012, the CBSA has been working with federal partners to implement the national action plan—now strategy—to combat human trafficking. As part of this commitment, CBSA officers receive training to recognize indicators associated with victims of human trafficking and provide them with support through referrals to the appropriate government agencies.

Despite best efforts, however, identifying victims of human trafficking at the border can be challenging. Potential victims may be unaware of what is in store for them beyond their entry into the country. Furthermore, if they do not know they are being exploited, they may be intimidated and refuse to seek or receive help.

The CBSA takes the issue of international trafficking of women, girls and gender-diverse individuals very seriously. Situations such as sexual exploitation and domestic servitude disproportionately affect these populations. Some estimates indicate that roughly 90% of victims of sex trafficking in Canada are women and girls. Human traffickers reap large profits while robbing victims of their freedom, dignity and human potential.

The CBSA is an active and engaged partner in combatting human trafficking by detecting and disrupting trafficking operations and the transport of victims to Canada. We continue to work with our partners with the common goal of preventing Canada from being a destination, source or transit country for this criminal behaviour.

This concludes my opening statement. Again, thank you for the opportunity to highlight the agency's role and impact. I will be very happy to answer any questions from the committee.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

I'm now going to pass it over to Michelle Van De Bogart, director general of law enforcement, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

Go ahead, Michelle.

[Michelle Van De Bogart, Director General, Law Enforcement, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Thank you very much.

Before I begin, I want to acknowledge the traditional unceded land on which we are gathered today, that of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. My name is Michelle Van De Bogart. I am the director general of law enforcement at Public Safety Canada. I'll be providing opening remarks on behalf of Public Safety, and I'm pleased to take your questions during this panel.

I applaud you and committee members for this discussion on a topic that is of critical importance for the human rights of women, girls and gender-diverse people in Canada: human trafficking.

We know that human trafficking is a highly gendered crime with root causes often related to power imbalance, gender inequality and discrimination, the fact being that women and girls are most often targeted for purposes of sexual exploitation due to a combination of social, economic and cultural factors.

The Government of Canada has long recognized the importance of a comprehensive, coordinated and multi-faceted strategy to respond to this crime. Anti-human trafficking efforts are being undertaken by numerous Government of Canada departments and agencies, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada Border Services Agency, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Statistics Canada and others whom you’ll hear from throughout this study.

Public Safety Canada is the federal department responsible for leading the national strategy to combat human trafficking since its launch in 2019. The national strategy brings together federal efforts under one strategic framework. It's based on the internationally recognized pillars of prevention, protection, prosecution and partnership, and also includes an empowerment pillar, which focuses on enhancing supports for victims affected by this crime.

Approximately $75 million in funding has been allocated to the national strategy between 2018 and 2024. This includes an investment of $14.5 million for the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline.

The national strategy is now in its last year. Progress and achievements have been gained, but there is much more to do. As an evergreen strategy, we continue to adapt to changing circumstances and the needs of our communities.

I'd like to highlight a few successes under each pillar of the strategy.

Under the empowerment pillar, the Government of Canada invested up to $22.4 million in 63 organizations that are working to prevent human trafficking and to support at-risk populations and survivors. This was a joint announcement with Women and Gender Equality Canada. These projects have increased and will continue to increase access to services and supports for victims and survivors, raise awareness of human trafficking among youth at risk and develop innovative technological ideas to combat human trafficking.

Most recently, Public Safety entered into a funding agreement with Victim Services Toronto for Project Recover, a collaborative endeavour to help survivors of human trafficking resolve fraudulent debt incurred in their name by traffickers.

Raising awareness of human trafficking among Canadians is critical. Under the prevention pillar, Public Safety launched the award-winning awareness campaign entitled “It's not what it seems” to educate the public, especially youth and parents, about human trafficking. This year, Public Safety’s marketing team is working on the planning and development of awareness material for indigenous audiences.

A significant initiative under the protection pillar has been our continued support for the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline, a multilingual, toll-free service available 24-7 that refers victims to local law enforcement, shelters and a range of other supports and services. Under this pillar, we are also working to develop guidelines and training tools for frontline service providers, including specific guidelines to support indigenous survivors.

As for the prosecution pillar, I’ll defer to my colleagues to speak to their prosecution efforts on investigations and cross-border movements.

