Status of Women Committee on May 15th, 2023

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much, everybody.

We are back for the second part of our meeting. We are doing a study of human trafficking, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted on Tuesday—

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Madam Chair, we have no interpretation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Is there interpretation now? That's fantastic.

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

I'd like to make a few comments. I remind everybody that this is a very difficult subject. For anyone, if you're triggered, let us know. For those who are on Zoom, make sure you press your choice of English, French or floor—whatever works for you—and make sure you mute yourself when you're not speaking.

I would like to welcome everybody. All the connection tests have been done. I know we need to get right to work, so I would like to welcome our witnesses for this panel.

In the room, from the Action Coalition on Human Trafficking Alberta Association, we have Kate Price, the executive director. From the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform, we have Angela Wu, who is the executive director from SWAN Vancouver. From the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, Rosel Kim is the senior staff lawyer; and from the Yukon Status of Women Council, we have Jessica Stone, who is the project manager.

We're going to be providing you each five minutes to speak, and we're going to be starting with Kate Price.

When you see my hand, please start wrapping up.

Andréanne, go ahead on a point of order.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Can you confirm that it's the representative of the DisAbled Women's Network of Canada who won't be attending the meeting because they failed the sound test?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Yes, the DisAbled Women's Network of Canada did fail the test, unfortunately. They have sent in a brief, but they tried the headset and it was not working out very well today.

Go ahead, Anita. Do you have a question?

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Yes. I wonder if there's a chance to reschedule them maybe for Thursday or another day, because this is a gap that we have. We haven't heard from any women's disability groups on this issue.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

They are working on that. We're already offering some things, and we're looking at spaces already. That's absolutely an issue.

We're going to be turning the floor over right now to Kate Price.

When you see me start wrapping it up, you can take about 10 to 15 seconds and then you'll be done.

Kate, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Kate Price, Executive Director, Action Coalition on Human Trafficking Alberta Association]

Thank you.

Good morning, Madam Chair and honourable committee members. Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to contribute today and speak about the issue of human trafficking in Canada.

My name is Kate Price, and I am the executive director of ACT Alberta, which stands for the Action Coalition on Human Trafficking.

In the spirit of reconciliation, I respectfully acknowledge the traditional lands of diverse indigenous peoples on which we meet today.

ACT Alberta is a non-governmental, non-profit charity that operates province-wide. We run a community-based victim services unit that uses a harm reduction model to provide specialized case management to victims and survivors of both labour and sex trafficking. We offer free anti-trafficking education to the public, as well as tailored training programs for industries, such as law enforcement, health care and transportation. We use a coalition model to strengthen referral networks, cross-agency partnerships and research initiatives, in order to help build our community's capacity to combat human trafficking.

Today, I would like to raise three points for your consideration to highlight critical nuances of supporting survivors.

My first point is that sensationalizing human trafficking is harming victims. Sensationalizing can form an unconscious bias or a harmful stereotype, or perpetuate the idea of a “perfect victim”. According to a report by the Canadian Women’s Foundation, 62% of trafficking victims in Canada were trafficked by an intimate partner or someone they knew well. If we are looking for shackles, bars on windows or human smuggling, we may miss the human rights violations occurring right in front of us. Sensationalizing this crime may make the victim or survivor feel their experience is not traumatic enough to come forward. They may feel minimized and downplay their experience because it doesn't mirror what they see in the media.

ACT Alberta has had the privilege of serving hundreds of survivors. While there may be some statistical overlap, their stories are their own. Human trafficking can and does happen to anyone. Coercion and manipulation are more common than restraints. Awareness-raising initiatives must be thoughtfully developed to better represent the diversity of survivors and their experiences.

My second point is that we must not dictate the opinions of survivors. Whether an organization believes in ending the demand for sex work, decriminalizing sex work or remaining neutral in this debate, the priority should always be empowering the survivor. Stats Canada reports that almost half of Canadians who are in recovery from an active addiction will face social stigma in society, which creates significant barriers to accessing treatment and support services. Whether a survivor wants to pursue sobriety, exit or remain in the sex industry, or report their abuser, it is their decision alone and one they shouldn't make with judgment.

