Status of Women Committee on March 30th, 2023

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Good afternoon, everyone.

I'd like to welcome you to meeting number 58 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women.

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

I would 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 mike and please mute yourself when you are not speaking.

Regarding interpretation for those on Zoom, you have the choice at the bottom of your screen of floor, English or French. For those in the room, you can use the earpiece and desired channel.

I'd like to remind you that all comments should be addressed through the chair.

For members in the room, if you wish to speak, please raise your hand, and for members on Zoom, please use the “raise hand” function. The clerk and I will manage the speaking order.

In accordance with the committee's routine motion concerning connection tests, I'm informing the committee that all witnesses appearing virtually have completed the required connection test.

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

Before we welcome our witnesses, I would like to provide this trigger warning. This will be a difficult study and we will be discussing experiences related to abuse. This may be triggering to viewers, members or staff with similar experiences. If you're feeling distress, please advise the clerk or signal us.

I would now like to welcome our guests.

From the Association of New Canadians, online we have Monica Abdelkader, director of resettlement and settlement services. From the FCJ Refugee Centre, we have Chiara Rossi, coordinator of anti-human trafficking — women; and Jovana Blagovcanin, who is manager of anti-human trafficking. From Indus Community Services, we have Raman Hansra, who is the project manager for family services; and Jakki Buckeridge, who is the manager for family services. And here in the room, from Ka Ni Kanichihk, we have Ieesha Sankar, who is the director of program and services.

As you can see, today we have four organizations. We will be listening to our panels for one hour and 15 minutes and we will be doing committee business for the last 45 minutes.

I'm going to turn the floor over to Monica to begin.

Monica, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Monica Abdelkader, Director, Resettlement and Settlement Services, Association for New Canadians]

Thank you very much.

Hello, bonjour, honourable members of the House of Commons. Thank you for inviting me here today.

My name is Monica Abdelkader, and I use the pronouns “she” and “her”. I am the director of the resettlement and settlement services at the Association for New Canadians in Newfoundland and Labrador.

I would like to acknowledge that the offices of the association are located on the traditional lands of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu and Inuit people. We commit to the collective healing, true reconciliation and land honouring required as part of our responsibilities toward indigenous people.

The Association for New Canadians was established in 1979 and is the leading provider of resettlement, settlement, language and employment services for newcomers to Newfoundland and Labrador. Our mission is to settle and integrate immigrants, empowering them with the skills, knowledge and information necessary to become independent, contributing members of our community and our country.

In order to help shed light on the human trafficking of newcomers to Canada, I wish to share my experience working for a legal aid clinic for refugees and asylum seekers in Cairo, Egypt, from 2011 to 2012.

In the course of seeking safety from countries neighbouring Egypt, many fled conditions unfathomable to those of us lucky enough to be born in Canada. Time and again, we heard how migrants and asylum seekers would become entrapped and exploited.

I bore witness to the scores of physical and mental scars of human trafficking, including sexual exploitation, labour and organ trafficking. I met victims being actively trafficked, those who had survived and some who didn't. The stories are harrowing.

In countries like Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, ethnic conflict, successive regimes of oppressive governments and mandatory conscription, along with rampant corruption, have resulted in the displacement of millions. To get to Egypt, most cross the desert on foot for days. Some succumb to the Sahara Desert or the shoot-to-stop policies of border control, but it is the gangs that are the most dangerous. Bedouin militia groups are known to kidnap asylum seekers and migrants who cross the desert for ransom and trafficking.

We had cases of mothers coming to our office, begging $2,000-$5,000 U.S. ransom for their children, who were under direct threat of organ trafficking. When they failed to come up with the money, we would listen live to these calls. We had fathers who would sob as they recounted tales of their daughters who had disappeared after being sold into sexual slavery. Others spoke of being held in prisons, forced to commit sexual acts and pay thousands to avoid torture and trafficking at the hands of local police.

Those who made it to our office in Cairo were the lucky ones, but even with temporary or permanent refugee protection in hand, traffickers lurked at every turn. Our clients shared stories of employers taking away their documents, charging fees and docking wages illegally, at times physically restraining their movement in order to exploit and coerce them into submission.

In Canada, when Yazidi survivors of Daesh arrived in 2017 and 2018, the settlement sector again bore witness to the stories of Yazidi women whose resilience is at times impossible to understand.

