Status of Women Committee on May 4th, 2023

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 64 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 of June 23, 2022. Members are attending in person in the room and remotely by 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.

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

I 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. For those on Zoom, please use the “raise hand” function.

In accordance with the committee’s routine proceedings concerning connection tests, I am informing the committee that everybody has been tested and that all is well.

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

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.

I would now like to move on to our first panel.

I would like to welcome, from the Angels of Hope Against Human Trafficking, Derrick Flynn, who is the board chair. From the Sudbury and Area Victim Services, we have Tiffany Pyoli York, anti-human trafficking coordinator and public educator. From the Zonta Club of Brampton-Caledon, we have Kathleen Douglass, president-elect and advocacy chair, and she is with Melissa Marchand, who is a member of the Zonta advocacy committee.

We will start by providing each group with five minutes. When you see my hand start going like this, please wrap it up. That means you have 15 seconds or less.

I'm going to hand it over for the first five minutes to Derrick Flynn.

Derrick, you have the floor.

[Derrick Flynn, Board Chair, Angels of Hope Against Human Trafficking]

Madam Chair and honourable committee members, thank you for providing us the opportunity to present here today on the issue of human trafficking.

I’m here representing Angels of Hope Against Human Trafficking. We’re a grassroots community-based organization located in Sudbury, Ontario. Since 2015, Angels of Hope has provided trauma-informed long-term support to over 300 human trafficking survivors and their families. Angels of Hope is the only organization in northern Ontario dedicated exclusively to supporting human trafficking survivors.

Sex trafficking survivors require specialized trauma-informed care to successfully exit from being exploited, reclaim their agency and rebuild their life. The process of escaping and recovering from sex trafficking is complex, highly nuanced and never linear. Once removed from being exploited, it can take an average of seven attempts to successfully exit the sex industry due to ongoing vulnerabilities, trauma bonds and lack of safe and secure shelter.

In addition to broken promises and lack of resources, far too often a survivor’s restorative journey is sabotaged by someone’s lack of awareness and understanding of the survivor’s mindset and trauma that they’ve endured.

Trauma-informed care is much more than making a survivor feel good or treating them with kindness. It’s not a catchphrase, a check mark on a website or a certificate on the wall.

The anti-human trafficking movement is being inundated with self-appointed experts who view human trafficking as fertile ground for grants and funding opportunities. These organizations hang out their open-for-business sign with absolutely no human trafficking experience, and particularly not in working with survivors of trafficking.

Many of these organizations consider the needs of sex trafficking survivors secondary to their fundraising efforts, their career aspirations, notoriety and social or political status. This destroys lives and puts survivors' lives at risk. Funding must be prioritized to go directly to support survivors.

Survivors communicate through their behaviours, yet despite all of the investment in education and awareness training, the majority of our survivors tell us of their experience with ignorance; apathy; social and racial stigmatization; and incompetence, corruption and exploitation among law enforcement, the justice system, doctors, nurses and social services workers. In addition to ongoing education and awareness training, the necessary paradigm shift to change this is only possible through educating those entering these professions.

Angels of Hope is excited to provide human trafficking workshops to the next generation of legal professionals, including university law studies, with the objective of building survivor confidence in the criminal justice system and inspiring legal professionals to understand the survivors' mindset and empower them to seek justice.

Survivors are very clear about why they don’t trust or report to the police and are unwilling to testify against their trafficker. The following is a quote from an indigenous survivor whose daughter was trafficked and ultimately murdered. This excerpt can be found in our report entitled “Increasing Access to Justice for Survivors of Human Trafficking”.

When my daughter passed away, the justice system was so awful. I remember calling the police to verify if it was my daughter that they found, and the police officer right off the hop says, “Well, did you know that your daughter was a prostitute, she was on drugs and she jumped out of a window?”

At that time, I was able to put in a police report about her ongoing exploitation and abuse. The trafficker just got a slap on the wrist and had to take cultural sensitivity training.

