Being 13 years old often means going to the mall, hanging out with friends and worrying a little bit more about school and getting good grades; you’re just trying to fit in and have fun with your friends. One day, you’re at the mall and someone approaches you telling you the most kind and caring things you may have ever heard. This person connects with you, offers you a secure life with love and promises -that will never be kept. They manipulate you by using little drops of what seems like love to convince you to run away with them. After making you dependent, they exploit you using intimidation, threats, isolation and control.
January 11 is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Human trafficking is defined by the Department of Justice as “the recruitment, transportation, harbouring and/or exercising control, direction or influence over the movements of a person in order to exploit that person”. The most common forms of exploitation are sexual or forced labour. When women reflect on how they became victims of human trafficking, often they describe how their traffickers used this “Romeo” technique to lure them away from their homes. The reality in Canada is that the most common victims of sex trafficking are 13 to 14-year-old girls.
Sex trafficking is a worldwide issue that disproportionately affects women with 98 per cent of sex trafficking victims being women and girls. In Canada, 93 per cent of trafficking victims are female and come from Canada. Most alarming, yet unsurprising is that indigenous women make up 51 per cent of the victims of trafficking references by a report from Public Safety Canada in 2014 as the most vulnerable to exploitation. Sex trafficking is a serious threat to women’s equality and erodes women and girls basic rights to live free of violence and the biggest risk factor for being a victim of trafficking is being a girl. Aside from the loss of basic human rights, women often face psychological, emotional and physical effects from surviving sexual violence.
Traffickers don’t view women as people; she is a commodity, she is something to be sold, traded or bartered away to make them money. The Canadian Women’s Foundation reported that the average annual profit from each female trafficked in Canada is $280,800 dollars. It is all about the money for the trafficker, but the problem lies in how the justice system deals with traffickers and those exploiting women. Since 2007, there have only been 71 trafficking court cases with only 30 per cent resulting in a guilty finding. Those that are doing the most harm are not the traffickers, but those exploiting women and children. If there is little concern of being convicted, why would the exploitive behaviour change? There is even greater concern with the shift in sex trafficking moving from being visible on the street to invisible on the internet.
Part of the solution starts with talking about these issues and having compassion for the victims. We need to focus our attention on those who are exploiting women and children and refuse to be silent. We need to speak up about the realities women and girls face who are exploited through sex trafficking and educate the public on the impacts of exploitation. We have the power to put sex trafficking out of business if we challenge our federal, provincial and municipal governments on their efforts to end sex trafficking in Canada. Gender-based violence is a community issue, it requires action on all levels and we at YW strive to enable women to live free of violence in the community.
If you are at risk, or know someone who may be at risk, contact YW Calgary, Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse, Alberta Victim Services, or the police.