The genocide of Sinjar in 2014 and losing children to sexual slavery and as child soldiers are included among some of the worst atrocities of humanity. I am happy to share that many of our Yazidi friends and neighbours are now getting Canadian citizenship. I have heard from many who have shared how proud they are to be Canadian.

It is the pride we have for our work at the ANC, including our recent work on human trafficking in Newfoundland and Labrador, that I would also like to share with you.

In 2017, resulting from the commitment of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to resettle women and girls at risk, we saw the increase in the arrival of government-assisted refugees with lived experience of human trafficking. With funding from Women and Gender Equality Canada, we embarked on a three-year project led by refugee women, many of whom survived the very same trafficking I previously described.

As we worked at the ANC to heighten awareness with newcomers, settlement staff, and members of community and government organizations, we gathered their experiences, best practices and suggestions for system and service improvements. One of the key challenges this project seeks to address in its iterative learning design is that people experience or know situations of exploitation, but they don't actually know that they are human trafficking.

The results have been absolutely beyond our expectations. We saw an almost immediate increase in the identification and reporting of cases of migrants actively or at immediate risk of human trafficking. We have cases of migrants, both temporary and permanent residents, being labour trafficked by employers who, like in Egypt, have taken away their documents, charged fees and docked wages illegally. We have cases of newcomer spouses of Canadian citizens whose documents have been taken, and they have been locked in their homes. We have others who have been approached for sex or marriage in exchange for permanent residence. Cases include people from Eritrea, Mexico, the Philippines, Somalia and Ukraine.

We have also received an outpouring of support from the wonderful and generous people of our beautiful province. On February 22 of this year, on the national day of awareness, we hosted the first ever summit in the province on human trafficking, with community and government leaders in attendance. We are humbled to be entrusted by newcomer women and survivors to lead this very important work, and we're thankful to our communities for their never-ending support.

With this, I want to thank you once again for your time today and for the honour of giving voice to the refugees and migrants who have made it possible for me to share these observations and experiences. They truly have made me who I am today.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

We're now going to the FCJ Refugee Centre.

Jovana, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Jovana Blagovcanin, Manager, Anti-Human Trafficking, FCJ Refugee Centre]

Thank you to the members of the committee for having us here today. My name is Jovana Blagovcanin, and I am the anti-human trafficking manager at FCJ Refugee Centre. I'm joined here today by my colleague, Chiara Rossi, who is the anti-human trafficking women's coordinator.

FCJ Refugee Centre is a grassroots community organization based in Toronto, Ontario. For over 30 years, FCJ Refugee Centre has supported hundreds of individuals and families, many in precarious situations, in accessing services and regularizing immigration status. With an open-door and holistic approach, we offer a unique integrated model of providing supports and services, such as housing, shelter and integration to migrants. These include migrants who may be at risk or are victims of human trafficking for labour and sexual exploitation.

Through our work supporting survivors of labour trafficking, we have recognized that women are highly represented in cases of labour trafficking. This is not a male-dominated issue. Within our cases in the past year, 40% of these have been of migrant women. Migrant women are highly vulnerable to exploitation due to their gender, precarious immigration status, language barriers and limited knowledge of their rights or available resources, which in turn results in limited access to their rights.

Women are exploited in all sectors. We see women trafficked in sex work, and in domestic servitude, factories, restaurants, hotels, farms and cleaning services. These women have limited options to exit their situation and are often threatened with violence or deportation. In fact, traffickers often use their victims' precarious immigration status against them as a form of control and coercion. In addition to these barriers, we often see how women have difficulties securing safety due to an inadequate integration of gender perspectives and analysis in relevant law enforcement services.

For these women with precarious immigration status, there are limited remedies to secure stability. First of all, even though IRCC's policy does not require victims to collaborate with law enforcement agencies, or to testify against their traffickers in order to receive a temporary resident permit, TRP, as a victim of human trafficking, in our daily practice we have observed that many such TRP applications are denied when a case against the trafficker is not pending, whether this is because no investigation was initiated by law enforcement or has been concluded in court. This is particularly true for both initial and subsequent TRPs for victims of labour trafficking, which are refused at a higher rate than sex trafficking victims. As a result, if there is no criminal investigation ongoing or the case has been concluded, she is left with no status, no justice and very few options to safely remain in Canada.