It's important to remember that the trauma a survivor has experienced may have started long before they were trafficked. In a study done by the Polaris Project, of the 457 survivors surveyed, 96% of participants had experienced childhood abuse, whether psychological, sexual or physical. Trauma-informed care helps us acknowledge someone's response to trauma and change the question from “What's wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” We need to understand that survivors are equal partners in planning, developing and monitoring care. Person-centred care means putting survivors at the centre of decisions and regarding them as experts—

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

On a point of order, Madam Chair. The sound is cutting out, and it's interfering with the interpretation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Perhaps you could go back to the last two sentences, if you don't mind. We'll start from there again. I stopped the clock.

Go ahead.

[Kate Price]

We need to understand that survivors are equal partners in planning, developing and monitoring care to make sure it meets their needs. Person-centred care means putting survivors at the centre of decisions and regarding them as experts working alongside professionals to get the best outcome.

My third and final point is that labour trafficking is rampant. While I know this study is focusing on sexual exploitation, it's very important to not overlook labour trafficking, a crime that thrives in otherness and often intersects with exploitation and sex trafficking. Traffickers typically target racialized and marginalized individuals who have precarious documentation and status in Canada. In 2022, 55% of ACT Alberta's clients experienced labour trafficking, and 100% of our labour trafficking cases involved clients of international origin.

Based on our frontline experience and that of our partners, ACT Alberta believes the national statistics on the prevalence of labour trafficking do not accurately depict the reality. Investing in research and direct support for survivors of labour trafficking is critical. Equally important is addressing the systemic and cultural racism that minimizes the urgency of this issue.

As you pursue this research initiative, I ask you to please consider the nuances of survivor-centred care and to continue to prioritize diversity of thought.

Thank you for your time today and for all your work to combat the trafficking of women, girls and gender-diverse people.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

I was just advised that the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund has only until 12:15 p.m., so I will ask Rosel to take her five minutes right now. As we start our questions, I would ask members to take that into consideration.

Rosel, I will give you the next five minutes.

[Rosel Kim, Senior Staff Lawyer, Women's Legal Education and Action Fund]

Good morning. My name is Rosel Kim. I'm a senior staff lawyer at the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, also known as LEAF. I'm grateful to appear today from what is now known as Toronto, which is on the traditional lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Wendat, other Anishinabe and the Haudenosaunee nations.

Founded in 1985, LEAF is a national charitable organization that advocates for the substantive equality of all women, girls, trans and non-binary people. We do this through litigation, law reform and public legal education that is feminist and intersectional. As an organization with a mission to advance substantive gender equality, LEAF is committed to ending the exploitation of women, girls and gender-diverse people.

Thank you for inviting LEAF to participate in this important study. I want to make three main points in my opening remarks today.

First, effectively addressing the exploitation of women, girls and gender-diverse people requires responses that aim to address systemic oppression, such as colonialism, racism and transphobia, among others. A systemic approach to ending exploitation also requires acknowledging the negative impacts of state actors and actions. For example, Elene Lam from Butterfly noted how police can serve as a source of violence for Black, indigenous and racialized sex workers, and how encounters with the police can lead to negative consequences like detention and deportation for migrant sex workers.

Taking this into account, measures to address exploitation must be grounded in anti-oppression and respect the agency and self-determination of everyone involved. As Krystal Snider from WomenatthecentrE remarked before this committee, saviourism and victimization language used by organizations and law enforcement doing anti-trafficking work can lead to trauma and revictimization for victims coming forward.

Second, trafficking and sex work are not synonymous and must not be conflated. Part of the work to stop conflating sex work with trafficking must include decriminalizing sex work. As you heard from Sandra Wesley from Stella, the term “trafficking” has been used to refer to multiple concepts that range from physical, sexual and labour abuses as well as child sexual exploitation. This conflation has the effect of obscuring the sources of marginalization and vulnerabilities that I identified earlier.

