National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking
2014-2015 Annual Report on Progress

National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking - 2014-2015 Annual Report on Progress PDF Version (397 KB)

Foreword

This is the third Annual Report on Progress on the implementation of Canada's National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking (National Action Plan),which was launched on June 6, 2012. It covers the period of April 1, 2014 - March 31, 2015. To promote consistency and underline the flow of implementation from year to year, this report follows the format of previous versions.

Federal commitments under the National Action Plan are situated within the internationally recognized '4-Ps' approach: prevention, protection, prosecution and partnerships; they are being implemented with the cooperation and collaboration of the federal departments and agencies that make up the Human Trafficking Taskforce.

The National Action Plan is a living plan. As new information about the scope and nature of human trafficking in Canada comes to light, the Government of Canada will continue to enhance its efforts, informed by its commitment to engage with stakeholders and experts across the country on an ongoing basis toward combatting human trafficking in all its forms.

Key achievements in support of the National Action Plan in 2014-2015 include:

• Comprehensive overhaul of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), which includes stronger enforcement and tougher penalties for employers who break the rules, as well as improved protection for foreign workers.
• The publication and distribution of the “Handbook for Criminal Justice Practitioners on Trafficking in Persons”, endorsed by the federal/provincial/territorial (FPT) Ministers Responsible for Justice , whose purpose is to provide criminal justice practitioners with guidance in the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking cases. The Handbook is also available online on Justice Canada's website.
• Development of a Threat/Risk Assessment entitled Human Trafficking – Nature and Extent of Activity in Border Five Countries. This assessment was a joint effort involving Border Five Heads of Intelligence (Customs/Border authorities from Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand) focused on planning rigorous and direct tactical and operational activity for Border Five agencies.
• Operation Northern Spotlight: Durham Regional Police Service led a two-day, nation-wide blitz in January 2014, focusing on human trafficking for sexual exploitation. Twenty-six police agencies from across the country were involved in the initiative. Over 330 females were interviewed. Nine people were charged with 33 offences and the police were able to ensure the safety of 18 people who had been working in the sex trade as minors or against their will.
• Participation in a human trafficking conference titled: Protecting the Victims of Human Trafficking in Canada and Europe hosted by the Embassies of Austria and Switzerland in Ottawa in association with the University of Ottawa on October 16, 2014.
• Project SAFEKEEPING (April 2014), an assessment of domestic human trafficking for sexual exploitation in Canada, was initiated by the Human Trafficking National Coordination Centre (HTNCC) in 2012 and serves as a baseline report that provides insight into the nature and extent of domestic human trafficking for sexual exploitation in Canada. The findings of this report identify the characteristics of traffickers and victims, the vulnerabilities of victims, and the modus operandi of traffickers. Provincial overviews of domestic human trafficking for sexual exploitation, as well as current gaps and challenges pertaining to investigating this crime, are also included in this report. Overall, the findings of Project SAFEKEEPING provide support to law enforcement, service providers, government organizations, and non-governmental organizations in their fight against this crime.
• National Human Trafficking Conference (Ottawa, April 2014) attendees included law enforcement, crown prosecution and non-government organization (NGOs) communities from across the country. The conference was held to encourage law enforcement and other service providers in Alberta and in other Canadian provinces to work together in an effort to eliminate all forms of human trafficking.
• 52nd Annual International Association of Women Police (IAWP) Training Conference held in Winnipeg, Manitoba from September 28 to October 2, 2014. The theme of this conference, ”The Strength of Many Embracing Human Rights”, was inspired by shared experiences and the rights that women before them fought to secure as police and law enforcement officers. The RCMP's HTNCC recognized this as an opportunity to raise awareness on a global level and deployed a Human Trafficking Awareness Coordinator to present on human trafficking to law enforcement delegates representing over 60 countries.
• Human trafficking stakeholder workshop (Ottawa, March 2015) sponsored by Public Safety Canada was attended by 30 participants representing key stakeholders and federal Human Trafficking Taskforce department and agency members, with a focus on identifying current policy and programming gaps and opportunities.