Furthermore, while some victims may be granted a temporary resident permit, there are almost no permanent immigration remedies. Current options are exceptional in nature, making it difficult for victims to be successful in obtaining permanent residency. In turn, this creates uncertainty in the lives of victims and their families, whose future depends on the unpredictable outcomes of their immigration and criminal proceedings.

Finally, if granted a TRP, the victim will have barriers to accessing essential services, such as housing subsidies available to domestic victims of trafficking or other vulnerable women, and provincial financial assistance—here in Ontario it would be Ontario Works—and, most importantly, she will have no right to family reunification. As a result, mothers are unable to reunite with their children in Canada and have difficulties visiting them in their countries of origin without losing their status.

We therefore recommend that a gender perspective be better integrated in law enforcement and other services; that temporary status be granted to victims regardless of the existence of an investigation or criminal proceedings against their traffickers, as established in the relevant IRCC policies; and that clear and consistent options for permanent residency be developed to respond to the needs of survivors. Finally, we recommend that adequate trauma-informed and victim-centered services be offered to all victims regardless of their immigration status.

We are grateful and honoured to be here to be able to bring this perspective forward, including labour trafficking as an issue that does impact women, especially migrant women. We are grateful to be able to bring forward the perspective of all migrant women today.

Thank you for having us.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

We're now going to pass it over to Indus Community Services.

Raman and Jakki, you have five minutes to share.

Raman, please go ahead.

[Raman Hansra, Project Director, Family Services, Indus Community Services]

Good afternoon. Thank you for having me here today.

My name is Raman Hansra, and I am the project director of family services at Indus Community Services.

With the generous funding support from Women and Gender Equality Canada, our anti-human-trafficking project is testing best practices to support survivors of human trafficking and at-risk populations. As we started this project, we realized that minimal evidence-based research exists on the needs of victims of human trafficking. Because incidents often go unreported, often we don't know the true scope of human trafficking. What we do know is that human trafficking is flourishing around us, demanding our attention and action.

Working with other community partners and settlement-service providers, we also recognize that, while there are effective services available, there are still aspects of these services that need to be improved. For example, there need to be cultural considerations regarding referrals to counselling, as victims come from many different cultures and we cannot assume that individuals from all cultures will respond to the same approach.

Involving the family in helping victims post-trafficking can be a great support system for many survivors. However, many family members may not have a full understanding of human trafficking, and this can cause the family to place a stigma on the victim. It is critical for us, as service providers, to have a solid understanding of their unique needs and to train and support our settlement counsellors and other service providers to better equip them to support survivors of human trafficking and at-risk individuals.

As most newcomers and international students often access these settlement services, there is a huge opportunity for us, as service providers, to identify the signs of trafficking in order to connect them with appropriate services.

We have recently launched our tool kit for service providers to better support the survivors and at-risk populations. We are hopeful that this will help them identify who is at risk, who the traffickers are, and effective responses, while also providing a detailed list of local resources.

Going forward, Indus Community Services and our partners hope to be able to build on current momentum to bring an end to human trafficking in all its forms.

Thank you for the opportunity to address the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Jakki, please go ahead.

[Jakki Buckeridge, Manager, Family Services, Indus Community Services]

Good afternoon.

My name is Jakki Buckeridge. My pronouns are she and her.

To piggyback on what my colleague, Raman, was saying, Indus' commitment to anti-human trafficking has spanned over a decade. We've been involved at all levels of government in developing a Peel-centred care pathway for survivors of human trafficking. We're active members of the Peel Human Trafficking Service Providers Committee, which collaborates across the region on the elimination of human trafficking through education, advocacy, empowerment, and the restoration of victims' and survivors' rights.

Ontario attracts nearly 50% of all international students coming to study in Canada. Of the international students who choose Canada as their place of study, more than 50% are from India and China.

There were two main reasons that international students reported for choosing Canada particularly. Number one, they felt that this was a non-discriminatory country; that was about 78% of those students. Number two, they felt that it was safe; that was 78% of those students.

At Sheridan College alone, international students represent over 30% of the student population. Sheridan has over 22,000 students, 6,800 of whom are international. Campuses for Sheridan are located in Brampton, Mississauga and our sister region, Halton.

