In line with a report by Statistics Canada, there was a slight lower within the variety of human trafficking incidents reported to police final 12 months from the 12 months earlier than.
There have been 570 incidents in 2023, in comparison with 597 in 2022, or 1.4 incidents for each 100,000 individuals, down from 1.5.
“Human trafficking offences contain the recruitment, transportation or harbouring of an individual, they usually embody controlling and influencing actions with the aim of exploiting, or facilitating the exploitation of an individual,” mentioned the report. “Human trafficking can tackle many types, most frequently sexual exploitation or compelled labour.”
The company warned statistics solely present a partial image of the issue as a result of human trafficking is usually under-reported to police. A part of the issue lies within the finite assets police have out there to research instances, together with the sufferer’s incapacity to acknowledge their exploitation.
Between 2013 and 2023, 4,500 incidents had been reported to police throughout Canada. Human trafficking accounted for 0.02 per cent of all police-reported crimes.
The very best price is in Nova Scotia and Ontario.
The report famous in Ontario, there are a lot of city areas and border crossings which can support human traffickers within the motion of victims. The province’s price is 2.1, effectively above the nationwide common of 1.4 for 100,000 inhabitants.
Forty-five per cent of human trafficking instances had been in simply 5 Canadian cities between 2013 and 2023. Twenty per cent had been within the Toronto space, which had 902 incidents. Ottawa accounted for 9 per cent of all incidents, whereas London had 202 or 4 per cent. The opposite two cities cited within the report are Halifax and Montreal, which accounted for six per cent of all incidents every.
Most victims are women and girls, and a lot of the accused traffickers are males.
Most, about 91 per cent, knew their trafficker. Intimate companions accounted for 34 per cent of these accused, whereas 22 per cent had been informal acquaintances. The accused was beforehand unknown to the sufferer in solely 9 per cent of instances.
In the meantime, getting a conviction for human trafficking stays a problem within the courts. Statistics Canada mentioned just one in ten resulted in a responsible conviction.