These achievements and others undertaken in 2014-2015 are outlined in the following pages. This report also provides an overview of the way forward in 2015-2016 as informed by consultations, engagement with stakeholders, data collection and research undertaken in 2012-2013, 2013-2014 and 2014-2015.

The Government continues to enhance efforts to ensure that human trafficking is addressed within Canada's borders, victims will be protected and assisted, and perpetrators will be brought to justice.

Introduction

What is Human Trafficking?

Human Trafficking, often described as a modern-day form of slavery, involves the recruitment, transportation, harbouring and/or exercising control, direction or influence over the movement of a person in order to exploit that person, typically through sexual exploitation or forced labour. Traffickers control their victims in various ways, such as taking away their identity documents and passports, sexual abuse, threats, intimidation, physical violence, and isolation.

Organized criminal networks and individuals perpetrate this crime, operating domestically and across borders. Traffickers reap large profits while robbing victims of their freedom, dignity, and human potential, at great cost to the individual and to society at large. Human trafficking represents a consistent and pervasive assault on the fundamental human rights of its victims.

Human Trafficking in Canada

Human trafficking for sexual exploitation continues to constitute the majority of known trafficking cases faced by law enforcement across Canada. It most often occurs in large urban centres and most victims are Canadian women. However, more evidence of human trafficking for forced labour, which often involves foreign nationals, has come to light in recent years.^{Note 1}

Vulnerable groups at risk of human trafficking continue to include Aboriginal women, youth and children, migrants and new immigrants, at-risk youth, runaways, and those who are socially or economically disadvantaged. At the same time, there have been an increasing number of cases where young girls and women who may not be considered socially or economically disadvantaged are simply manipulated into believing that they are in an exclusive romantic relationship with an individual who in turn uses that relationship as a means of controlling the victim in order to exploit them.

Human trafficking in Canada is as likely to be orchestrated by organized criminal networks as it is by individual or family-based opportunists. With respect to domestic human trafficking, some individuals convicted were affiliated with street gangs. The victims have mostly been recruited through the Internet, by an acquaintance or directly by the trafficker. They were groomed, manipulated, and coerced to provide sexual services to others. In some cases, the victims have been exploited in locations such as exotic dance clubs and/or escort services. Some traffickers provided fraudulent identification for their victims to feign legitimate age.

For cases involving foreign national victims, suspects involved in human trafficking activities mostly operate with associates of similar ethnicity and have ethnic ties to the source countries of their victims. For example, intelligence suggests that organized crime networks with Eastern European links have been involved in the organized entry of women from states formerly part of the Soviet Union into Canada for employment in escort services in the Greater Toronto Area and possibly in massage and escort services in the Montreal area. These groups have demonstrated transnational capabilities and significant associations with convicted human traffickers in various countries.

Human trafficking has also been identified in major cities with a large Asian population and an established network of Asian organized crime. Trafficking for sexual exploitation often occurs in private residences operated and staffed solely by Asian migrants or persons of Asian descent. Some Asian women were initially recruited for legitimate employment, but were ultimately coerced into selling sexual services once they arrived in Canada. This recruitment process may occur within Canada; most Asian women in these circumstances found employment from advertisements in Canadian media. Law enforcement intelligence indicates that some of these women travel inter-provincially, between Canadian cities, to engage in prostitution in Asian bawdy houses. Owner-operators operate more than one location simultaneously and rotate their workers between locations or between other owner-operators. Intelligence suggests that not all owner-operators coerce their workers into providing sexual services.

Findings of the recent RCMP threat assessment on domestic human trafficking for sexual exploitation ('Project SAFEKEEPING')^{Note 2} indicate that large profits are the primary motivation for individuals to engage in human trafficking. As well, while traffickers are usually male, females are increasingly involved as human traffickers. Female traffickers usually work with at least one male. The majority of traffickers are adults, however, underage (under the age of 18 years) males and females are increasingly becoming involved in human trafficking. Underage traffickers commonly work in partnership with other adults and almost always exploit underage victims.