Of all human trafficking in Canada, 60% happens in the GTA in every town, bus stand and retail store—even in our own backyards. One in three cases of human trafficking involves another crime. In the last six years, police-reported cases of human trafficking increased by 200%.

In addition to supporting the needs of sex-trafficked individuals, we at Indus recognize and aim for the elimination of all forms of human trafficking, including forced labour, sex trafficking, domestic servitude, organ removal, debt bondage, forced begging, child soldiers and forced marriage.

It was in 2020 that Indus expanded this commitment by leveraging our experience in supporting newcomers and international students with the generous funding support from WAGE. We have developed this survivor-informed tool kit for service providers to identify and respond, from a cultural lens, to foreign-born individuals' being labour-trafficked. On February 28, we launched our prototype tool kit to over 80 service providers in the region to further inform the tool kit, to raise awareness on the issue and on gaps in service, and to build collaborative support for survivors.

I'm very happy to be here today to lend our perspective.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

I'm now going to turn it over to Ieesha.

Ieesha, you have five minutes.

[Ieesha Sankar, Director, Program and Services, Ka Ni Kanichihk Inc.]

Thank you. I'm very happy to be here today to talk about this very important topic.

Hello. My name is Ieesha Sankar. I'm from Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation and I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I'm here today to represent the organization I work for, which is Ka Ni Kanichihk.

Ka Ni Kanichihk means “those who lead” in Cree and was established in 2001, when a community of indigenous women recognized it was time to reclaim women's roles as experts and leaders in their own social and community development. We have expanded our community programming since then, based on what people need to continue their journeys. As an indigenous-led and -delivered organization that helps urban, indigenous people—primarily women—who want to change their lives or become more educated, strengthen their families, come to a safe space, rise from poverty or gain employment, Ka Ni Kanichihk delivers tailored programs and mentorships that help individuals get to where they want to be.

Ka Ni Kanichihk is in the community of Winnipeg's core area. We are dedicated to delivering holistic programs and services that respond to community needs. We provide indigenous-identified programs and services that focus on wellness and build on the strength and resilience of indigenous peoples. We have multiple grassroots programs that support individual and collective growth and development in adult education, youth job readiness and skills development mentorship programming, building cultural awareness and wellness support services.

The Mushkowzee Ikew program, which is an empowerment project, is a three-year, community-based project geared to 14- to 29-year-old indigenous female and non-binary people at risk of sexual exploitation, being trafficked, becoming involved with the justice system or living in poverty. Grounded in a strength-based empowerment framework and an organizational philosophy of culture as prevention, the project works with a minimum of 20 participants per year, for a total of 60 participants over the project time frame. Due to more participation and return to the project after periods of being away.... This will increase the capacity of the project, with the potential to work with up to 100-plus participants over the course of the project.

The project has four pillars: life skills, cultural reclamation, empowerment, and healing and pre-employment training. Implementation incorporates individualized learning in combination with online programming, small group work, land-based cultural connectivity and customized wraparound mentorship. Using a continuous intake model, the project has an intensive engagement, knowledge transfer and service delivery approach, combined with positive mentorship relationships that will strengthen those protective factors, increasing resilience and reducing negative influences, such as gang involvement and sexual exploitation.

The Mushkowzee Ikew program is delivered using a community resource approach. It seeks to build on individual strengths, uses knowledge-based programming, belonging and empowerment. Cultural programming takes place throughout the project and focuses on participation in activities related to establishing, or re-establishing, traditional knowledge and practices, such as traditional teachings, drum-making, beading, medicine-picking and participation in a variety of traditional ceremonies. Each participant has a mentor who will provide coaching and mentorship in the areas of life skills, budgeting, counselling, treatment, medical and legal advocacy, community service referral and employment supports.

This project works in partnership with community and youth corrections, female offender unit, Manitoba Justice to receive project referrals, and with the Manitoba Harm Reduction Network in supporting harm reduction supplies and practices.

The Mushkowzee Ikew program objectives are preventing and combatting human sex trafficking. It works to prevent revictimization through building support networks and safety planning. It supports recovery and healing for victims and survivors, while empowering participants to regain independence and community reintegration. Grounded in indigenous cultural histories and traditions, the project programming and ways of being provide a strong base to uniquely empower indigenous people to heal through the victimization and trauma they have experienced.