Finally, the Government of Canada recognizes that maintaining and developing strong partnerships within and outside the Government of Canada is critical to Canada's success in combatting human trafficking. Under the partnership pillar, engagement with provinces and territories has been central in supporting our collective responses to this crime, notably through the Public Safety Canada-led federal-provincial-territorial trafficking in persons working group and the FPT ministers responsible for the justice and public safety tables. These remain important fora for federal, provincial and territorial partners to come together in order to leverage one another’s efforts to combat human trafficking.

I'd like to conclude by acknowledging that labour trafficking; the trafficking of indigenous women and girls, 2SLGBTQQIA+ persons and migrants; the use of technology in human trafficking; data collection efforts; and protecting newcomers from human trafficking, including Ukrainian nationals in Canada, are some of the key issues that have been garnering more attention recently and that will require increased collaboration in the next few years.

With this in mind, I'd like to thank the committee for initiating this important dialogue today. I'm happy to take your questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

For our final speakers, I would like to pass it over to the superintendent for the RCMP, Kim Taplin.

Kim, you have the floor.

[Superintendent Kimberly Taplin, Director General, National Crime Prevention and Indigenous Policing Services, Royal Canadian Mounted Police]

Good morning, Chair and members of the committee. I speak with gratitude from the unceded territory of the Algonquin people.

As mentioned, I'm Superintendent Kim Taplin, director general of the RCMP national crime prevention and indigenous policing services. I'm joined today by Corporal Jennifer Demers, a member of the national human trafficking section.

Thank you for inviting us here as part of your study on the human trafficking of women, girls and gender-diverse people. I would like to begin by explaining the mandate and work of the RCMP, and specifically the national human trafficking section, and by sharing some key points on human trafficking in the Canadian context.

The RCMP across Canada supports the Government of Canada's national strategy to combat human trafficking and remains committed to addressing human trafficking in collaboration with federal and provincial governments and agencies, non-government organizations and law enforcement partners. These networks are crucial for police and non-government organizations to identify and help victims of human trafficking.

The national human trafficking section centrally facilitates the RCMP's efforts in countering human trafficking through awareness, education and community outreach, building and enhancing partnerships, supporting operations, advancing operational policy and internal and external reporting. The national human trafficking section does not conduct specific investigations, but rather supports investigators and acts as a policy centre to educate and raise awareness on human trafficking.

For example, recently, on March 9, the RCMP hosted the human trafficking and sexual exploitation of men and boys training workshop for the RCMP, the Canadian Armed Forces, Public Safety, CBSA and other police services and included other government departments and service providers. This event focused on assisting law enforcement on the human trafficking modus operandi in relation to male victims, and gender-diverse victims were part of the subject matter covered during the workshop.

Anyone can become a victim of human trafficking. However, factors such as age, geographic location, socio-economic background and ethnicity can contribute to unique challenges that put certain populations at particular risk.

As my colleague from CBSA shared, human trafficking does not necessarily require the crossing of borders or any movement at all. Exploitation, as defined by the Criminal Code, is the key element of the offence. Exploitation occurs when someone forces another person to provide labour or a sexual service by having them fear for their safety and/or the safety of someone known to them.

It is domestic human trafficking when all stages of the crime occur in Canada and there is no international cross-border movement. It is international human trafficking when the victim crosses an international border in the process of being trafficked.

The full extent of human trafficking is difficult to assess due to the clandestine nature of these offences and the reluctance of victims and witnesses to come forward to law enforcement. In some observed cases, it is apparent that some victims may not have been aware that they were being exploited.

The RCMP conducts proactive outreach initiatives and investigative probes into potential human trafficking offences. One of the most important sources is the lived experience experts: the survivors. Our partnerships help to empower them to tell their stories and educate law enforcement to recognize the signs of human trafficking.

It is also important for law enforcement to have knowledge of the strategies employed by traffickers when conducting their investigations. In 2022, the RCMP attended an Ontario penitentiary to interview an inmate who had been incarcerated for charges related to human trafficking. The intent of the interview was to get a trafficker's perspective of how he became a trafficker and why he committed these crimes. The interview was recorded and will be incorporated into training for law enforcement.