I think that is a major expression of how Indigenous women are treated in the justice system.

Survivors believe it’s unsafe to report to the police because of known cases of corruption and fear of being victim-blamed and shamed. It’s estimated that about 80% of human trafficking cases go unreported to the police.

Some survivors also expressed a deep concern about police being unable to get them out of trafficking situations because of the movement across multiple jurisdictions, internal bias or judgment when seeking help, and the safety risk to themselves and their loved ones.

Most people underestimate the significant dangers to those being trafficked, their families and other girls associated with the victim. Abuse and torture such as burns, cuts, breast and genital mutilation and anal and vaginal penetration with foreign objects are just some of the unspeakable horrors that these survivors experience.

It’s time to get serious about tearing down territorial silos and work collaboratively to build comprehensive human trafficking crime data to develop polices, protocols and generously funded programs that allow us to directly serve the long-term healing journey, recovery and basic needs of human trafficking survivors.

We’re making progress, but there’s a lot of heavy lifting yet to be done.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

I'm now going to move it over to Sudbury and Area Victim Services.

Tiffany, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Tiffany Pyoli York, Anti-Human Trafficking Coordinator and Public Educator, Sudbury and Area Victim Services]

Melanie, Deanna, Holly, Faith, Shayna, Megan.

Bonjour. Aaniin. Boozhoo. Hello, Madam Chair and House members.

My name is Tiffany Pyoli York and I'm the anti-human trafficking coordinator and public educator for Sudbury and Area Victim Services. I'm also the chair of the anti-human trafficking coalition in greater Sudbury.

I'm here to speak about human trafficking through the victims' and survivors' voices, which I have been entrusted to share. I brought a ribbon with the names of victims and survivors and those who didn't survive whom I've encountered over the past two years.

Jasmine, Alicia, Ivory, Summer and Heaven.

I can spend my five minutes sharing the accolades for the amazing work that we've done in Sudbury and surrounding areas, but more importantly, I'm here to ask for more, because the people deserve more.

Our women, girls and gender-diverse people deserve more than a common shelter bed where they wonder if the person next to them is coming to retrieve them for their trafficker. They deserve more than 20 counselling sessions. After all the atrocities and abuses that they've endured, they shouldn't have to give up their pets.

These may seem like small, trivial things to those who have stability in their lives, but to the person who is finally able to exit human trafficking, those are the things that can help a person move into rehabilitation from the most heinous life instead of returning to it, which they often feel is their only option, due to the guilt and shame from the abuses they have suffered.

Tina, Marissa, Madison, Joanna, Brandy.

I'm asking you, as change-makers for our country, to share the voices of our women, girls and gender-diverse people who are screaming out for ongoing assistance, because human trafficking and its aftermath don't go away. It's not a matter of a simple rescue; it's ongoing medical and dental care. It's ongoing support for prolapsed uteruses from sexual assaults. It's painful implant surgery as a result of knocked-out teeth. It's ongoing therapy and supports for when the time comes that a victim and survivor's pimp is released from jail.

An average police investigation for human trafficking in Sudbury takes 360 days before charges can even be laid.

Chloe, Drew, McKenna, Jesse, Patricia.

Drugs can only be sold once, whereas a human being can be sold over and over again.

Human beings are not to be discarded, yet the correlation between missing and murdered indigenous girls, women and two-spirited people is too stark to ignore. Tomorrow, on the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit People, effect change and do your part to stop human trafficking. Stop our sisters from being stolen and return our loved ones to their homes.

Ashlee, Hannah, Steph, Alex, Kim.

The four school boards in Sudbury have agreed to an anti-sex-trafficking protocol in which every student from grade 7 to grade 12 will receive the very same preventive education and empowerment messaging. At Sudbury and Area Victim Services, our hope is to share the resources that we have created and to have all-party agreement and support for a national protocol for all Canadian students to receive the same anti-human-trafficking preventive education and empowerment messaging as the Sudbury model.