It also has resulted in harmful consequences for sex workers. Anti-trafficking measures that rely on policing and criminal sanctions do not address the sources of marginalization or inequality faced by people who are vulnerable to exploitation. Instead, they often make things worse, especially for sex workers who are targeted and pressured through these initiatives.

You have heard from groups like the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform and Sex Workers of Winnipeg Action Coalition about how conflating sex work and trafficking has resulted in targeted harassment and surveillance of sex workers by law enforcement and anti-trafficking investigations. These harms are compounded by current criminal laws that criminalize sex work. Criminalizing and characterizing all sex work as exploitative make it difficult to identify actual instances of exploitation. It also excludes sex workers from protections against labour exploitation that are available to other workers through employment and labour laws.

Finally, it is important to provide actual social and economic supports to people who are vulnerable to exploitation. These supports include income supports, social supports, affordable housing and health supports that are accessible and barrier-free. These social and economic supports should be accompanied by changes to laws to remove vulnerabilities faced by migrant workers. For example, LEAF has called to repeal immigration regulations that prevent migrant sex workers from obtaining status or being allowed entry into Canada.

In sum, ending exploitation requires a systemic approach grounded in anti-oppression, distinguishing trafficking from sex work and providing concrete supports to eliminate sources of marginalization.

Thank you very much. I look forward to answering any questions you might have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Fantastic. Thank you so much.

I'm now going to pass the floor over to the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform.

Angela Wu, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Angela Wu, Executive Director, SWAN Vancouver, Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform]

Thank you very much.

My name is Angela Wu, and I'm the executive director of SWAN Vancouver, a member group of the alliance.

I am calling in today from the traditional and unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam nations.

For the last 20 years, SWAN has supported newcomer, migrant and immigrant women engaged in indoor sex work. We work to promote the health, rights and safety of these women through frontline services and systemic advocacy.

SWAN is also a member of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, an alliance of more than 80 organizations from around the world working to end trafficking. As such, we are deeply familiar with issues relating to both sex work and trafficking.

At SWAN, upholding sex workers' rights and addressing trafficking are not mutually exclusive. As the committee has heard from other witnesses about the problematic conflation of trafficking and consensual sex work, I will not spend too much time on this point. All I will say is that sex work and trafficking are complex issues, and when they are presented as the same thing, the result is an oversimplification, which has led to well-intentioned but ineffective and even harmful initiatives, policies and laws. Sex workers are bearing the brunt of these policies and laws, particularly sex workers from marginalized and equity-seeking groups.

I'd like to take this time to address two recurring suggestions I have heard in this committee for improving Canada's human trafficking response. Many witnesses have called for, one, increased training and public awareness campaigns about the realities of trafficking and, two, more resources directed to law enforcement as a solution to the problem. While I agree that public education is important for addressing social issues, right now, most anti-trafficking initiatives perpetuate misinformation that does a disservice to both trafficking victims and other marginalized groups. Human trafficking awareness training continues to use vague, overly broad and, frankly, often racist “red flags” or “indicators” that trafficking is occurring. These red flags can be applied to many situations that are not human trafficking, which often leads to people seeing trafficking where it isn't and, ultimately, wasting resources.

For example, a common red flag is that a trafficker will limit or restrict a perceived victim's ability to speak in public, or that someone will speak for them, when in reality, many of the women SWAN supports may not speak English, and it's normal for newcomers to have family members or support workers translate for them.

Furthermore, there is the unacknowledged role and complex interplay of gender, race, ethnicity, language and culture in establishing these red flags. For example, when a number of non-white, and especially Asian, sex workers who speak accented English work together, this work situation can be perceived as a case of trafficking, whereas the same conclusion may not be drawn about a group of white, Canadian-born sex workers.

Although SWAN works with women who are often perceived to be trafficked, it's important to note that we very rarely come across any cases with the hallmarks of trafficking, such as coerced work. Instead, we find that women we support face a spectrum of exploitation and/or violence in their work, most often directly as a result of the stigma and criminalization they face.

