The number of human trafficking cases reported to law enforcement in 2023 declined to 570 from 597 the year before, and the incidence rate per 100,000 people slid down from 1.5 to 1.4. 

However, the author of Statistics Canada’s Trafficking in Persons in Canada, 2023 report, published on Nov. 1, explained to The Catholic Register via email that the true scale of the pervasive menace is not captured in this data. 

“Our overall understanding of human trafficking is hindered by the hidden and unreported nature of the crime, which further contributes to the difficulty in detecting and measuring human trafficking.” wrote Statistics Canada research analyst Loanna Heidinger. “Further, there are many reasons victims may not report their experiences to authorities. As such, the true scope of human trafficking is not fully captured; however, police-reported data allow for inferences to be made about the rates, trends, and associated characteristics of this crime.”

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Prominent Canadian anti-trafficking organizations, notably the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking and the Ally Global Foundation, have found that less than 10 per cent of victims feel comfortable sharing their traumatic account with the police. 

General feelings of mistrust, fears of trafficker reprisals, deep psychological scarring, language barriers and disenchantment over how the legal system prosecutes trafficking cases are a few of the primary reasons why victims remain silent about their tortuous ordeal.

Unfortunately, it could be suggested that data validates why victims feel skeptical about their prospects of obtaining justice. 

According to Heidinger’s report, of the over 4,500 incidents reported to the police since 2013, only 38 per cent have resulted in the laying or recommendation of charges, and over 58 per cent were cleared (not solved) by police. 

Even on occasions when the police have filed charges, only 10 per cent of adult criminal court cases with at least one human trafficking charge have resulted in a guilty decision. Eighty-four per cent of the time since 2012-13, Heidinger wrote that cases “ have resulted in either a stay, a withdrawal, a dismissal or a discharge.” Four per cent end in acquittal and another 2 per cent end with another type of decision (unfit to stand trial, not criminally responsible).

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Regarding criminality, Sofia Friesen, the Canadian programs director for Ally Global, previously told The Register that sufferers of sexual exploitation or modern slavery (labour trafficking) are also coerced into committing criminal acts. 

“There is a fear that charges will be pressed against them as well, whether that is related to the distribution of drugs or recruiting others into trafficking,” said Friesen.

Factoring in data from 2013-2023, 93 per cent of trafficking victims in Canada are women and girls, and 23 per cent were under the age of 18. Forty-two per cent of all victims were aged 18-24, and 23 per cent were aged 25-34. 

Over 91 per cent of victims have stated that they knew their trafficker. In 34 per cent of police-reported cases, the trafficker was the victim’s intimate partner and 22 per cent of the time it is a casual acquaintance. Heidinger wrote in her report that “a tactic employed by some traffickers involves drawing a potential victim into a romantic relationship with promises of love and affection, with the end goal of exploitation.”

Nova Scotia and Ontario loom as the two provinces with incidence rates above the 1.4 per 100,000 national average at 6.3 and 2.1 respectively. Police investigators and anti-trafficking organizations have declared that purveyors of this illicit enterprise strategically exploit Nova Scotia’s geographical location as a trafficking corridor into the rest of the country. The high concentration of urban centres and abundant land crossings explain Ontario’s figure. 

During the summer, member agencies of the Toronto Counter Human Trafficking Network (TCHTN), including the Mary Ward Centre, a Catholic agency, urged The Government of Canada to unveil a new five-year national strategy for combatting sexual and labour trafficking to replace the one that expired earlier this year. 

The TCHTN urged the government to ensure that input and recommendations from survivors are treated with similar regard to recognized experts in the anti-trafficking community as “they are, in fact, the real experts.”

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Conversation about this difficult topic is deemed vital too. 

According to research jointly released by the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking and the Angus Reid Forum this past February, 74 per cent of 1,505 surveyed Canadians agree that sexual trafficking is prevalent in Canada. However, “more than 70 per cent admit they have never had a conversation with a friend or family member about protecting themselves against sex trafficking.” Additionally, only 15 per cent of Canadians feel knowledgeable enough to start a dialogue.