5 Canadian cities contribute 45 per cent of all human trafficking instances: Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax, Montreal and London.
Revealed Nov 01, 2024 • 3 minute learn
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London ranks amongst 5 metro areas in Canada that collectively account for almost half of all human trafficking stories within the final decade, a brand new snapshot of the crime exhibits.
There have been 570 instances of human trafficking reported to police in Canada final yr, down barely from 597 in 2022, in keeping with a Statistics Canada report launched Friday.
Regardless of the slight lower within the newest human trafficking report, instances have been on the rise for the previous decade, with greater than four-fifths recorded in giant city areas, the report stated.
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Statistics Canada singled out 5 cities for contributing 45 per cent of all human trafficking instances: Toronto (20 per cent), Ottawa (9 per cent), Halifax (six per cent), Montreal (six per cent) and London (4 per cent).
These 5 cities are situated on two of the highest human trafficking corridors within the nation: Freeway 401 and the Trans-Canada Freeway, stated Julia Drydyk, govt director of the Centre to Finish Human Trafficking.
“We know that these corridors are being systematically used by traffickers for a few reasons,” Drydyk stated. “One is to isolate the victims and keep them dependent on their trafficker, to keep them removed from their family, friends and support networks. It’s also to avoid law enforcement detection and to capitalize on those various commercial sex industry markets in those major urban centres.”
Human trafficking advocates have lengthy labelled London “a hotbed” for the crime, citing its location between Toronto and the USA border alongside the 401, the place sex-trafficking victims are sometimes compelled to work out of motels and motels.
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“It’s called the circuit,” stated Megan Walker, former head of the London Abused Girls’s Centre. “It is a horrific situation.”
Walker echoed a conclusion from the authors of the Statistics Canada report that the numbers solely present a “partial picture” of human trafficking as a result of the hidden and underreported nature of the crime.
“Because, like sexual assault, it’s all based on reporting,” Walker stated. “Most of these women will never go to a police officer.”
Former London Abused Girls’s Centre govt director Megan Walker speaks throughout a information convention detailing a marketing campaign to cut back {sex} trafficking in Southwestern Ontario in London on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. (Derek Ruttan/The )
Walker stated she nonetheless receives as much as 5 calls every week from abused women and girls looking for assist, a few of them victims of human trafficking. She described assembly with one lady who was trafficked in Niagara Falls and ended up in a farm home, the place she was hung the other way up from the ceiling and whipped.
“She was treated like a dog, so she was in a dog cage for a while,” Walker stated.
Human trafficking is normally divided into two sorts – {sex} trafficking and labour trafficking – and is outlined because the exploitation of individuals by pressure, fraud or coercion.
The Statistics Canada report didn’t present a breakdown between the forms of trafficking, however {sex} trafficking is far more prevalent in Canada.
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Females made up 93 per cent of the three,558 human trafficking victims prior to now decade, whereas males make up 83 per cent of the two,697 alleged perpetrators, the report says. Many of the victims, 93 per cent, knew their traffickers.
Law enforcement officials and human trafficking advocates have touted schooling and consciousness as key to combating the crime. Progress has been made on that entrance in recent times as employees at airports, motels and even taxi drivers have undergone coaching to identify the warning indicators of human trafficking. Survivors have shared their tales with the media and even at excessive colleges, bringing higher consciousness to the problem.
Darkish Freeway, a documentary about human trafficking alongside the 401, was screened final weekend on the Forest Metropolis Movie Pageant adopted by a panel dialogue with director AJ Edmonds and London police Chief Thai Truong.
“Hearing directly from survivors was a stark reminder of the importance of raising awareness and understanding the real impact of this hidden crime,” Truong wrote on social media. “As a community, we must continue to support and protect those affected while working to prevent further victimization.”
Drydyk warned human trafficking isn’t only a big-city downside, citing information from her group’s 24-hour hotline at 1-833-900-1010 that connects victims and survivors with companies.
“We get calls from basically every community across Canada, from the largest urban centres to the smallest rural hamlets,” she stated.
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