Status of Women Committee on March 23rd, 2023

[Nathalie Levman]

One thing I can note that the committee might find interesting is that human trafficking cases often involve a significant number of charges, many more charges than regular cases. That will be in your human trafficking juristat, which I'll ensure you get links to.

We see a wide range of different offences. This is because trafficking is an ongoing or course of conduct offence during which incident-based offences tend to be committed along the way, usually to control the victim. That's what you are stating. You're stating the phenomenon of, “If you don't perform this labour or service, then I am going to share intimate images I've taken of you with” person X, the world or whatnot.

We do have cases where we see different charges being laid. Section 162.1, which is the non-consensual distribution of intimate images offence, can be used in that context.

Extortion is the offence of extorting sexual favours. We have very good case law on that offence. It's clear that extorting sexual favours, extorting money or whatnot by threats of releasing pictures is extortion. Extortion is a very serious offence with a maximum penalty of life.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much.

We're going to pass it over for two and a half minutes to Andréanne.

Andréanne, you have the floor.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ladies, thank you again for being here today. I'm going to pick up where I left off in the first round.

In 2019, the federal government implemented a series of measures in the form of a national strategy. The evidence the committee has heard this week from representatives of various departments and organizations has made us realize how important it is to coordinate efforts. It's a crucial element, but one that is lacking. That is just as true for prevention, investigations and prosecutions as it is for victim protection. However, government efforts fall short in a number of ways, especially when it comes to protecting victims, as the U.S. Department of State noted in its report.

What is your view on interdepartmental coordination? From a coordination standpoint, what can be done to better protect victims of human trafficking?

The immigration officials can go first, followed by the women and gender equality official.

[Alexis Graham]

Collaboration is a huge part of the work we do in this national strategy to address human trafficking. I think Public Safety is probably the best placed to give you that overarching perspective on how that collaboration all fits together under the national strategy, but I can say, in terms of Immigration's role, we do collaborate quite closely with law enforcement agencies through our investigations. As Sarah was saying earlier, we provide that support of information intelligence that goes into those enforcement actions. That is one connection point that is very close for us.

I don't know, Sarah, if you want to add more on that.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

I have just 30 seconds left. I'd like to hear what Ms. Levman, from the justice department, and Ms. Garrett‑Baird think.

You can each have 15 seconds. Please be as quick as you can.

[Nathalie Levman]

I would just note that the human trafficking task force, which is run by Public Safety, brings all of the implicated departments together on a regular basis so that we're sharing information regularly and assisting each other in the work we do, as appropriate.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

We're going to pass it over to Leah Gazan.

Leah, you have two and a half minutes.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you so much, Chair.

My last question is for Madam Levman.

You spoke about trust in policing and building trusting relationships. I would differ in that we know that particularly the RCMP is riddled with systemic racism and has a history of over- or under-policing, as we saw in the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. That provided very specific calls for justice to address this.

I don't think this is best served with policing. That's my bias. I think it's best addressed by frontline community organizations that address safety issues with women, girls, 2SLGBTQQIA who may be being sex trafficked, or just sex workers, in terms of reporting.

Does your department support community-based independently run agencies and organizations to serve on the front lines and be advocates for people should they become sex trafficked or need protection as sex workers?

[Nathalie Levman]

Justice Canada has a victims fund, and it has an ongoing annual allocation of $1 million available to victim-serving organizations delivering specialized supports and services for victims and survivors of human trafficking, so we do some of that funding. I would say, though, in relation to the substance of your concerns, that partnerships are incredibly important. Policing is very complex in Canada, because there are so many different police forces. I know that many police forces have specialized units that deal with human trafficking with embedded support services.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I'm looking at the research. For example, Butterfly talks about the need to resource communities and divest from policing, because a lot of people don't feel safe going to police, including for reasons of being deported. It's overlap.

Is your department looking at putting greater funding into frontline organizations rather than policing to address this?

[Nathalie Levman]

That's part of what that $1 million that I explained is for—

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

That's very small, $1 million, but thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thanks very much.

We'll end this panel in a second, but before you leave, I have a question for the IRCC.

You talked earlier about the VTIPs and TRPs, and you indicated countries. If you could give us a list of those countries, with the ages and genders of those victims who received those VTIPs, I would really appreciate that. Could you please send that to the committee?

