London Free Press
TAMARA CHERRY, QMI Agency
TORONTO - Countless "forgotten" children are being trafficked within and across provincial borders and Canada has no clear plan to help them, says a new RCMP report obtained by QMI Agency.
The perception of choice - that a child can choose to enter the sex trade and then choose to leave - is clouding Canadian minds from seeing that young people are part of a booming flesh trade within Canadian borders, Marlene Dalley, a research officer with Canadian Police Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, noted in the report, Hidden Abuse Hidden Crime.
A disclaimer at the top of the report says the expressed views are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the RCMP.
"In essence, the findings showed the urgency and necessity to protect children's rights with national, regional and municipal plans, which will combat this hidden crime and hidden abuse of children," Dalley writes.
Domestic sex trafficking in Canada is an issue that has been chronicled through several QMI Agency stories, many of which focused of human trafficking charges laid around the Greater Toronto Area.
Ontario, like Canada, has no official plan to combat human trafficking.
Dalley's report highlights groups of children found to be at "particular risk" of sex trafficking in Canada. They include runaway children, "throwaway" kids - whose parents don't want them and likely won't report them missing - teens living independently and children communicating on the Internet.
While Dalley's report mostly refers to trafficked teens, it mentions children as young as six are forced into prostitution in Canada.
Some mothers force or coerce their daughters into sex work so they can buy drugs or pay off drug debts, the report notes.
"As well, some family members consciously force children as young as six years old into the sex trade. These children are given drugs to ease the pain and awkwardness of the situation - a practice that exposes them to drugs at an early age, and consequently may create an addiction situation," Dalley writes.
Sparse as information was in 2008, Dalley found more than 400 children, some as young as 11, were reported as working for pimps in Calgary.
Some traffickers prey on victims at parties, shopping malls and bus stations, while others attend community events frequented by children and teens. Some pretend to be in love with their victims - a tactic seen several times throughout the GTA - and others recruit girls as part of an invitation to join a gang. Once they've got the girls working, pimps take their earnings.
Since there has been little research on the issue, authorities do not know exactly how many kids have been victimized.
Moreover, because many missing children are never reported missing, they become lost in a system that even fails to adequately help trafficking victims sought by police.
"The problem is so much bigger than we will ever know," said Joanne Paterson, psychology professor at the Durham College School of Justice and Emergency Services.
"They become Canada's forgotten kids. They're consistently trafficked. They're consistently re-victimized."
Paterson helped out former Toronto juvenile task force cop Dave Perry at Investigative Solutions Network with GTA research for Dalley's report.
"This is not a Toronto or a Montreal or a Vancouver or a highly urbanized environment issue. This is a national Canadian issue. Children are being exploited and children are being abused," Paterson said. "It's this whole perception of choice that just drives me crazy. This is not choice. This is guys who go out to strip clubs and go, 'Oh wow, they're making $1,500 a week.' Well actually, no they're not ... They're trafficked. And most of them are drug-addicted."
Since human trafficking legislation came into effect in 2005, police have redirected their focus from the "old" procuring and living-on-the-avails charges to trafficking, Dalley writes.
"Obviously, and most disconcerting, is the fact that it seems that police and law enforcement organizations continue to view prostitution in an indifferent manner. It could also be argued that few police and law enforcement personnel fail to fully understand the seriousness and therefore, fail to understand the intent, of the trafficking legislation," the report notes.
Not only must Canada develop a tool to measure incidents of trafficking beyond those reported to police, but there is also a need for police and community organizations to work together to help runaways and more vigilantly investigate their disappearances, Dalley found.
The misconception that the only trafficked people in Canada are those brought into the country with fake passports makes Canada's exploited children "more vulnerable to victimization," Dalley writes.
"Secondly, the perception that children can exit the sex trade when they wish, as occasionally reported, reflects a rather narrow view of the child's circumstance. These children are minors, under the age of 18, who are controlled, and sexually exploited by adults. Factors, such as low self-esteem, early child abuse, behavioural problems, family problems, drug addiction, immaturity, lack of family support, and sex trade workers, to name a few, render them more helpless, therefore more vulnerable."
On Tuesday, a private member's bill calling for mandatory minimum sentences for child traffickers received royal assent.
But there is still no national strategy to combat human trafficking in Canada, even though a motion calling for just that was passed by unanimous vote in the House of Commons more than three years ago.
Source: http://www.lfpress.com/news/canada/2010/07/01/14580771.html