Stats Canada shared that the highest rates of human sex trafficking occur in Nova Scotia, Ontario and Saskatchewan, which is an illustration that this is a national issue from the Prairies to the Maritimes and in every town and city in between.

Kya, Mackenzie, Ashley.

Do four to five years change a person?

In four years, a trafficker may be released from jail on the very same day that a victim and survivor's child starts kindergarten. In four to five years, a survivor may be starting a nursing school placement on the very same day that their trafficker is released from jail. In four to five years, a survivor may be graduating from rehab on the very same day that their trafficker is released from jail. In four to five years, a victim may have died from suicide because they couldn't face a world where their trafficker was free.

Please take this into account when you consider the minimum sentencing for the heinous crime of trafficking in persons, whether that be sex trafficking, labour trafficking or the trafficking of organs.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much, Tiffany.

I'm now going to pass it over to the Zonta Club of Brampton-Caledon. Kathleen, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Kathleen Douglass, President Elect and Advocacy Chair, Zonta Club of Brampton-Caledon]

Hello, my name is Kathleen Douglass. I am long-time member of Zonta, and I am joined by my colleague, Melissa Marchand, a member of our advocacy committee.

For background, Zonta International is a service organization with over 100 years of service in building a better world for women and girls. We hold consultative status with the United Nations and support global sustainable development targets 5.2 and 8.7, which both address the issue of forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking.

Zonta has a history of tackling the issue of sex trafficking, going back to the sexual enslavement of women and girls in the 1990s Bosnian war, when we financially supported local aid organizations to provide recovery services for survivors.

We know that the multi-billion-dollar global business of human sex trafficking has surpassed gun and drug trafficking for the first time in history. This speaks to the urgent need to address this heinous crime.

Unfortunately, Ontario accounts for more than half of the cases in Canada. Even more regrettably, the GTA, including Peel, is a sex trafficking hub. All of this is in our own backyard. You have the relevant data, so instead let me share with you our community perspective.

The Zonta Club of Brampton-Caledon, a very small service group, has been an active member of the Peel human trafficking network committee since its formation, the only volunteer organization amid the service-providing professionals. We contribute our time, energy, and funds to the work being done by these committed specialists.

Our club advocacy strategy has a two-pronged approach.

The first part is service. Our members volunteer at the local bingo hall twice a month to raise funds to distribute back to the community. Over the past few years, we have contributed over $100,000 to local organizations affiliated with the anti-trafficking effort. The funding has addressed gaps in various programs, such as victim services, emergency services and housing.

The second part of our approach is raising awareness. We conduct social media campaigns and host community awareness events where we feature experts who can speak directly to the very real impact of trafficking in Peel. The 16 Days of Activism event this past November focused on awareness of the rapidly growing cases of trafficking, specifically in the Peel region, and a call to action to speak up and speak out.

Inevitably, the guests at these events leave somewhat shaken and sometimes angered, but always educated by something that they didn't know existed in our otherwise safe world. Feedback we have received includes “I would never guess that this was such an issue”, “I am relieved to know that there are people who are willing to do something about this”, or even “This is me.”

During the pandemic, we didn't rest. We hosted online educational presentations, panels and symposia on the topic of gender-based violence and trafficking. We sponsor secondary school groups called Z clubs, which raise awareness and inform peers—the prime target age group for trafficking—through programs, events and activities that promote access to education, resources and support.

Our small but mighty group has inspired and supported other Zonta clubs and members across the country to educate themselves, spread the word, donate and advocate on behalf of those whose voices have either been silenced or not been heard. In Peel, we pursue advocacy from an all-inclusive perspective, whereby we learn together, commit to a common cause and then go beyond listening. We take action.

What we have learned, and what we believe would be the next best step in the prevention and mitigation of human trafficking, is more community awareness; education through the secondary schools, perhaps built right into the curriculum; and continued sustainable funding for the current projects that make a difference in the lives of those whose names we will never know.

