Trafficking. It’s such a big word. So many implications.
I was trafficked for 8 years in South-Western Ontario. It happens here in Canada, in your home town, yes, it happens. With education I have come to understand how it happened to me and through great introspection I learnt why. It was so that I could do the work I do advocating for those I have met and those I will never meet.
I live in London, Ontario and great work is being done here on the human trafficking front-lines. I am on the executive team of the London Anti-Human Trafficking Committee and our mandate is about public education. I have spoken to over 3000 people about human trafficking. I go into the high schools, universities and to law enforcement. I ran a drop-in for prostituted and trafficked women until the funding ran out. I am currently working to open another drop-in downtown with the goal of building relationships. I often get referrals from support agencies and Victims Services to work with women who are exiting or have already exited the sex industry and I support families that have children who have been or are currently being trafficked.
I am in my final year of the Social Worker program at Fanshawe College and speak at the local John School which is a court mandated diversion program for men arrested for the offence of communicating for the purpose. When speaking at the John school, my goal is to humanize these women in the eyes of the purchasers. I say things like, would you drop your daughter, mother aunt or niece off in a dark alley and drive away with nary another thought about her? The men often become offended and say, “NO”! I then ask them why they did it to her? Did she not matter? I also speak about the hopes and dreams these women hold, the fact that they have families and children. They are real people and they matter. I talk about how hard it is for women to leave and how if there was no other choice [to enter the sex industry], then it was never really was a “choice”.
In London, Ontario, a survey was done in a neighborhood and the children said the only place they felt safe was their bedrooms because men were trolling their streets. We have to address the demand. The demand has ramifications for people that are not even involved in sex work. How dare they? In London there is a collaboration between the London Abused Women’s Centre and the Salvation Army Correctional and Justice Services for women and girls over the age of 12 who have been prostituted or sex-trafficked. The Salvation Army Correctional and Justice Services also provide service and supports to male victims. They support/education/advocacy/safety planning for family members of women who have been prostituted or sex-trafficked.
To date they have served a total of 915 individuals through the Choices Program including:
- 233 prostituted/sex-trafficked women/girls through individual counselling and outreach services (203 identify as sex trafficked)
- 1 prostituted man through outreach services
- 70 family members of prostituted and trafficked women/girls
- 101 prostituted and/or at-risk women/girls through groups
- 510 at-risk women and youth via community outreach
There is another organization in London called The Coalition Assisting Trafficked Individuals (CATI). CATI has been given a research grant with the aim of better understanding the magnitude of labor abuse and exploitation, confinement, debt bondage, slavery, forced marriage, and sexual abuse in the London-Middlesex area. CATI has also continued to help agencies with requests for training, sharing of information, and help with grant writing as these requests are submitted.
I will be doing this work for the rest of my life. I am dedicated. I want to travel all over Canada speaking about this issue. I want to shout about it from the roof tops. I always say at the end of my speech, now that you know, any form of silence is complicity.
written by C.P.R.
C.P.R. is an Advocate, Educator and Survivor. She was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her anti-human trafficking work in her community.