The Committee supports the third “P” of prosecution, but recognizes that prosecution is dependant on the protection of victims and the respect of their human rights.

RESOURCES FOR POLICE

The Committee heard from law enforcement officials that both increased human resources (for RCMP and non-RCMP jurisdictions) as well as financial resources to police departments were needed to facilitate proactive policing and investigations into trafficking in persons cases. With respect to human resources, Sergeant Lowe of the RCMP noted that more officers were needed to conduct investigations, to actively seek out victims, and to provide protection to the victims that are discovered.¹

Law enforcement officials who appeared before the Committee pointed out that, due to the complexity of trafficking cases, significant resources are needed to conduct thorough investigations. Failure to provide funding to police agencies could mean that effective investigations are threatened.² Investigations might require travel to a victim’s country of origin, as was needed in one case that was investigated by the Vancouver Police Department, to verify the details of an alleged victim’s story.³ In that particular instance, the investigation revealed that the alleged victim was actually a party to the offence, but only by travelling to the alleged victim’s country was this confirmed.

The first case that resulted in the laying of charges under the trafficking in persons provisions of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act provides a concrete example of the financial cost and human resources involved in investigating a trafficking in persons offence. Sergeant Matt Kelly, of the Vancouver Police Department, informed the Committee that in the case against Michael Ng, the vice unit focused exclusively on that case for six months:

That was one sergeant and eight detective constables for two victims of human trafficking — a quarter of a million dollars and all of our time, going 24/7, for two people. That’s how much has to be invested in these types of files.⁴

The effect of the decisions made by police departments in allocating resources was highlighted by Sergeant Detective Monchamp of the Montreal Police, who told the Committee that while Ontario at one time had a child exploitation unit, the unit was restructured to focus exclusively on child pornography, and the parts of the unit that related to child prostitution were dismantled. Because of these sorts of decisions, units relating to child prostitution continually have to justify and explain why their investigations are so demanding.

As a comparison, he noted that while there were only eight investigators in the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children unit for the Island of Montreal, there were 60 officers assigned to investigate drug related activities. As a result, a significant amount of expertise relating to investigating drug offences had been acquired. Unfortunately, police experts in child sexual exploitation are so few that they are unable to take the time to train others, so their expertise is not easily shared.

The availability of resources at the provincial level is critical, as many components involved in the investigation into and support of trafficked victims are provincial responsibilities. The provincial nature of responsibility also suggests that strong federal-provincial coordination “and a clear road map on how they’re going to work together to address this problem”⁵needs to be a priority of all levels of government. Cooperation between provinces and territories is also essential, considering the movement across provincial borders that is often inherent to the offence. With that in mind,

RECOMMENDATION 32

The Committee recommends that the federal government increase resources for dedicated, multi-jurisdictional units to investigate potential trafficking offences.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR PROSECUTORS AND JUDGES

While some witnesses stressed that existing legislation in Canada needed to be strengthened and amended, other witnesses suggested that the barriers to combating trafficking in persons in Canada resulted from the failure to enforce the laws that Canada does have. For example, Jamie McIntosh from the International Justice Mission Canada told us that

[T]he greatest single gap in Canadian and international efforts in combating trafficking is in the enforcement of existing laws. Our anti-trafficking laws need to be vigorously enforced to provide any real protection for the victims…Unless [traffickers] feel the weight of the law, unless traffickers are arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced, they will not be deterred.⁶

As mentioned earlier, it is very difficult for the trafficking in persons provisions in the Criminal Code to be enforced if police are not aware of how to use them. But the need for education goes beyond the level of police. Just as we heard from witnesses that police needed access to more education and training relating to trafficking in persons in general as well as specific training on the trafficking in persons provisions in the Criminal Code, we also heard that this education needs to be done at the level of prosecutors and judges.⁷ Sergeant Matt Kelly indicated that they were currently working on a trafficking file, but that they were having difficulty with the prosecutor. Gunilla Ekberg for the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action noted that it was important that police, judges and prosecutors be educated not only with respect to the legislation, but that they also need to be given an understanding of the victims and their circumstances.⁸

 Problems may also be encountered if a case does proceed to trial but is presided over by a judge who has little understanding of either the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) trafficking in persons provisions or the Criminal Code provisions, or of trafficking in persons in general. As there has not yet been a decision in the Michael Ng case in Vancouver, which is the first case involving charges under the IRPA trafficking in persons provisions, there is little means of determining whether judges in Canada have comprehensive knowledge relating to trafficking in persons.

RECOMMENDATION 33

The Committee recommends that the federal government consult with national and provincial bar associations and the National Judicial Institute to establish a strategy to increase the legal community’s awareness of victims of trafficking and to improve and encourage continuing legal education relating to trafficking in persons.