Our newest club member is Lena. She's a trafficking survivor, and I would like to relate her words: “Being trafficked can cause severe trauma and survivors often need intensive, specialized services and support to rebuild their lives and these services are delivered through non-profits who have active voices and advocates of justice for women and men impacted by the sex industry and assisting them in finding necessary support that will aid them in their journey to safety, healing, and restoration.”

Respectfully, Zonta is one of those non-profits with an active voice, as we promote awareness, challenge stigma and encourage action through our advocacy commitment.

We thank you for the opportunity to share with you from a community perspective, a volunteer perspective and a human perspective.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

We are now going to start with our rounds of questioning. Our first round is six minutes.

I am going to pass the floor now to Dominique Vien. Dominique, you have six minutes.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I also welcome each and every witness and thank them for coming to meet with us today.

My first questions are for Mr. Flynn.

I'd like you to tell us more about tearing down territorial silos, which you mentioned earlier. You said it would be advisable, because it could significantly improve the sad situation of human trafficking.

What did you mean by that, exactly? To which situation were you referring?

[Derrick Flynn]

There are several situations with the silos we have. There are incredible people all over Canada who are working in this area, but we work within our own spheres. Things are changing, but different police organizations....

For example, we had a case just recently. If you are a trafficking victim or a survivor here in Ottawa and you are being moved between different jurisdictions, oftentimes with the links between different police agencies, organizations and victim services organizations there are jurisdictional boundaries that complicate things, and although you can work it out maybe a day or two down the road, when it's three o'clock in the morning and you're trying to save a girl's life and get her to safety or some kind of a shelter.... We need to tear that down so that there is collaboration among all of those agencies.

It is not only that. From a data perspective, we all need data, and nobody is really getting serious about, first of all, identifying the different forms of trafficking and identifying the data that is vital to legislators. When we come with our hand out saying we need help funding this, that or the other thing, we need to have good, sustainable, credible data to provide. We don't have that right now.

We've got the human trafficking hotline—it's fantastic—and we've got each of the local victim services agencies, and that's fantastic. All the different social services groups have their individual data, but we're not working together to share that data. If I had to ask somebody today how many girls called, we would not be able to provide that answer.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

I have to interrupt you, because I have very little time and many questions.

That's similar to what the committee has already been told about jurisdictions, the hold different organizations have over jurisdictions. You talked about the police, but there are all the provincial jurisdictions as well. Obviously, we'll have to broaden our scope for victims to be safe.

You said that 80% of cases aren't reported. How can we deal with that? How can we help women who have trouble filing a report because they're afraid and don't trust the police?

What recommendation could the committee develop to change things?

[Derrick Flynn]

Thank you for that question. It's a great question.

In what we do at Angels of Hope, the number one most important thing is the safety and security of the survivor, and that of her immediate family and anybody in our network. That's the number one thing.

Then we provide services that allow her to look after her health needs. We provide a wraparound assessment in terms of what her overall needs are. Maybe there is a criminal justice system element to that too, but ultimately we provide a set of services that make them feel safe and empowered so that if and when they're ready, maybe they'll testify against their trafficker. Maybe a week down the road they've got their stuff together and they're ready to talk to the police and they're comfortable doing that. We provide the safety and security net and services for them in that immediate time.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

I had other questions to ask you, particularly on organizations that get funding and shouldn't. I'd like your comments on the subject. Maybe one of my colleagues will ask the question.

In your opinion, Ms. Pyoli York, do we stop perpetrators relatively quickly? Many witnesses told us that they basically get away with it, often with just a little slap on the wrist.

[Tiffany Pyoli York]

Thank you for that question.

Based on the information we get from our survivors and our victims and the family members of those who don't survive, that very small minimum of four to five years is what we're seeing for the traffickers who are put away on that charge.

In that time, all of our feedback is that we haven't had anybody—

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Ms. Pyoli York, do you think sentences are too lenient?