Progress to Date

The Human Trafficking Taskforce (the Taskforce), led by Public Safety Canada (PS) and comprised of key federal departments^{Note 3}, remains the federal body responsible for coordinating the Government of Canada's response to human trafficking. The Taskforce oversees the implementation of the National Action Plan commitments under the '4-Ps' and reports annually on progress to the public. The Taskforce met on a regular basis throughout 2014-2015.

The Prevention and Partnership sub-working group and the Prosecution and Protection sub-working group, whose primary purpose is to support the Taskforce in the implementation of the National Action Plan, have continued to meet as required.

The following pages highlight the progress made on the implementation of the National Action Plan in 2014-2015.^{Note 4}

Part I. Prevention

The Government of Canada will support a broad-based prevention strategy focusing on awareness-raising and research activities to prevent human trafficking.

General and targeted awareness raising and education remain integral to Canada's prevention efforts.  In 2014-2015, the Government of Canada continued to build on these efforts with a number of initiatives.

As previously reported, in December 2012, PS, in collaboration with Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) entered into a partnership with the National Association of Friendship Centres for the development of a national awareness campaign on domestic sex trafficking involving Aboriginal victims living on and off reserves and in rural, urban and northern communities, in order to help prevent victimization. This campaign, which includes four human trafficking public service announcements developed by Aboriginal youth from different regions in Canada, is available across the country.^{Note 5}

Through INAC's Aboriginal Representation Process (ARO), funding is distributed to projects that partner with national stakeholders to create awareness campaigns, research, videoconference workshops and other activities aimed at promoting family violence prevention awareness.

In 2014-2015, INAC funded $75,000 through the ARO process to the Native Women's Association to develop a Handbook for helping sexually exploited Aboriginal women and girls. The handbook Our Spirits are NOT for sale can be found at: http://www.nwac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Our-Spirits-are-NOT-for-sale-English-web-version.pdf.

The RCMP Human Trafficking National Coordination Centre (HTNCC) continued its distribution, of the “I'm Not for Sale” campaign to Aboriginal communities and groups throughout Canada. Since 2013, approximately 31,454 toolkits and 977 Aboriginal specific posters have been distributed.

In 2014-2015, the Government published a “Canada's Anti-Human Trafficking Newsletter”, which includes updates on federal efforts, as well as highlighting work being done by stakeholders across Canada. The newsletter is published up to four times annually and is available on the PS website. During the last year, contributions to the newsletter were made by four human trafficking stakeholders and two provinces, as well as several federal departments and agencies. The newsletter provides valuable and highly accessible summary of events and initiatives occurring across Canada.

The RCMP HTNCC webpage continues to provide updates pertaining to human trafficking cases and convictions.

Global Affairs Canada (GAC) provides assistance to other governments as well as funding to a number of international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that work with governments to address human trafficking, with a core focus on prevention, protection and rehabilitation of trafficking victims and integrating gender equality as a cross-cutting concern. Humanitarian assistance in response to typhoon Haiyan and the Syria crisis has also included activities to address the increased risks of human trafficking of women, girls and boys. Canada worked with partners to create safe and secure learning environments, produce child friendly spaces and provided psychosocial support to children, including unaccompanied children, at risk of being trafficked. In the context of Canada's international leadership around maternal, newborn and child health, significant new programming is also underway to support effective civil registration and vital statistics, including birth registration, which contributes to providing new trafficking prevention tools to national authorities.

Finally, in December, 2014, the Office of Protocol of GAC, held a mandatory information session for approximately 55 domestic workers employed in diplomatic households in the Ottawa/Gatineau area, representing 37 countries/jurisdictions. The purpose of this session was to provide critical information to the domestic employees regarding their contractual rights & protections while addressing practical issues here in Canada. Awareness on human trafficking and relevant information, including the Crime Stoppers tip line and other relevant contact information were provided. Only two countries/jurisdictions were unable to free the domestic workers for the sessions, although collaborative and mitigation steps were taken with and by the Office of Protocol to relay the information to those concerned. In addition to this information session, GAC continues to conduct random and systematic compliancy verifications to ensure that foreign representatives in Canada who employ domestic workers are strictly adhering to Canadian labour law, taking remedial actions where necessary.

