The Slave Trade is Back: Confronting Human Trafficking in Canada and Beyond

Abstract

Individual liberty is being systematically attacked in Canada and around the world with a resurgence in the last two decades of human trafficking — a modern-day form of slavery. Modern-day slavery is thriving in countries as diverse as Cambodia and Costa Rica, India and Italy, as well as the Ukraine and the United States itself. International policing agencies say that illegal profits from modern-day slavery rival that of drug and weapons trafficking. While countries around the world have been tackling the issue for over a decade, Canada’s response has been comparatively lethargic due to a lack of widespread awareness about the extent of the problem and insufficient political will to make it a priority. As a result, Canada has been recognized as a destination country for human trafficking involving sexual exploitation and forced labour, as well as a transit country for perpetrators to transport their victims into the United States. Even more alarmingly, Canada has recently been identified as a source country for sex trafficking victims. In fact, our own citizens have become targeted by traffickers who richly profit from the young women and underage girls under their control. This paper offers: a primer on human trafficking and its victims and looks at Canada’s human trafficking connection. It also discusses the cost of inaction, considering: its effect on victims; its economic costs;and its role in fuelling criminal activity, corruption and undermining the rule of law. Interested readers will want to see the author\u27s book Invisible Chains: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking detailing his research findings and recommendations from his study on human trafficking in Canad