Thank you so much.

We'll now do a switch-up. We'll be bringing the people who are online back on, but I would really like to thank the four of you for coming to provide this information to our committee.

We'll suspend and then get right back to work.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I'd like to welcome everybody back. We have quite a bit of work to get done, and six o'clock is our deadline.

I will introduce our next three panellists.

From the Aboriginal Women's Action Network, we have Fay Blaney, the lead matriarch.

No. She's not here. Maybe next time.

From the Ontario Native Women's Association, we have Coralee McGuire-Cyrette, executive director.

I would like to say thank you so much to Coralee. We're going to give her a lot of space, because this beautiful woman searched all over New York to make sure she had a headset. She got her headset approved just moments ago.

Thank you so much for making sure, Coralee. It's important.

From Women of the Métis Nation, we have Melanie Omeniho.

Thank you to both of you. I will give you both five minutes for your opening statements.

I'll pass it over to Coralee first.

You have five minutes.

[Coralee McGuire-Cyrette, Executive Director, Ontario Native Women's Association]

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and committee members.

My name is Coralee McGuire-Cyrette and I am the executive director of the Ontario Native Women's Association. ONWA is the largest and oldest indigenous women's organization in Canada and has the largest indigenous-led anti-human trafficking program. In the last 10 months, we have helped support 426 women and girls in safely exiting human trafficking. I want to acknowledge the bravery, wisdom and leadership of all survivors, as they are the experts. Their advice informs all aspects of our trafficking work.

Today, my testimony will focus on the ways we can prevent and address the trafficking of indigenous women and girls, and the ways we can improve law enforcement's ability to identify and hold offenders accountable.

In 2018, ONWA released a report called “Journey to Safe Spaces”. It is based on intensive engagement with over 3,300 community members and service providers, as well as 250 self-identified survivors of human trafficking. Now and historically, indigenous women have the poorest outcomes in the 16 most acceptable social determinants of health in the country. To prevent the trafficking of indigenous women and girls, we must first address the risk factors that create the conditions that make them more vulnerable and targeted by human traffickers, such as income security, lack of social and cultural supports, and lack of equitable access to health care, to name a few.

We all know colonization has significantly influenced the current landscape of indigenous women and girls being trafficked in Canada. They are vulnerable to violence because they are both under- and over-policed. Often, they are not believed and further victimized by the systems mandated to protect them. They experience multiple barriers, inequality, systemic discrimination, racism and lateral violence, and they are excluded from nation-to-nation policy engagements.

If we want sustainable change, we need to deconstruct the current systems and reconstruct indigenous women's leadership, voices, honour and empowerment. Governments at all levels must implement a distinctions-based plus approach in alignment with article 18 of UNDRIP. They must also support indigenous organizations through core funding, so these can provide safe spaces that are survivor-centred, culturally grounded, and designed and led by indigenous women. Indigenous women's lives are not projects. We cannot address systemic change through project-based funding. It is difficult to work towards reconciliation when indigenous women are not safe in our country. To date, there has been an abundance of education, training and public awareness campaigns, but not an abundance of core funding to support prevention-based services.

Not all provinces in Canada have prioritized human trafficking. Many still do not have strategies to address or eliminate the trafficking of indigenous women and girls. It is critical to understand that indigenous women's voices have been left out and silenced in conversation. This has impacted their safety, well-being and livelihoods, and this is why ONWA advocates for a distinctions-based plus approach. We cannot afford to continue leaving indigenous women out of the conversation while we are six times more likely than non-indigenous women to be murdered.

The issue of police accountability is a conversation that needs to be addressed at many levels. All police forces must acknowledge the systemic racism embedded in their systems and work towards change. They need to build trust with indigenous women's organizations, so indigenous survivors of human trafficking feel safe enough to report the exploitation to them. Clear policing standards and training would assist police in identifying victims of human trafficking. After identification, police investigations need to be trauma informed and done without discrimination or bias. All police forces across Canada should review and ensure they have implemented all recommendations in the 2018 “Broken Trust” report, in order to make sure their organizational behaviour aligns with addressing and eliminating systemic racism and does not perpetuate it.