In response to requests for further information from stakeholders, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) updated its Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) website to announce stronger consequences for employers who violate conditions. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has also updated its website to reflect reforms that have had an impact on temporary foreign workers.

Additionally, the updated “Temporary Foreign Workers: Your Rights are Protected” pamphlet was distributed to stakeholders, including at the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) Intergovernmental Review Meeting, Canada-Mexico held in Ottawa (November 2014) and the Canada- Commonwealth Caribbean countries meeting held in Trinidad and Tobago (December 2014) and at various additional fora. The pamphlet is also available online in seven languages.

The Government of Canada will continue to build upon these initiatives and other prevention efforts already in place as new information on human trafficking in Canada becomes available, including information flowing out of ongoing engagement activities with partners and anti-trafficking stakeholders across the country.

Part II. Protection and Assistance for Victims

The Government of Canada will continue to assist all victims of crime, including trafficking victims; to work with the provinces and territories to deliver services responsive to the needs of trafficking victims; and to promote greater understanding of the needs of trafficked persons with a view to promoting their physical, psychological and social recovery.

In 2014-2015, the Government of Canada continued to undertake efforts towards the protection of, and assistance to, victims of human trafficking – both Canadian and foreign nationals. This included working with partners to develop resources and tools on how to identify and best respond to the needs of victims, supporting projects and initiatives to enhance services for victims, and efforts to ensure greater protection for those coming to Canada to work temporarily.

The Justice Canada (JUS) Victims' Fund provides grants and contributions to support projects and activities that encourage the development of new approaches, promote access to justice, improve the capacity of service providers, foster the establishment of referral networks, and/or increase awareness of services available to victims of crime and their families. As of April 1, 2013, the Victims Fund has made available up to $500,000 annually to support projects that enhance services for victims of human trafficking.

Currently, several Status of Women Canada (SWC) funded projects are underway to prevent and reduce the human trafficking of women and girls for the purposes of sexual exploitation through community planning. These projects are piloting the “Local Safety Audit Guide: To Prevent Trafficking in Persons and Related Exploitation”, which was developed by PS in 2012 as part of efforts toward prevention. The tool places particular emphasis on the vulnerability of Aboriginal women and girls and can be used to guide the public sector and civil society stakeholders to assess the nature and scope of trafficking and related exploitation, and to develop action plans tailored to specific local context.

Canadian women and girls represent the majority of victims of human trafficking in the country; however, foreign nationals have also been victimized. Since May 2006, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) officers have been authorized to issue temporary resident permits (TRPs) to foreign nationals who may be victims of human trafficking, to allow them to consider their options and receive assistance. In 2014, 34 temporary resident permits were issued to victims of human trafficking. This figure includes 24 subsequent temporary resident permits that were issued to victims of human trafficking to maintain legal status in Canada.

On June 20, 2014, the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) was reorganized into two distinct programs. The TFWP refers to only those streams under which foreign workers enter Canada at the request of employers following the issuance of a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). The new International Mobility Program (IMP) refers to those streams in which foreign nationals do not require an LMIA.

The overhaul of the TFWP included several new authorities and initiatives to enhance program integrity and strengthen protections for vulnerable workers. New activities include increasing the number of inspections conducted to verify compliance with TFWP/IMP conditions, including the requirement for employers to maintain a workplace free of abuse, and to provide the agreed to wages and working conditions.

New consequences came into effect on December 1, 2015. These new consequences provide proportionate responses to non-compliance committed by employers of foreign workers by replacing the single two-year ban with a range of ban periods (one, two, five, ten years as well as permanent bans where applicable), warnings, and new financial penalties ($500 to $100,000 per violation). When an employer is banned, or if they fail to pay their administrative monetary penalties (AMP) or follow a payment agreement, they will be ineligible to employ foreign nationals.

