Over the past decade, alarm bells have been set off around the globe about a human rights disaster of epic proportions, and that is the wholesale trafficking of women and children into the worldwide sex trade. Yet, for the majority of nations on the planet — and that’s from the top echelons of political power all the way down to the cop on the beat — this issue has yet to register as a priority.¹

Between 700,000 and 4 million people a year are affected by trafficking in persons.² The vast majority of people who are trafficked are women and children, and 92% of victims are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. While the Standing Committee on the Status of Women acknowledges that Canada has taken steps to combat trafficking, both within and outside of its borders, the Committee’s attention was drawn to the urgency of the situation, an urgency which requires that Canada do more to prevent the victimization of innocent women and children. As one witness told the Committee, “when a woman or girl is reduced to a commodity to be bought and sold, raped, beaten, and psychologically devastated, her fundamental rights and dignity are repeatedly violated.”³ For that reason, the Committee agreed to increase both parliamentary and Canadian attention to the issue by undertaking a study on trafficking in persons.

While the Committee recognizes that trafficking is both a pressing international and domestic issue, we agreed that, in the interests of making progress on the issue within Canada’s borders, we would limit our study to trafficking in Canada, but would remain cognizant of the fact that the trafficking of persons across international borders also has significant implications for Canada. In no way does our focus on trafficking within Canada indicate that the international aspects do not warrant the same attention and commitment to action.

The Committee recognizes that trafficking in persons includes people who are trafficked for domestic, agricultural and factory work, but felt that it was necessary to focus on trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation since witnesses noted that 92% of victims are trafficked for that purpose.⁴ The Committee also considered that the particularly egregious abuse and degradation involved in trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation warranted the Committee’s full attention. The Committee agrees that addressing the trafficking of persons for domestic, agricultural and factory work or any other exploitive situation would require another study.

REPORT STRUCTURE

The Committee’s report focuses on “the three Ps”: prevention of trafficking, protection of victims, and prosecution of offenders. The representatives of the departments that co-chair the Interdepartmental Working Group on Trafficking in Persons (the departments of Justice and Foreign Affairs) told the Committee that Canada’s anti-trafficking approach affirms that prevention, protection, and prosecution are Canada’s key priorities.⁵ Yvon Dandurand from the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform & Criminal Justice Policy noted, however, that not all of the “Ps” have been addressed equally, and some may have greater importance than others:

[W]e should never lose sight of the ultimate, paramount importance of protecting victims, because prevention, prosecution, and everything else depends upon how well we protect victims.⁶

The Committee finds the “three Ps” framework useful for discussing the issues, and for that reason has adopted that framework as a structure for its report, which will contain the following chapters, chapter 1 being this introduction:

• Chapter 2: Background, which includes an exploration of the definition of trafficking as well as an overview of Canada’s efforts to combat trafficking.



• Chapter 3: Prevention, which includes a review of the underlying causes of trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation, namely poverty, gender inequality, the demand and laws with respect to the age of consent to non-exploitative sexual activity; prevention also includes the coordination of activities and the need for more research and awareness.



• Chapter 4: Protection, which includes improved education and training for law enforcement, improved victims’ services, and the temporary resident permit.



• Chapter 5: Prosecution, which includes increased resources for law enforcement and improved education and training for Crown attorneys and judges.



• Chapter 6: Conclusion