The Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking (CCEHT) is upping the ante in urging people to shed the false perceptions they may have about this criminal scourge.

To commemorate National Human Trafficking Awareness Day on Feb. 22, the CCEHT launched a new 30-day public awareness campaign with the intent to shatter misconceptions. Physical posters are being posted in transit shelters and high-traffic areas in major cities across Canada, while digital ads will appear on social media, dating apps and streaming services.

The ad challenges the myth peddled by mass media that trafficking is predominantly strangers in white vans abducting victims and chaining them to radiators. The text of each poster reads: “Human Trafficking: It’s not what you think. It usually starts with someone you trust.”

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Each advertisement contains a link to the microsite endtrafficking.ca.

“It's a one-stop shop to get access to those indicators of sex trafficking, but also of course to learn about the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline, which is available 24/7,” said CCEHT executive director Julia Drydyk. “(It’s) for anyone in Canada that have questions about human trafficking, are concerned about someone that they know that might be experiencing exploitation or who might be in an exploitative situation.”

Ongoing efforts to raise awareness about trafficking and to push for impactful prevention and survivor assistance strategies are particularly paramount in 2025 as the political party that wins the upcoming federal election will be tasked with launching and executing a new five-year national anti-trafficking strategy.

“We hope that whoever is elected to lead the federal government will hit the ground running with that strategy,” said Drydyk. “We strongly hope the strategy responds to the voices and expertise of people with lived experience — survivors and service providers.”

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Drydyk has specific hopes that the strategy will reform the justice system. According to Statistics Canada’s Trafficking in Persons, 2023 report released in November, 84 per cent of criminal court cases with at least one human trafficking charge “have resulted in either a stay, a withdrawal, a dismissal or a discharge.” She proposed some ideas to manifest a higher rate of justice.

“Some of the recommendations that we have made include reducing the burden of proof from being so reliant on the victim,” said Drydyk. "There are other forms of evidence that can be used to be able to demonstrate the coercion, manipulation and control being done by traffickers.

“(For one), being able to sequester and access things like cell phone data,” explained Drydyk. “One of the challenges that we've heard is that it can even be hard for law enforcement to break into suspect data, but by being able to access a history of text messages and other communication, as well as evidence that suggests that traffickers are setting up the situations of exchanging cheques for money for the traffickers' benefit, looking at the digital records. Those are all things that could be more effectively used in the judicial process.”

Additionally, given that the average human trafficking court case runs a median of 382 days — over twice as long as sex trade (147) and violent offence cases (181) — the process has proven to be re-traumatizing for many victims.

It is also very difficult for survivors to participate in court proceedings out of fear for their safety, said Drydyk.

“We need to take the risks that survivors face very seriously,” said Drydyk. “Many continue to receive threats, if not directly from the trafficker, then through their network. There are real consequential safety risks involved in this and we need to do better to protect them, to ensure speed and efficient trials, and to make sure that we're not imposing bias that favours traffickers in the judicial process.”

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Drydyk favours a process in Ontario that enables minors to testify remotely so they do not have to face down their trafficker. She would like other provinces to adopt that approach and extend it to adults.

CCEHT is not alone in its anti-trafficking awareness efforts. For the third year in a row, the St. Anne Parish Catholic Women’s League in Saskatoon organized a flag-raising ceremony at city hall on Feb. 22, joining forces with the Salvation Army. Both groups guided an informational event at the Parktown Hotel about how the community could execute local strategies to confront this menace.