Today, we still have governments quick to dismiss the notion that human trafficking exists in our community, because it's difficult to hear what indigenous women and girls negotiate every day just to survive.

In closing, I would like to encourage the committee to review our “Reconciliation with Indigenous Women” report and our “Journey to Safe Spaces” strategy in full. They both provide a comprehensive road map to keeping indigenous women and girls safe from human trafficking and supporting them in rebuilding their lives.

Meegwetch.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much.

I'll now turn it over to Melanie Omeniho from Women of the Métis Nation.

Melanie, you have the floor.

[Melanie Omeniho, President, Women of the Métis Nation - Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak]

Thank you, Chair, and committee members for making space for Women of the Métis Nation - Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak, to come and present today.

Human trafficking is of great concern to all of us. I'm presenting to you from the motherland of the Métis nation and Treaty 6 territory in Edmonton, Alberta.

The impacts of Métis displacement from their homeland, the harms experienced through issues like residential school systems, their loss of culture, the abuse experienced from our communities within the child welfare system and the sixties scoop means that many of our families and communities struggle and are disconnected from their culture and their ability to heal within their communities.

Violence is a part of our lives each and every day. We really appreciate organizations like ONWA which have brought statistics to you. However, many of the Métis have no statistics, and the data is not tracked. We don't know what our numbers are. We do understand that systemic causes have led to the devaluation of Métis women and gender diverse people. Further, we see a horrific normalization of sexual violence within our country.

Métis women, girls and gender diverse people are more vulnerable to traffickers because of colonialism, intergenerational trauma, histories of unresolved physical and sexual abuse and diversabilities. Mental health and poverty also form some of the reasons why many of our women are vulnerable to being human trafficked.

Women have always been specifically targeted for violence through federal policies and legislation, such as strict policies, marriage laws and the rights to property that were created to undermine family, community and the political structures that existed within our communities.

We further acknowledge our vulnerabilities that lead to trafficking by age. Children from zero to six.... We even have them on birth alerts. We're aware of just how our communities are susceptible to the kinds of vulnerabilities that are created by such things.

Youth may be experiencing a loss of their culture and identity. They are doing unhealthy sexual behaviours, because of the experiences they have from being disconnected from their communities, families, and structures.

Into early adulthood, traffickers might recruit Métis youth from across our Métis nation motherland with a promise of a glamourous life, which adds to further isolating them from their communities. We see vulnerabilities in youth aging out of care, those involved with the justice system, or those otherwise disconnected from their family and community.

No reports exist on Métis perspectives of human trafficking and anti-human trafficking. We need to be able to form pathways for healing, and support survivor engagement to ensure Métis-specific strategies are addressing the unique realities of Métis women and 2SLGBTQIA+ people.

Human traffickers follow the money by luring girls and women into areas where they're very close to their resource-based industries or camps where young men are there to find ways to exploit them. There are several corridors in human trafficking where our girls have been noticed, from Thunder Bay to Toronto, down to Minnesota, from Winnipeg to North Dakota, and from Vancouver to Washington. Alberta has also been a favourite destination in recent years with Calgary and Edmonton as long-time hot spots. Secondary routes lead to resource towns, such as Fort McMurray, Alberta, in providing isolation and protection away from anti-trafficking initiatives.

Formal statistics reflecting the number of Métis women and 2SLGBTQ people, who are trafficked, are inadequate for many reasons, including the underground nature of the industry and the under-reporting by victims due to fear, coercion and the movement of those being trafficked.

We would like to make some recommendations that we're hoping this committee, with its study, would be able to do.

The national—

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Melanie, your five minutes are up now.

Our time is so tight tonight. Melanie, could you make sure that we get those recommendations? We need to get them on the record, because I know you have a lot to offer, but I want to ensure that everybody on the committee gets their chance to ask questions as well. I'm going to cut you off now, but I'm going to ask you for those recommendations in writing, if you don't mind.

I'm going to pass it over and start our rounds of questioning. For questioning, we'll have 30 minutes total.

I'm going to start off with the six minutes and pass it over to Michelle Ferreri.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

Thank you both for being here. It's a powerful, important conversation.

If I may start with you, Ms. McGuire-Cyrette, I read a stat, and I know you quoted it, but I don't think I wrote it down quickly enough.

