Content material warning: This text describes cases of sexual assault and {sex} trafficking.
London has the fifth-highest variety of reported human trafficking circumstances in Canada, in response to a report launched Nov. 1 by Statistics Canada.
In 2023, there have been 570 human trafficking circumstances reported to police throughout the nation, with 24 of those circumstances — or 4 per cent — reported in London.
Human trafficking is outlined because the recruiting, transporting, harbouring, promoting, and shopping for of individuals with out their consent.
Forty-five per cent of all of Canada’s trafficking circumstances have been reported in London, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax and Ottawa over the previous decade.
“Us being between Toronto and the Detroit-Windsor border is a big reason for it being considered a hub for human trafficking,” mentioned Gary Bezaire, a detective with the London Police Service’s Human Trafficking Unit.
Bezaire added that London’s proximity to Freeway 401 additionally attracts traffickers who use the route as a approach to transport victims discreetly.
“London has five interchanges off of the 401 highway,” mentioned Wendy Goldsmith, the London Abused Girls’s Centre’s coordinator of anti-human trafficking initiatives. “On those interchanges, there are tons of hotels and motels that are either complicit or ignore the fact that their rooms are being used for trafficking.”
A documentary about human trafficking alongside the 401, Darkish Freeway, directed by Western College alum AJ Edmonds, was screened in October on the Forest Metropolis Movie Pageant.
Human trafficking can tackle many types, most frequently by way of {sex} trafficking or pressured labour. Whereas the Statistics Canada report didn’t present a breakdown between the kinds of trafficking, {sex} trafficking, or the exploitation of victims for sexual functions, is the most typical type of trafficking in Canada.
In July, the LPS’s Human Trafficking Unit charged Dylan Crawford, a 25-year-old London resident, with {sex} trafficking charges.
Crawford, who was accused of using a girl as a {sex} employee in change for cash and lodgings, withholding her revenue, and assaulting her, appeared in courtroom on Nov. 4, in response to the LPS.
In September 2023, the LPS additionally arrested 9 males for trafficking-related offences and buying sexual providers following a six-month police investigation right into a trafficking operation.
In Canada, it’s unlawful to buy sexual providers and act as a pimp for {sex} staff however it’s authorized to promote {sex}. This authorized construction is designed to guard {sex} staff from prison legal responsibility when prosecuting prostitution circumstances.
In response to Statistics Canada, Ontario’s reported fee of human trafficking circumstances is 2.1 per 100,000 folks — 1.5 occasions the nationwide common of 1.4 incidents per 100,000 folks.
The report defined that is probably as a result of excessive focus of city areas and numerous land boarding crossings in Ontario.
Goldsmith added this statistic could replicate a former authorized loophole in Ontario’s Little one and Household Providers Act, which beforehand restricted police and social staff’ skills to guard susceptible teenagers if the teenager refused assist.
”If I received concerned with a 15- or 16-year-old and so they say to me, ‘I don’t want any help, this is my boyfriend,’ I didn’t have any means to guard that individual,” mentioned Goldsmith.
In 2021, the province modified the laws as a response to the danger of kid {sex} trafficking. Underneath this modification, authorities staff who’re involved a few potential case of sexual exploitation can take away the teenager from that scenario for a interval of 12 hours to supply assets and assist.
The report additionally described trafficking as a “gendered crime,” with 93 per cent of reported circumstances from 2013 to 2023 involving feminine victims. Youngsters are additionally overrepresented, with 23 per cent of circumstances involving a sufferer underneath the age of 18.
A typical kind of trafficker, in response to London police, is the “Romeo,” who will lure in victims by way of a relationship, isolate them from their family and friends and drive them into the {sex} commerce, typically by way of coercion and drug abuse.
“Sometimes I worry that people think it’s the white van that pulls up and grabs people to take them away and traffic them,” mentioned Bezaire. “But more commonly, it’s the boyfriend, and their romancing them to groom them into getting the game that is human trafficking.”
In response to Statistics Canada, 91 per cent of trafficking victims know their trafficker, with 34 per cent being trafficked by an intimate associate and 22 per cent by an off-the-cuff acquaintance.
“I’ve heard it straight from the trafficker’s mouth that a lot of the luring happens online and through social media,” provides Goldsmith. “What a trafficker will say is that they learn every single possible thing they can about their potential victim, find out what their vulnerabilities are and use those to lure them in.”
Jeanette Eberhard, an assistant professor of organizational behaviour at King’s College Faculty, added that traffickers additionally use so-called “bottom girls” to assist recruit different victims.“Bottom girls” are sometimes long-term victims who’ve been with the trafficker for the longest or earn them essentially the most cash.
“This way, traffickers can more easily earn the trust of victims,” mentioned Eberhard. “Because you could trust a woman, couldn’t you? You could trust your girlfriend.”
Goldsmith defined that changing into a “bottom girl” is commonly a self-preservation tactic for victims.
“Once you’re in the game, it’s very, very difficult to see the way out,” mentioned Goldsmith, “So the mindset can be if I can recruit more girls and give that money to the trafficker, then I don’t have to perform the sex acts and that helps keep me safer.”
Jasmine Scott, a former Western College medical sciences pupil, was lured into the {sex} commerce by her older boyfriend — a {sex} trafficker named Joseph Bernadel — who preyed on her loneliness and monetary difficulties.
Scott’s story was featured in a W5 Documentary, Not a Love Story. She ultimately escaped Bernadel with the assistance of the York Regional Police — who used undercover officers to make contact with trafficking victims — and testified in opposition to him in courtroom.
Within the W5 interview, Scott described dealing with her former boyfriend and trafficker in courtroom as emotionally troublesome.
“Part of me still thinks he’s a good person, and the other part of me hates him for what he did,” she mentioned.
The Statistics Canada report famous the info they collected supplied solely a “partial picture of human trafficking” because of its hidden and underreported nature.
“There’s a lot of manipulation by the trafficker, letting them know that the police aren’t going to help you or that you’re the one that’s doing the wrong thing,” mentioned Bezaire.
Eberhard provides that trafficking circumstances are notoriously troublesome to prosecute.
“Often women just want to get out and try to get their lives back,” mentioned Eberhard, “reliving the crime in a courtroom is something they don’t want to do.”
Statistics Canada famous that whereas the variety of human trafficking circumstances delivered to trial has risen over the previous 10 years, solely 10 per cent of those prosecuted circumstances end in a conviction.
Bezaire and Eberhard agree that this makes trafficking an alluring crime as a result of it’s a low-risk, high-return enterprise.
“They can sell drugs as a way to make money, but you can only sell them once, and if you get caught, you get caught with the drugs,” mentioned Eberhard, “But you can sell a woman again and again, and even if you get caught, she may not testify against you.”
Human trafficking can also be a really worthwhile enterprise, with traffickers producing round $230,000 off one sufferer per yr, in response to Goldsmith.
Goldsmith inspired anybody who could be the sufferer of intimate associate violence, sexual exploitation or human trafficking to succeed in out and search assist.
“The difficulty with survivors of trafficking is that you’re in way too deep before you realize what has happened,” she mentioned. “It often takes coming in to talk to someone to be able to say, ‘Holy crap, I didn’t see what was happening to me.’”
In case you want assist, Anova’s disaster line is obtainable 24/7 at 519-642-3000 and assets for Western College college students might be discovered right here.
Extra assets:
London Abused Girls’s Centre
Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline