Invisible Chains (35 page)

(Surrey, BC):
www.sasurrey.ca

This is a non-profit organization that provides long-term safe homes, free education and pre-employment training, hope and wholeness for women and female youth who've been sexually exploited and trafficked. Servants Anonymous Society works to sensitize and promote awareness of the special needs of survivors of human trafficking while offering women and female youth a way out of sex trade slavery. It serves local and international victims from across Canada.

Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter

(Vancouver, BC):
www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca

A member of the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres, VRRWS is a non-profit feminist group that collectively operates a twenty-four-hour rape crisis line and a transition house for battered women and their children. VRRWS sees prostitution and trafficking of women for the sex trade as part of the same continuum of male
violence against women and fights for the abolition of prostitution. The group houses women escaping any form of male violence, including prostitution and trafficking, and offers advocacy and accompaniment to hospital, courts, and the police. All services are free and confidential.

SCION Project (MOSAIC)

(Vancouver, Burnaby, and Lower Mainland, BC):
www.mosaicbc.com

The project, which is part of MOSAIC's settlement services, assists separated minors, including trafficked children, who are outside their countries of origin without parents or legal guardians. Support can include settlement and integration services, help with immigration, and employment and translation assistance. Designated as representatives at the IRB, MOSAIC also can assist adults with the same services.

Safe OnLine Outreach Society (SOLOS)

(British Columbia):
www.safeonlineoutreach.com

SOLOS educates youth, parents, professionals, and the public about online sexual exploitation, cyber-bullying, and online gang recruitment. SOLOS representatives travel throughout British Columbia speaking to youth, parents, educators, child protection, and criminal justice professionals. In particular, they explain how these activities can put young people at risk and they outline strategies for effective responses.

Covenant House Vancouver

(Vancouver, BC):
www.covenanthousebc.org

Covenant House Vancouver is a non-profit crisis intervention centre for homeless youth from sixteen to twenty-five. It's one of twenty-one Covenant House sites throughout North and Central America that assist young people to exit the dangers of street life. Covenant House runs an outreach, drop-in, temporary shelter, and transitional living program through which youth can gain the skills needed for independent living.

ACT Alberta—Action Coalition on Human Trafficking

(Alberta):
www.actalberta.org

ACT Alberta is a coalition of government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, survivors of trafficking, and the general public who help to identify and respond to human trafficking in Alberta. The coalition raises awareness of human trafficking and encourages community dialogue to develop locally relevant solutions to the problem.

Maple Leaf Alberta Projects

(Edmonton, AB):
http://mapleleafap.wordpress.com

This organization is supporting the creation of recovery centres in Western Ukraine with Nashi, a Ukrainian NGO. The proposed residences for at-risk teens and trafficking victims will be places where they can gain vocational, language, and life skills. Maple Leaf Alberta Projects also raises awareness about human trafficking in Canada and collaborates with churches, service clubs, the media, police, and individuals.

Manitoba Trafficked Persons Response Team

(Winnipeg, MB):
[email protected]

This team responds to the needs of human trafficking victims in Manitoba. Members represent various organizations and agencies that can help trafficked persons both immediately and in the longer term.

Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre, Inc.

(Winnipeg, MB):
www.mamawi.com

Directed and controlled by Aboriginals, this community-based non-profit organization provides family resource support services for Aboriginals in Winnipeg. Currently, the centre operates three community care centres (public access) in inner-city Winnipeg, four group homes for youth in the care of a child and family services agency, and one Rural Cultural Learning Centre.

Canada Fights Human Trafficking

(Ontario):
www.CanadaFightsHumanTrafficking.com

CFHT is an organization dedicated to the annihilation of all crimes associated with human trafficking, and is committed to rescuing and rehabilitating victims of human trafficking within Canada. It runs public education and awareness campaigns, legal teams, safe houses, reintegration homes, and professional services for victims.

FCJ Refugee Centre

(Toronto, ON):
[email protected]

Since 1991, the FCJ Refugee Centre has offered shelter to over one thousand women and their children. The project now operates four houses that afford refuge to twenty-five women with their children. In addition, FCJ provides counselling, advocacy, and support services to uprooted persons (i.e., refugees, people without status, and trafficked persons). Services include interpretation, referral to legal assistance, settlement and integration programs, and educational and training workshops for service providers and the public in general.

Peel Children's Aid

(Mississauga, Brampton, Caledon, ON):
[email protected]

Peel Children's Aid protects children and strengthens families, ensuring the safety and well-being of children in the Region of Peel in Ontario. Initiatives include caring for children under sixteen who arrive unaccompanied at Pearson International Airport.

Toronto Police Service, Special Victims Unit

(Toronto, ON):
[email protected]

SVU is a specialized investigative unit dedicated to protecting prostituted persons from sexual predators by investigating sexual offences committed against them.

Streetlight Support Services

(Greater Toronto Area, ON):
[email protected]

Streetlight Support Services is a community-based NGO that provides alternatives for individuals involved in sex trade activities. Streetlight uses a non-judgmental holistic approach that recognizes the interdependence of the emotional, cultural, economic, and broader social issues that affect individuals.

Temple Committee Against Human Trafficking

(Montreal, QB):
[email protected]

Affiliated with Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom in Montreal, TCAHT provides public education programs with emphasis on adolescents. The committee is part of an interfaith coalition that is represented by diverse faith-based and secular human rights groups. An additional focus is on U.S.–Canada border trafficking.

Canadian Religious Conference—Action Committee Against Human Internal and External Trafficking

(Trois-Rivieres, Montreal, Sherbrooke, Gatineau, QC; Ottawa, ON):
[email protected]

Formed by ten Catholic religious congregations, researchers, and a representative of the Canadian Religious Conference, the committee undertakes strategies to counter human trafficking, including raising awareness and offering education and training about human trafficking.

METHODOLOGY

Since
Invisible Chains
is the first
comprehensive book on human trafficking in Canada, it is important to briefly describe the research behind it before turning to the list of specific sources. This book is based on an empirical study that aims to support evidence-based law and policy responses to human trafficking in Canada. Research began in September 2007 and was completed in June 2010, focusing on human trafficking cases and responses since the country signed the
Palermo Protocol
in 2000.

A literature review of published research was conducted, as well as a review of other open source data, including written decisions of courts and tribunals in cases involving the criminal prosecution of alleged human traffickers or proceedings related to victims; reports by international governmental organizations, governments, and NGOs; and media accounts. In addition to recognizing potential cases, issues, and trends, this review identified potential key informants to be interviewed for this study. A “snowballing” technique was also used, wherein interview subjects recommended additional individuals to be approached.

Semi-structured expert interviews were conducted with approximately fifty individuals in governmental, law enforcement, and NGO capacities, as well as other professionals who have been directly involved in cases of human trafficking related to Canada. These interviews were conducted between May 2008 and July 2009, with
one additional follow-up interview in March 2010, in accordance with protocols and procedures approved by the University of British Columbia's Behavioural Research Ethics Board (certificate of approval H08-00332). The interviews were audiotaped and conducted on an attribution basis (i.e., “on the record”) unless otherwise indicated. Initial interviews took between sixty and ninety minutes, with some involving a follow-up. The majority of the interviews were conducted face to face. When this was not possible, telephone interviews were conducted. In one instance, a government department completed written responses to questions. The interview data were then coded, based on key themes that emerged across multiple interviews, in order to facilitate the identification of qualitative findings. Some interview subjects also provided written documentation.

When incidents of suspected human trafficking involving Canada as a source, destination, or transit country were disclosed during interviews, these were recorded in detail. These reported cases were later critically reviewed to determine whether they fit the definition of “trafficking in persons” in the
Palermo Protocol.
Only cases that met this definition and were found to be credible were included in this study. In many instances, cases were corroborated using court records, records released under the
Access to Information Act,
other interviews, or public accounts of the case.

An additional rich source of primary data came from over forty
Access to Information Act
filings with federal government departments and agencies (including the RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Public Safety Canada, Department of Justice, and Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade), and provincial government departments in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec.

For ethical reasons, and because of the perceived difficulty of locating victims often years after their cases were discovered, trafficked persons were not interviewed. However, secondary sources involving victim/survivor accounts, such as victim impact statements in court
records and statements in other studies, are cited in this book to ensure that the voices of those exploited were not lost. Throughout this book, pseudonyms are used to conceal the identity of victims and survivors for their privacy and security. Exceptions to this policy are explicitly noted for victims that have commanded widespread public awareness in order to help identify the perpetrators who harmed them (i.e., Fonessa Bruyere, Hilary Wilson, and Cherisse Houle, who are deceased), to help identify their whereabouts (Jessie Edith Louise Foster), or because they are survivors who have high-profile public roles in leading NGOs (Somaly Mam and Timea Nagy). Specific information about survivors has been withheld as has detailed information about the shelters and safe houses that protect them.

NOTES

Epigraphs

p. vii “
Slavery is a weed”:
Edmund
Burke, “Speech on Moving His Resolutions for Conciliations with the Colonies” in Peter J. Stanlis, ed.,
Edmund Burke: Selected Writings and Speeches
(New Jersey: Doubleday Anchor, 1963) at 220.

p. vii “
Never doubt that a
”: Reproduced with permission. See Ashton Applewhite, William R. Evans III, and Andrew Frothingham, eds.,
And I Quote: The Definitive Collection of Quotes, Sayings, and Jokes for the Contemporary Speechmaker
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992) at 71.

Preface

p. xii “All that it takes”: Various formulations of this quotation are attributed to Edmund Burke (1729–1797), although the original source has eluded historical researchers.

p. xiii Founded by Somaly Mam: Somaly Mam,
The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine
(London: Virago Press, 2008).

p. xv 30 to 35 percent: United Nations Children's Fund,
Children in Need of Special Protection
(Bangkok: UNICEF-Thailand, 2000) cited in Benjamin Perrin et al.,
The Future of Southeast Asia: Challenges of Human Trafficking and Child Sex Slavery in Cambodia
(Phnom Penh: Motorola Printers, 2001) at 13, online:
http://www.thefuturegroup.org
(accessed June 8, 2010).

p. xvii “Operation Relaxation”: see
Chapter 1
below.

p. xviii Canada got a failing grade: The Future Group,
Falling Short of the Mark: An International Study on the Treatment of Human Trafficking Victims
(Calgary: The Future Group, 2006), online:
http://www.thefuturegroup.org
(accessed June 8, 2010).

1 The Renaissance of Slavery

p. 1 “Operation Relaxation”:
Cam Brooks, detective, Calgary Police Service, General Investigations Unit, interview with author, October 17, 2008;
R. v. Saengchanh,
[2004] A.J. No. 310 (Alta. Prov. Ct.) (Quicklaw (QL)); Mike D'Amour, “Bylaw to be massaged: Big bust prods city to review licensing structure for rubdown artists,”
Calgary Sun
(November 7, 2003) (QL); “Prostitution pipeline allegedly smuggled Asian women into B.C.,”
Canadian Press NewsWire
(November 9, 2003) (QL); “Human trafficking pipeline: Far-reaching sex ring,”
Edmonton Sun
(November 10, 2003) (QL); “Police appeal for public help in search for sex ring boss,”
Canadian Press NewsWire
(November 16, 2003) (QL); “Sex trafficking suspect turns himself in to cops,”
Edmonton Sun
(December 17, 2003) (QL); “Calgary brothel boss gets two-year sentence and ticket back to Thailand,”
Canadian Press NewsWire
(July 8, 2004) (QL); Daryl Slade, “Sex-slave charges dropped,”
Calgary Herald
(March 18, 2006) at B2 (ProQuest).