Additionally, program improvements implemented on November 30, 2014 removed the requirement that a caregiver live in the home of their employer. Caregivers are now able to live on their own or in the home of the employer, depending on the arrangement agreed to by both parties.  By removing the requirement to live in the employer's home as a condition for eventual permanent residence, the likelihood of caregivers being subjected to employer abuse is reduced. ESDC will continue to apply all existing worker protection measures to any temporary foreign workers working as caregivers, including those related to accommodations, where applicable. For those who do live in-home, there are special requirements for accommodations, including a locked door. Also, for the live-in arrangements, ESDC will no longer allow deductions from wages for accommodation, further reducing the vulnerability of caregivers.

ESDC continues to have the authority to revoke or refuse to process LMIAs for employers that have broken the rules. In these cases, the negative LMIA cannot be used to support a work permit request.

The TFWP continues to work closely with branches and other federal departments to enhance information sharing. The detection of abuse has been improved through the launch of an anonymous Tip Line and Online Fraud Reporting Tool. 

An individual providing representation or advice for a fee or other consideration to a foreign worker or to an employer at any stage of the work permit or to the employer's LMIA application process must be authorized to do so. Authorized representatives are members in good standing of a law society of a province (including paralegals), the Chambre des notaires du Québec, or the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC), the governing body for immigration consultants designated by IRCC. The Government of Canada does not conduct business with paid representatives who are not authorized under IRPA. This ensures that employers and workers are represented in a professional, competent and lawful manner and helps preserve the integrity of Canada's immigration programs.

Part III. Detection, Investigation and Prosecution of Traffickers

Efforts continue to better detect and investigate cases of human trafficking and to bring perpetrators to justice. Cases of human trafficking (for sexual exploitation and forced labour) are being more frequently identified, and more charges are being laid across the country. This is due, in part, to awareness and training efforts across all sectors, including within the criminal justice system (i.e., police, prosecutors and judges), intelligence and information sharing and the concerted efforts of law enforcement across jurisdictions. 

The Human Trafficking Unit, which is part of RCMP's Montreal-based ('C' Division) Immigration and Passport Section, continued to work closely with CBSA on human trafficking investigations and various human trafficking initiatives. This team contributes to the RCMP's National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking and its country-wide efforts to reduce the number of victims. Announced in June 2012, the Strategy comprises a comprehensive action plan to combat human trafficking, which includes educating law enforcement officers, Crown prosecutors and border guards by conducting awareness campaigns and training in collaboration with other partners.

In 2014, the RCMP HTNCC released Project SAFEKEEPING,a baseline threat assessment that provides insight into the nature and extent of domestic human trafficking for sexual exploitation in Canada. The findings of this report identify the characteristics of traffickers and victims, the vulnerabilities of victims, and the modus operandi of traffickers. The report also includes provincial overviews of domestic human trafficking for sexual exploitation, as well as current gaps and challenges pertaining to investigating this crime. Overall, the findings of Project SAFEKEEPING provide support to law enforcement, service providers, government organizations, and non-governmental organizations in their fight against this crime.^{Note 6}

Project SECLUSION (published in 2010), continues to provide a national overview of human trafficking activities in an effort to identify the extent of organized crime involvement, transnational associations, source countries, as well as issues and challenges faced by law enforcement.   This trend analysis is currently being updated.

In 2014-2015, the RCMP HTNCC continued to deliver human trafficking training and awareness sessions. The RCMP delivered these sessions to a wide audience including law enforcement officials, prosecutors, government employees, non-governmental organizations and Canadian youth.

Over the past several years the RCMP HTNCC and ESDC (Labour Program) have partnered to raise awareness on human trafficking for forced labour among provincial labour inspectors and other labour officials, including providing information about indicators of human trafficking, industries at risk, and possible areas of cooperation between federal, provincial, territorial labour officials, law enforcement and other implicated parties. The sessions include information such as basic awareness, intelligence, and indicators of human trafficking for forced labour, industries and workers at risk, as well as various case studies. Since migrant or foreign workers are potentially at risk, raising awareness among front line labour inspectors may help mitigate the risk and identify potential victims. As a result of these sessions, tips on potential forced labour cases could be reported to the authorities.

Awareness sessions have taken place in the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec since 2010, with the latest occurring in Manitoba in April 2014. Approximately 320 labour officials have benefited from the sessions so far. Such presentations can be delivered, upon request, to other labour department officials and inspectors across the country.

ESDC (TFWP) will continue to monitor the new Tip Line and Online Fraud Reporting Tool to identify improvements.

In March 2015, the updated “Handbook for Criminal Justice Practitioners on Trafficking in Persons”, endorsed by the Federal/Provincial/Territorial (FPT) Ministers Responsible for Justice in 2013, was published and has since been distributed to law enforcement across the country. The purpose of the Handbook is to provide criminal justice practitioners with guidance in the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking cases. The Handbook is now available online on Justice Canada's website. (http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/tp/index.html)

The Government of Canada (JUS) continued to work closely with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to promote the development of tools to improve the capacity of the international community to criminalize, investigate and prosecute human trafficking. During 2014-2015, Justice Canada worked closely with the UNODC in its development of an Issues Paper examining the definition of exploitation in the Trafficking Protocol.

The CBSA collected, analyzed, produced and disseminated intelligence materials related to human trafficking with relevant internal and external stakeholders. As trends are identified, reports on human trafficking are widely disseminated to senior executives, operational managers, front-line officers and Liaison Officers, as well as to federal partners such as the RCMP, IRCC and PS.

The above represents highlights of some of the activities undertaken to support the detection, investigation and prosecution of human trafficking cases by the Government of Canada in 2014-2015. The Government will continue to build on these efforts in the future.

Part IV. Partnership and Knowledge

The Government of Canada will strengthen its relationship with relevant stakeholders to facilitate the ongoing development of effective policies and tools, to ensure a comprehensive and coordinated approach; and work to improve its ability to collect, track and report on data related to human trafficking in order to enhance knowledge and adapt our response appropriately, both domestically and on the international stage.

The establishment of strong and effective partnerships, across all sectors, is critical to combatting human trafficking in Canada and internationally. A comprehensive understanding of this constantly evolving crime is integral to the implementation of appropriate responses.

The Government continued in 2014-2015 to undertake and seek out new and innovative ways to enhance engagement and promote partnerships at the local, regional, national and international levels to support anti-human trafficking efforts, while striving to increase its knowledge of the issue through research and data collection.

Through regular conference calls – one focusing on human trafficking generally and the other on labour trafficking specifically - the Government continued to engage with its provincial-territorial partners throughout 2014-2015. These calls provide FPT stakeholders with opportunities to share best practices and to share tools being developed to address human trafficking. The health, labour, public safety, immigration, justice and law enforcement sectors are represented on these calls.

Building on the momentum established with the National Forum on Human Trafficking (National Forum) hosted in January 2014, PS hosted a Human Trafficking National Stakeholder Workshop on March 26-27, 2015, in Ottawa, Ontario. The workshop included key stakeholder, members of the Human Trafficking Taskforce and federal departments and agencies. The purpose of the workshop was to take stock of, prioritize and advance activities identified in the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking (NAP), while also identifying emerging issues and opportunities. In addition, it helped support and enhance the connections between stakeholders and policy makers to ensure that the NAP is addressing everyone's needs.

The workshop offered an opportunity for information sharing, updates on progress since the last national consultation in January 2014, discussion and identification of emerging issues, and the identification of potential solutions and opportunities. Discussions included an examination of the recommendations of the “No More, Ending Sex-Trafficking In Canada” report of the National Task Force on Sex Trafficking of Women and Girls in Canada (specifically Chapter 8: Collective Action) sponsored by the Canadian Women's Foundation and a determination of next steps for implementation and action.

To support information sharing with provinces and territories, ESDC (TFWP) is negotiating and/or updating agreements with all provinces and territories, as well as with federal government departments and agencies.