Human trafficking knows no borders. It is crucial that we raise awareness about this issue and work together to combat it. Governments and law enforcement agencies have an important role to play in addressing human trafficking. They can strengthen laws and policies to prevent human trafficking, investigate and prosecute perpetrators, and provide support and protection to victims.

In conclusion, human trafficking is a grave violation of human rights that affects millions of people around the world. It is a complex and multi-faceted problem that requires a comprehensive response. We must work together to prevent human trafficking to protect victims and fund more programs like Mushkowzee Ikew, which provides assistance to victims and works towards the prevention of human trafficking.

By doing so, we can help to ensure that all people can live free from exploitation.

Meegwetch for listening.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much, Ieesha.

I'm just going to make a comment to Raman. We're noticing that your background is blurred, which causes some issues for our technology here. Would you be able to unblur that as we start our lines of questioning?

We'll start with a six-minute round, beginning with the CPC and Michelle Ferreri.

You've got the first six minutes.

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

Thanks, Madam Chair, and thank you to everyone for being here. That was great testimony to hear from all of you with the experience and ideas you bring to the table.

It's interesting because I think it was Jakki—if I can call you Jakki, first of all—who I know has been in the industry for 23 years. You gave a lot of stats, which I think is great, but in the same breath, when we hear from Raman and have heard from some of the bureaucrats, the stats and the data just aren't reflective of the real crisis, and it's a really tough thing to solve when you don't even have the real numbers to solve this issue.

We have a tent city in my community of Peterborough—Kawartha. Housing really seems to be the crux of a lot of what we're seeing with a lot of these issues. It's a recipe for disaster. If there's no housing, if there are no supports, I would assume your risk would go up significantly when I think of some of the young women I've met who are living homeless in my community.

If I could go to Monica, do you think supportive housing for victims would be beneficial to managing this crisis, and having supportive housing especially when we heard about immigrants? There was just so much testimony here, I don't want to single one person out, so if there's somebody who wants to put their hand up to answer this question first, please do, as there's just so much here, because immigrants are also an issue when we we're looking at housing.

I see Monica, you're nodding a lot, so I'll turn it over to you, if you don't mind. I'll get you to answer where housing fits in this.

[Monica Abdelkader]

To your comment, a lot of us actually were talking about how we work together, so to any of my peers on the call, please feel free to also jump in.

I'll answer the question in two parts.

When I was working in Cairo, a lot of our cases were cases of human trafficking. What I saw pre-arrival to Canada of newcomers is that a lot of the times, these issues are linked back to your original question and issues of abject poverty. When people lose everything in the process and they're desperate to rebuild their lives, those who don't have the means to navigate those systems tend to end up falling victim to exploitation. This is something that in my career—and I have been lucky to work in this field for quite a while—I see time and time again. When I come back now to Canadian soil and our work in Newfoundland and Labrador, I do see a lot of the same parallels. In fact one of the things the Association for New Canadians has done is feasibility studies specifically around shelter services for newcomer women in our community, which are next to non-existent. When we have victims of trafficking, survivors of trafficking, in our programs what becomes extra challenging is how to support them when we're trying to get them out of these situations.

Whether it's labour trafficking in the remote communities of Labrador or trafficking right here in the city of St. John's, the response is much more difficult to provide when there isn't that housing. But so too are the conditions that lead to that exploitation to begin with, so much like in my talk where I drew the parallel between my experience in Egypt and my experience here in Newfoundland, these parallels exist here in Canada as well. A lot of the cases we are seeing are at heightened risk for trafficking or become victims of trafficking because they end up turning to people who offer what seems like genuine help to get them out of this abject poverty.

Therefore, housing underpins a lot of the work we do, and housing first is often what we find as a trauma-informed approach to the same issue. A lot of this boils down to exactly that.

I see that my colleague Chiara wants to add, so I'm going to leave her some space.

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

Okay, I'm going to give you space too. Sorry, I only have so much time. I have two more questions.

Chiara, if I can come back to you in one second, I just want to get to two other questions first

I think shelters are important, but I think permanent housing is really the crux of this issue, right? It's really affordable housing.

Raman, you had talked about minimal evidence-based research. How do you suggest we get it? What would be the best way for the government or for organizations to obtain this research?

[Raman Hansra]

While we were working on this project, we realized that there is minimal evidence-based research, because incidents often go unreported. What are the reasons that these survivors or at-risk individuals don't report trafficking? We need to dig deeply. Only then will we be able to get some sort of evidence-based data on human trafficking.