While indigenous women only make up 4% of the Canadian population, they make up roughly 50% of trafficking victims. While this is heartbreaking, obviously, thoughts and prayers are not solving this issue.

Do you think the government is doing enough today to protect indigenous women and girls from being trafficked?

[Coralee McGuire-Cyrette]

Thank you for the question.

Definitely, when you're looking at statistics, I know they're all over the place. I was listening to the earlier session around the lack of data around this issue because of.... It's the tip of the iceberg in the stats we're seeing. In some communities, I would imagine the numbers are probably even substantially higher.

Our statistics, for instance, are showing.... In our program alone, which is the largest indigenous anti-human trafficking program in Canada, from 2017 to 2022, we helped support 858 exits of human trafficking through 12,000 contacts. This is our own data that we're tracking with the women we've been working with. There is definitely some.... The communities that have indigenous women have either higher rates than 50% in some of the smaller communities....

I think as long as this issue continues to exist, we're failing. We're failing indigenous women as a community, as a society and as a system. We need to be doing more to keep indigenous women safe. There's a connection between missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and human trafficking. There's a direct correlation between missing girls, missing children and missing women and a connection to human trafficking, and—

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

I'm sorry. I hate interrupting you, but we only have so much time.

You answered my next question and segued perfectly into where I was going, with that correlation between murdered and missing indigenous women and human trafficking. You spoke about what we heard in the last panel with the lack of data. It was appalling, actually, but I also don't know the answer.

I'd be curious to hear your thoughts, because the reality is.... In my experience of seeing...in my community, we have women working and also being trafficked, but it's not being reported. How do you collect data if you don't know what those numbers are?

I'm going back to murdered and missing indigenous women. When these women were left as nothing and they weren't accounted for in the system, how do we know the true data and how do we solve it?

Do you have any insight on how we can do that when it's not reported?

[Coralee McGuire-Cyrette]

Yes, definitely. I think if we get down to the root cause of it, we need to invest in indigenous women's safety. That's the bottom line.

We know that the issue is there. We know there are business cases to be built. We know there's data and there's a lack of data, particularly when you're looking at the root cause of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in that we don't have the data around the entire story, like the death story, for instance. How many women have died? Who killed them? What were the causes of death? All of those things would lead to policy change at a systemic level.

The same thing goes when you're look at addressing human trafficking or violence against indigenous women. We have seen the data show that non-indigenous women continue to have their safety increase, and it's because of the investments into them and into their systems. Their systems do not work for us as indigenous women. We need to see investments into indigenous women's physical safety immediately, really looking at that as the systemic approach we have to start to address.

We need that core sustainable funding for indigenous women's agencies. That hasn't happened here in Canada, and there has to be that long-term, sustainable funding to support indigenous women's safety.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you so much for that.

I guess I'll give the opportunity to.... I'm going to say your last name wrong, so I'm going to say “Melanie”, if you're okay with that, Melanie.

It's a chicken-and-egg situation because the way that a lot of funding works is that you show the data to get the funding for a program. How do we invest in something? Well, we have this many, and we need this much, and we need this many resources.

What's your suggestion on the best way to collect data when so many of these women are not reporting? The victims aren't reporting it because they're full of shame or they live in fear of their perpetrator, so how do we collect this data?

[Melanie Omeniho]

I believe that part of what needs to happen is creating safety for women to be able to report. Police are not a safe place for women at this point in time. It's a shame, but that's the reality of the story that we live. We need to create spaces that are safe for people to report, so that when they are reporting, they don't become victims of the systems that are supposed to be there supporting them.

I would tell you that the other issue is racism. It's an issue in this country and that's evident whether we're talking about human trafficking or missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. People don't want to see the numbers. They're afraid.

Look at what happened when the report came out about the 215 graves in Kelowna. Everybody was so surprisingly shocked. There had been a truth and reconciliation report that had clearly identified that this had been going on. Story after story had been told to the TRC. Why should it have shocked anybody, if they had been paying attention? It's because people don't want to really acknowledge the numbers, even the information from the police, and then reporting and tracking isn't happening.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much, Melanie. I hate cutting you off, especially when we're talking about such an important topic. I'm trying to be polite with the “thank you”.

I'm going to pass it to Emmanuella.

You have the floor for six minutes.