[Tiffany Pyoli York]

Absolutely not. We hear 100% from our victims, survivors and their family members that their healing process hasn't even begun by the time the trafficker is out of jail and looking for them.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

In fact, what I'm saying is that sentences aren't harsh enough.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thanks so much, Dominique.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Your time is up. I'm sorry. I know they're excellent questions, but your time is up.

I'm now going to move over to Sonia Sidhu. You have the floor for six minutes.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to thank all the witnesses today.

I know Zonta International is working very hard in Brampton. Thank you, Melissa, Kathleen and everyone who is appearing here today. Thank you so much for working hard on the ground.

I know Zonta has been actively involved in the sponsorship and organizations of Z Clubs in local high schools. The effort you have been making has been quite successful. We have heard in this committee that youth have been targeted online, especially during the pandemic, as you said in your statement.

Can you comment on the importance of reaching youth early on through prevention, Kathleen?

[Kathleen Douglass]

Thank you for that.

While I am not an expert, I'm a community supporter and ally. We have found that peer-to-peer knowledge is very successful. The Z Club members are leaders within their schools, so we find that when they present information sessions, when they conduct campaigns, when they work with groups like White Ribbon Campaign, those things are very successful because they're talking to their peers, who are at the prime target age to be groomed for trafficking. We have found that to be very successful.

These are efforts they are making on their own. It's not as if we are telling them what to do. They see the need, as we have identified, and they work with our Zonta Clubs to ensure that the information is out there and available in whatever form is appropriate. Whether it's through presentations, lectures or events, they are there talking to their peers about the dangers and the risks.

You are absolutely right. From everything we know and what we've heard from the professionals, the pandemic was absolutely a dangerous time for young people to be groomed for trafficking.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you.

In your experience, what are some unique challenges faced by survivors of human trafficking and how can these be overcome through targeted support and services?

[Kathleen Douglass]

Again, I'm not the professional. We have professionals here who can speak to direct experience.

However, we have learned and we have a member in our club who is a survivor. She, along with other survivors who have been speakers at our events, has spoken to us and shared with us. They will talk about the fact that it takes years to overcome the trauma and particularly the stigma, and to overcome the actual physical challenges they have, such as getting back into society, because they're looking for housing and looking to be well cared for in their health and looking, perhaps, to be re-educated.

Reintegration into the community is what we're hearing, which is why we support Ncourage, which is a hub to bring the survivors in to where they are first treated for the immediate needs they have. It's a triaged approach. Then they have transitional housing and then they look for third-stage housing.

We support those groups and find those opportunities to provide funding that fills in those little places that perhaps sustainable funding does not cover. We have heard from them that they are so grateful for the work that's being done, particularly in Peel, where they have very much coordinated their approach very successfully.

All the groups come together in the Peel human trafficking committee, and we work together, from the service providers to the groups that provide the actual boots on the ground—the Elizabeth Fry Society, for example. The Peel police are very responsive to the needs of our survivors.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you.

How could government policies be improved to better address the issue of human trafficking? What recommendation would you make to our committee on this topic? Anybody can answer.

[Melissa Marchand, Member, Zonta Advocacy Committee, Zonta Club of Brampton-Caledon]

Our stance through Brampton-Caledon Zonta is that we would like to encourage a broader application of learnings through organizations like ours and ones that we see here today, in terms of fund development, advocacy awareness and education across the board to make it more impactful and sustainable, and in terms of mitigating the associated risks, because there are so many complex areas, as you alluded to, MP Sidhu, pertaining to mitigating the situation for youth from the beginning.

When it comes down to it, statistically, children who grow up in families where there's violence may suffer a range of behavioural and emotional disturbances that could also be associated with perpetrating and experiencing violence later in life, so we start at the root, at the youngest level possible, in terms of prevention and understanding, and also just in terms of awareness that the issue exists at all and that it is affecting and impacting children. One in three cases of human trafficking involves children, according to the United Nations statistics.

Education is what we're advocating.