The RCMP collaborates with domestic and international partners to ensure a coordinated approach to detecting, investigating and combatting human trafficking. The RCMP also helps build prevention initiatives and refers victims to victim services and community-based resources, where available, for assistance and support.

Human trafficking is an important topic and a grave offence. Corporal Demers and I are pleased to be here to answer your questions and to provide information on the projects, initiatives and products that our team has been working on within the past few years.

We also appreciate the work you are doing. Thank you for continuing to bring attention to this crucial area that impacts the lives, health and well-being of women, girls and gender-diverse people.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

I will begin by saying I apologize to Corporal Demers. I called you captain. It's corporal. We want to make sure we get that straight.

We will be going on to our rounds of six minutes. Each party will start off with six minutes.

I'm now going to pass the floor to Anna Roberts for the first six minutes.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses for being here.

This is an important study. I have a few questions, and I'm not sure who can answer them.

Canada remains on tier 1. Can you explain to me what that means exactly?

[Michelle Van De Bogart]

Do you mean tier 1 from the “Trafficking in Persons Report” from the United States of America?

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Yes.

[Michelle Van De Bogart]

Each year, the United States does an analysis and evaluation of other countries. We're pleased to report that we continue to remain on tier 1, which means that the work we're doing under the national strategy, the work that we're doing at the federal, provincial and territorial levels, is actively working to deal with the human trafficking area. That doesn't mean that we don't have more work to do, but we're very pleased to report that we remain on tier 1.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

There was mention earlier that individual RCMP officers are trained. Is that training done online?

[Supt Kimberly Taplin]

The national human trafficking section has worked to create or update existing training for our law enforcement personnel. Most recently we conducted an environmental scan of some leading training that is available. In 2021 we updated that online training.

In addition to the online training, there is also training available to all law enforcement as well at the Canadian Police College. That is a 10-day course. It is delivered in person to law enforcement across Canada.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Is that called “Can you see me?” I think I went through that. Is that the one you're referring to, that training program?

[Supt Kimberly Taplin]

Is it from the Canadian Police College?

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Yes.

[Supt Kimberly Taplin]

I would have to confirm the proper name for that.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Okay.

I spoke with a police officer in my riding about the situation with human trafficking, and he helped me understand a couple of the sections of the Criminal Code. I'm a little confused by them. Criminal Code sections 279.01 and 279.011 criminalize sex trafficking and labour trafficking. Penalties range from four to 14 years' imprisonment for trafficking adults and five to 14 years' imprisonment for trafficking children. I also understood that some of these criminals who are arrested will ask their lawyer to not force bail on them because the time they serve prior to the court date guarantees them one and a half times—for example, if they serve 100 days, they get 150 days waived off the penalty—and the penalties are not that strict. Some of them don't even serve two years.

Do you think the penalties they receive fit the crime?

[Supt Kimberly Taplin]

Thank you for that question.

The RCMP's role is to enforce the laws and not to comment on prosecution or penalties.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Would you agree with me, though, that the penalties...? I've spoken to some people in policing, and they have said that the problem is that they get arrested, they go to court, they get out and then they start all over again. I know for a fact that the federal government does not maintain a national database. How do we prevent these criminals from reoffending?

Is there something that the government needs to change so that we ensure that these children who are trafficked don't fall into this trap again?

[Supt Kimberly Taplin]

Thank you for the question.

I did not come here prepared to, nor is it appropriate for me to provide advice to this committee with respect to sentencing and prosecution.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Would you agree that a database is important to be maintained so that we have better control, the criminals do not continue to practise in trafficking and we can protect our victims? Would you agree to that?

[Supt Kimberly Taplin]

Again, I'm not here to provide advice to the committee at this time. I'm happy to answer other questions.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

From my understanding, the laws do not fit the crime and we continue to have these issues. I looked at some numbers, and they're pretty scary in terms of the increase in children and young adults being trafficked. How do we stop that if we don't have the sentencing that suits the crime? I think we need to improve the laws to ensure that the individuals are kept behind bars until they fully understand what they've done.

I guess that's more of a question I have to ask the justice system. I do apologize; I'm not trying to put you in that position. It's just that after going through some of these exercises and going through some of these videos, it becomes pretty obvious that we're not doing enough.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much.

We'll now turn it over for the next six minutes to Jenna Sudds.

Jenna, you have six minutes.