The CBSA monitors travel history through the Integrated Customs Enforcement System, which includes passport usage for entry into Canada. This information can be shared with law enforcement partners while respecting information sharing regulations under the Customs Act, Privacy Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. The CBSA is in regular contact with IRCC-Passport Program regarding a variety of issues, including human trafficking and is often solicited by IRCC-Passport Program for information. In return, the CBSA receives valuable information that may be used in its intelligence reports.

ESDC (TFWP) continued to liaise with source countries for temporary workers to support awareness-raising of labour and sexual exploitation, to share best practices and to enhance protections for temporary foreign workers. For example, in 2014-2015 include ESDC worked closely with Mexico and Caribbean countries to manage worker protection issues in the Seasonal Agriculture Worker Program. ESDC (TFWP) continues to support awareness-raising of labour and sexual exploitation.

In terms of efforts to partner with international organizations and foreign governments, in 2014-2015, GAC continued to support efforts to combat human trafficking in Latin America, Southeast Asia and East Africa, and joined the Together for Girls Partnership with a grant to UNICEF for $5 million over two years.  Together for Girls is a global public-private partnership dedicated to ending violence against children, with a focus on sexual violence against girls.  The partnership includes five UN agencies, the governments of the United States and Canada, several private sector organizations and more than fifteen implementing country governments in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

With respect to enhanced data collection, the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics at Statistics Canada has revised the 2014 cycle of the Transition Home Survey to include the category 'human trafficking' under the question 'reasons for seeking shelter', which will capture data on the number of female residents that were in a shelter for reasons of human trafficking (on a particular snapshot day). This addition further enhances human trafficking data collection and available statistics.

The above highlights some of the partnership and knowledge development activities undertaken by the Government of Canada in 2014-2015 to support efforts to address human trafficking.

Moving Forward

Moving forward, the Government of Canada will use the findings and recommendations from stakeholder consultations to-date and ongoing engagement with a variety of partners, to inform the development of future anti-human trafficking priorities that fall under federal jurisdiction, including those identified under the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking.The Government is considering examining key actions identified by stakeholders in moving the Plan forward in 2015-2016.  These could include: increased focus and collaboration on labour trafficking; the continued exploration of opportunities to enhance federal procurement policy to ensure that it does not support human trafficking in any way/form; updates to information and awareness materials for those coming to Canada to work temporarily and improving protections for them; increased advocacy by Canadian missions abroad; and exploring collaboration opportunities with our North American partners, the United States and Mexico.

These are in addition to numerous ongoing federal activities to combat human trafficking.

Conclusion

The Government of Canada will continue to build upon its responses and look for ways to prevent human trafficking through effective and targeted awareness and intervention, to protect and meet the needs of victims and to prosecute offenders. Further progress, however, requires cooperative efforts and information sharing among all levels of government, law enforcement, NGOs and the full range of stakeholders. The government looks forward to continued collaboration with the vast array of experts and stakeholders at home and abroad engaged in combating this crime.

ANNEX A
Action Items Chart

PREVENTION

PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE FOR VICTIMS

DETECTION, INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF TRAFFICKERS

PARTNERSHIP AND KNOWLEDGE (DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL)

Annex B: Resources and Links

Canadian Legislation (CCC and IRPA Human Trafficking Offences)

Government of Canada Human Trafficking Website

National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking (2012)

National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking: 2012-2013 Annual Report on Progress

National Summary Report: 2012-2013 Human Trafficking Stakeholder Consultations

Local Safety Audit Guide: To Prevent Trafficking in Persons and Related Exploitation

Canada's Anti-Human Trafficking Newsletter

RCMP 'I'm Not for Sale' Campaign

RCMP 'I'm Not for Sale' Youth Campaign

Human Trafficking in Canada: A Threat Assessment (2010)

Project SAFEKEEPING: Domestic Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation in Canada (2013)

Introduction to Human Trafficking Online Training Course for Law Enforcement and Prosecutors
Available via: www.cpkn.ca

'Temporary Foreign Workers: Your Rights are Protected' pamphlet (multiple languages)

Welcome to Canada Guide

'Human Trafficking: Canada is Not Immune' online training program

PACT Ottawa – TruckSTOP campaign

Date modified:

2022-08-16