I also feel that immigration status is a big thing. As Jakki mentioned, in the Peel region, we have thousands of international students. Because of their status and the barriers that exist, systemic barriers as well as individual barriers, they often do not feel safe to go out and talk about their situation.

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

Thank you so much, Raman. I'm sorry; I only have 20 seconds left.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You're done, I'm sorry.

I see hands up. We will continue with the rounds, and I'm sure that your voice will get heard.

I'm going to pass it over to Sonia Sidhu.

Sonia, you have six minutes.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you, Madame Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses for being with us.

My question is to Indus, because you're from Brampton. I'm a Brampton MP. Thank you for the work you are doing on the ground.

Raman, you were talking about international students, that they don't know their rights and that there are barriers.

What kinds of barriers have you heard about on the ground?

[Raman Hansra]

The biggest barrier, I would say, is lack of affordable housing. It's a huge issue. The living conditions—I can't even imagine. There are 10 or 15 students living together in a basement. It's really dangerous, not just for their physical safety but also for their emotional well-being. They become easy targets of these traffickers who sometimes give false promises like “If you need any help, we can help you. All you need to do is whatever we say.” Sometimes, because of their financial situations, living conditions, lack of affordable housing.... Language barriers are another thing. For new immigrants, that's a huge barrier.

All these barriers lead them to some dangerous situations. Because of their status and because they don't know how to navigate the system, it becomes really difficult for them to go out and seek support.

Thank you.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you.

My next question is to Jakki Buckeridge.

In Peel we have some strong models for integrated services like Indus Community Services, Zonta Club and Sukhmani Haven. There are many other organizations there to help.

How can we improve the coordination of services for newcomers who are the victims of human trafficking?

[Jakki Buckeridge]

I want to also point out that we have the Encourage Hub that is part of the Safe Centre of Peel, where we are co-located as individual partner agencies to support efforts around housing, mental health and addictions. They are all one-stop shops.

I think for us one of the challenges, to piggyback on what Raman was saying, is that often our clients have housing, but the landlord is also their employer. They're stuck in this, “If I quit my job, then I lose my housing. If I move, I lose my job.” We saw this so much during the pandemic, when folks were being underpaid, working under the table and really being debt bonded. Because they were international students and they had no way to earn during the pandemic for the next year, they would often do things that were most certainly illegal and exploitive. They can't tell their families that they've been giving their landlord and boss sexual favours, because the stigma associated around that when they return home would be just too great.

We are doing great things here in the region. I don't have the answer. Honestly, I don't know how to take care of the exorbitant tuition costs that international students have, but I know that it has to happen on a legislative level, because it's not enforceable if somebody says, “My landlord is taking advantage of me”. They'll just be told to move. That's the closet answer.

The one thing that we did find from our research and our work with service providers when we launched our tool kit was that we didn't have the answers. We went through three life scenarios at the symposium, and people could identify the issues quite easily. They could identify strategies, but there were very limited resources to support folks who were being labour trafficked.

I don't know if that answers your question. I hope it does.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you.

The Association of New Canadians or anybody can answer that. What are the most effective prevention strategies so that we can work together? For awareness, we've heard about a survivor tool kit. Is there anything that is effective so that they can know their rights?

We also heard that one in three cases is in Peel, which is a lot, and that there's a 200% increase in cases, so we definitely need some effective prevention strategies.

We've also heard of the WAGE grant. How is this grant effective so that other organizations can work at preventive strategies?

[Monica Abdelkader]

There is a lot there to unpack, probably more than I have time to do today. I'll start with the WAGE funding.

The funding from Women and Gender Equality Canada has been absolutely instrumental in the work we are doing. I think it's worth noting that their fund for sexual reproductive health is up for being ended in 2024, and there is a call from a number of service providers to the government to see that extended in order for them to be able to continue some of this really important work. It can be seen from me, and from all of the speakers today, that in all of our work, it is survivor led.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You have 10 seconds to wrap up.

[Monica Abdelkader]

That funding allowed us to amplify the voices of our survivors to help them be part of the decisions. As an organization, we work with many of the partners at the table today, but also others, and we actually train people on human trafficking and provide systems of support.

I will wrap up there.