OTTAWA — Making it illegal to buy sex would help combat human trafficking for the sex trade in Canada, Conservative MP Joy Smith will say Wednesday as she unveils dozens of recommendations to fight the modern-day slave trade.
The recommendations are part of a national action plan Smith has worked on for the last three years, and include more funding for aid agencies that assist victims and creating a national office to assess and provide annual reports on Canada's efforts to stop human trafficking both here and abroad.
"It's going to take our whole nation to stop this crime," said Smith, MP for the Manitoba riding of Kildonan-St. Paul. She took on human trafficking as her political raison d'etre after seeing her son deal with the problem in his job as a police officer.
Human trafficking is the buying and selling of people, most often for sex or forced labour. Since human trafficking became a separate offence in the Criminal Code four years ago, just five people have been convicted of it in Canada. All of those cases involved Canadian victims, most under 18, who were forced into the sex trade within Canada.
There are another 32 cases before the courts now, at least 14 of which include victims who are Canadian girls under the age of 18.
The U.S. State Department estimates 800 people are trafficked into Canada each year and another 1,500 to 2,200 are smuggled through Canada on the way to the U.S.
Smith's plan calls for Canada to study ways to adopt a decade-old Swedish policy that considers prostitution violence against the sex trade worker and makes it illegal to buy or attempt to buy sex either on the street or in a business such as a brothel or massage parlour.
The policy cut demand for the sex trade and resulted in a significant drop in human trafficking there compared to its European neighbours. Some estimated the amount of prostitution in Sweden plummeted 90 per cent.
Canada's current laws prohibit solicitation but not the actual purchase of sex.
"Personally, I like the Swedish model and we can adapt many concepts from that model concerning the demand for the sex trade," said Smith.
She also calls for a wider public relations campaign, training judges, lawyers and cops about Canada's relatively new human trafficking laws so they can be used better and establishing safe houses for victims in each province.
She noted one of the critical aspects for prosecuting offenders is to separate the victim from the enslaver long enough to help begin the process of rehabilitation. The inability of police to get victims to co-operate — often due to fear of reprisal from their attackers — has been a major hindrance to prosecuting human trafficking in Canada.
Smith's plan comes on the heels of an RCMP analysis of human trafficking cases in Canada. The RCMP report found evidence of human trafficking in most major Canadian cities. Threats of violence against sex trade workers or their families, social isolation, withholding identification and requiring repayment of large debts are among the tactics used to coerce women and girls into the trade.
International victims mostly come from Eastern Europe and Asia and are smuggled into Canada either on false documents, visitor visas or through false marriages.
One of Smith's recommendations is to have Canada Border Services Agency officials keep track of women arriving in Canada alone for six months after they arrive to ensure they are safe.
Smith said her plan has been given to the prime minister and several relevant cabinet ministers and she hopes it will be presented to Parliament in full.
She noted one of the keys is to improve co-ordination between different levels of government and law enforcement and the non-governmental agencies which aid victims. A national human trafficking co-ordinator, what Smith calls a national rapporteur, would be a liaison, make policy recommendations and report annually to Parliament so Canada can track its progress.