To the second point, also embedded in most anti-trafficking initiatives is the idea that law enforcement is a solution to trafficking. Repeatedly, women have told SWAN that they fear the police more than predators. This fear means that some of the most marginalized and systemically vulnerable women do not report violence or exploitation. Our current laws and policies meant to address trafficking are self-contradictory. How can we expect law enforcement to protect the very same people who are criminalized by the laws they enforce?

Along with many other witnesses, I urge the Government of Canada to fully decriminalize sex work by repealing the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, or PCEPA, as well as the immigration and refugee protection regulations, which prohibit migrants from engaging in sex work. The Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights has already recommended repealing the IRPR ban on sex work. We urge the members of this committee to reiterate this recommendation and to hold the Government of Canada accountable for following through on repealing these regulations, which actually put migrant women engaged in sex work in precarious and exploitative situations.

I ask the committee to think critically about the issue of human trafficking and to recognize that, while it is absolutely important to address, we do not have to jeopardize sex workers' lives to do so. It is not enough to say we understand the difference between sex work and trafficking if the resulting response continues to be anti-sex work at its core and puts sex workers in harm's way. If Canada's anti-trafficking approach continues to be anti-sex work, the most marginalized people in the sex industry will continue to be at grave risk of violence and exploitation.

Thank you very much for your time.

I look forward to answering any questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

Now we're going to move over to the Yukon Status of Women Council, and I'm going to pass the floor over to Jessica Stone.

Jessica, you have five minutes.

[Jessica Stone, Project Manager, Yukon Status of Women Council]

Thank you so much for this opportunity to speak today.

I'll start by introducing myself. My name is Jessica Stone, and I'm the project manager of the supporting workers' autonomy project Yukon at the Yukon Status of Women Council. We are located on the traditional territories of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Ta'an Kwäch'än Council.

Our project provides direct services to people who trade sex in the Yukon, and we predominantly serve indigenous women, who inform and guide our project.

I'm going to speak today to the harms that emerge when we use bad or non-existent data to inform our understanding, our frameworks, our systems, our policies and our laws.

Many witnesses before this committee are testifying for the need for policy-makers to differentiate between sex work and trafficking. When gender-based violence data is produced through a framework that conflates sex work and trafficking, all sex work is understood and defined as violence.

To be clear, we are not suggesting changes to the human trafficking laws per se, but we are asking to stop using the language of human trafficking in these studies to understand a broad range of violence. This conflation is not simply performative. By calling so many different kinds of violence “human trafficking”, you are obscuring the realities of those different kinds of violence. The human trafficking approach does not recognize the layered and complex violence that sex workers experience, most of which is not human trafficking. This causes harm in a multitude of ways.

Firstly, bad data practices are amplified. There is a fundamental difference between the act of sex work and the act of violence against a sex worker. Secondly, by requiring sex workers to identify as victims of trafficking to receive support, the data gets skewed. In turn, the number of people who are reported as being trafficked gets inflated. This invisibilizes the realities of human trafficking and enables an increase in funding towards anti-trafficking initiatives and policing, which then perpetuates this cycle.

This is a critical point for this committee to recognize in their recommendations: Human trafficking cannot be used as a framework for such a broad range of violent experiences.

Sex workers have agency to do sex work, and sex workers also experience violence. Sex work laws need to be repealed in order for violence against sex workers to be reduced. This is a clear recommendation to this committee. Autonomy and agency are consistently ignored with respect to sex work, and this hypocritical framework deters people who sell sex from accessing safety. It deters them from reporting occurrences of gender-based violence and enables the continual haemorrhaging of taxpayer dollars into systems that are largely ineffective.

Lastly, the anti-trafficking narratives used not only within this committee but within policies and practices at large are rooted in racist, infantilizing language and ideologies. Without addressing such colonial and patriarchal origins, indigenous, Black, migrant and other racialized workers will continue to experience a disproportionate amount of harm from the enforcement of these policies.

Indigenous communities have been very clear—police training is not what is needed, but rather support to the communities themselves.

