Sex-trade workers lured by big money in Alberta: police
EDMONTON - Just like everyone else, sex-trade workers are travelling across the country to earn big money in Alberta.
All but one of 16 prostitutes interviewed by Edmonton police recently as part of a human-trafficking investigation had arrived from outside Alberta, mostly from Toronto and Montreal. “There is a pattern where women are coming to an oil-rich province chasing the money, and we are seeing more and more of that,” Det. David Schening, with the Edmonton police’s vice unit, said Tuesday.
Participating in a nationwide undercover probe called Operation Northern Spotlight, Edmonton detectives contacted sex-trade workers by responding to advertisements on the Internet and then offered intervention and exit strategies instead of arresting them. A secondary goal was determining if they were being forced to work for somebody else.
“The objective is not just enforcement; first and foremost, it is the safety of these women, and then trying to see if we can identify their handlers,” Schening said. “No one acknowledged that was happening, but I saw a lot of reluctance and guarded answers. “I believe there is an underlying reason why they are here.”
None of the sex-trade workers in Edmonton contacted as part of the investigation was underage, although police elsewhere found minors had been threatened with violence, extortion and drug dependency, among other forms of coercion. The youngest, a 12-year-old girl, was taken into protective custody in Winnipeg.
More than 300 women were interviewed by police from 26 departments nationwide, with nine arrests and 33 charges laid, including forcible confinement, making and distributing child pornography, assault and trafficking in persons.
Launched in January, the operation focused on hotels and motels along thoroughfares in 30 cities and towns, Edmonton and Calgary included. A two-day hotel sting was carried out in Edmonton on Oct. 1-2.
“These are somebody’s daughters and family members who are coming here to engage in a dangerous business,” Schening said. “As a father and a grandfather, there is nothing I would like less than to find them as a victim at a crime scene.”
Schening said detectives tried to leave the sex-trade workers with the understanding that they could reach out to police any time they needed help. “I think they are making a circuit, going from city to city,” he said. “They was no shortage of women responding to our calls.”
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/trade...342/story.html
All but one of 16 prostitutes interviewed by Edmonton police recently as part of a human-trafficking investigation had arrived from outside Alberta, mostly from Toronto and Montreal. “There is a pattern where women are coming to an oil-rich province chasing the money, and we are seeing more and more of that,” Det. David Schening, with the Edmonton police’s vice unit, said Tuesday.
Participating in a nationwide undercover probe called Operation Northern Spotlight, Edmonton detectives contacted sex-trade workers by responding to advertisements on the Internet and then offered intervention and exit strategies instead of arresting them. A secondary goal was determining if they were being forced to work for somebody else.
“The objective is not just enforcement; first and foremost, it is the safety of these women, and then trying to see if we can identify their handlers,” Schening said. “No one acknowledged that was happening, but I saw a lot of reluctance and guarded answers. “I believe there is an underlying reason why they are here.”
None of the sex-trade workers in Edmonton contacted as part of the investigation was underage, although police elsewhere found minors had been threatened with violence, extortion and drug dependency, among other forms of coercion. The youngest, a 12-year-old girl, was taken into protective custody in Winnipeg.
More than 300 women were interviewed by police from 26 departments nationwide, with nine arrests and 33 charges laid, including forcible confinement, making and distributing child pornography, assault and trafficking in persons.
Launched in January, the operation focused on hotels and motels along thoroughfares in 30 cities and towns, Edmonton and Calgary included. A two-day hotel sting was carried out in Edmonton on Oct. 1-2.
“These are somebody’s daughters and family members who are coming here to engage in a dangerous business,” Schening said. “As a father and a grandfather, there is nothing I would like less than to find them as a victim at a crime scene.”
Schening said detectives tried to leave the sex-trade workers with the understanding that they could reach out to police any time they needed help. “I think they are making a circuit, going from city to city,” he said. “They was no shortage of women responding to our calls.”
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/trade...342/story.html