In conclusion, when all violence experienced by sex workers is mislabeled and understood as trafficking, we create a false narrative and we perpetuate harm.

I'm going to break it down very simply here. There is a conflation between sex work and trafficking in the law and the application of a human trafficking framework. This conflation enables continued bad data collection practices that in turn emerge into harmful practices and policies. The process that I'm describing here is self-reinforcing. It's a process that is essentially flawed by virtue of its being a closed system that fortifies itself.

From a logical standpoint it is invalid. From a methodological standpoint it is ineffective. The very thing that's required to build systems, policies and programs that have meaningful impact to reduce harm—that is, accurate and reliable information about the lived experience of people—are negated by this conflation of sex work and trafficking. We see this parallel phenomenon in the north often, where the lack of access to good, reliable data reinforces the continual building of bad or ineffective systems.

If we do not have an accurate picture of the violence experienced by sex workers, we are going to continue to be unable to be effective in addressing it. Sex workers have repeatedly voiced the need to stop conflating sex work and trafficking. Sex workers are clear in reporting how violence is enacted upon them and who the violence is largely stemming from. If government and law enforcement are named as perpetrators of violence, there needs to be accountability from stakeholders and meaningful engagement with sex workers to create effective policy, law and supports that seek to reduce harm, not create it.

Thank you. I look forward to the opportunity to answer your questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

We'll be starting with our first round of questions of six minutes each.

I'm going to pass the floor over to Dominique Vien.

Dominique, you have six minutes.

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

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I'd like to thank all the witnesses for being with us today to talk about human trafficking of women and girls.

This is a very difficult subject to discuss. We're finding it extremely difficult. After hearing your testimony this morning, I'm having a bit of trouble getting my head around it. This committee has been hearing a lot of things for some time now.

Ms. Stone, do you feel that there may be a pathway from consensual sex work to trafficking of women and girls? Is that happening?

Many of you this morning are clearly drawing a line between sex work and trafficking of women and girls.

Could the two realities intersect?

[Jessica Stone]

Thank you so much for your question.

I would respond with this. In all industries, including the sex work industry, there is the risk for exploitation and trafficking. When we are talking about addressing trafficking, as many people today have spoken to, we need to address inequalities across all industries, and we need to have the same protections and regulations that are available to workers in all other industries be available to those who work in the sex industry in order to reduce the vulnerability to exploitation and trafficking.

Again, we need to look at.... Exploitation and trafficking can exist in all industries, so that includes the sex industry. However, we need to ensure that there are protections and regulations available to sex workers so that there is recourse available if exploitation begins to happen to them.

Thank you.

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

Thank you for your answer.

Ms. Stone, you stated that you had little data on the north. I can confirm to you, and my colleagues will support me on this, that we've had several stakeholders come before us and say that data is lacking across the country and it's hard to put a finger on exactly what trafficking involves, where it's occurring, who's responsible for it and so forth, and also to follow up with victims.

Ms. Price, my understanding from what you said about “sensationalism”—and I'm using my own words, not the exact words you used—is that the stigma does more damage than the offence itself, which would be the actual trafficking, for example.

Does that sum up your thinking correctly?

I may have misunderstood your notion of “sensationalism” and how we should respond to it.

[Kate Price]

Thank you for your question.

I find it confusing with the French and the English. I apologize.

I definitely do not believe, nor does ACT Alberta, that sensationalizing the crime is worse than the crime itself. It's strictly a concern we have heard from survivors and clients, who have communicated they were unsure if they should even reach out, because they felt their experience was not horrific enough to warrant services or horrific enough to warrant the risk of deportation or other fears of entering the system.

That's what I meant when I said sensationalizing can worsen an already terrible crime.

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

Thank you, Ms. Price.

Do you feel that people have a solid grasp of what trafficking is, that it's clear?

[Kate Price]

Do you mean in this space today or within the Canadian culture?

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

I mean in Canada. When we talk about trafficking, I feel like it's a situation that many people talk about without necessarily having the same baseline.