Social Policy in Ontario

Ontario should set up task force to stop human trafficking

Posted on December 18, 2015 in Child & Family Policy Context

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TheStar.com – Opinion/Editorials – Thousands of girls in Ontario, as young as 12, are being forced into the sex trade. The province needs to establish a police task force to combat human trafficking.
Dec 17 2015.   Editorial

Girls assaulted so badly by their pimps that they’ve ingested their own teeth. Women forced by their pimps to have sex with up to 15 “clients” a day. Young girls branded with their pimp’s name, held captive, forced into the sex trade, and sold like cattle.

The stories of human sex trafficking in Ontario told in a series of stories called The Game < http://projects.thestar.com/human-sex-trafficking-ontario-canada/ > by the Star’s Olivia Carville are horrifying.

That’s why Premier Kathleen Wynne must act immediately to follow up on the recommendation from the authors of an all-party legislative report on sexual violence and harassment that calls for the establishment of a police task force to fight human trafficking.

The authors suggest the task force be modeled on the guns-and-gangs task force established after the Boxing Day shooting of Jane Creba 10 years ago.  It won’t be an easy assignment. Police and social workers estimate there are thousands of girls, some as young as 12, being trafficked across the province.  But it’s about time.

Though trafficking for forced sex was outlawed in the Criminal Code of Canada in 2005, it was only last year that the first pimp in Toronto was convicted under that law.  That’s because of a lack of resources and, seemingly until now, the political will to fight human trafficking for sex.

Police are “barely scratching the surface with the resources they’ve got,” notes one of the report’s authors, Progressive Conservative MPP Laurie Scott.

Indeed, as Carville found, in 2011 Ontario committed just $1.95 million over three years to combat human trafficking. That same year, Manitoba, a province with a population only one-tenth the size, invested $8 million in its anti-trafficking programs.

Further, Scott put forward a motion in the legislature last May calling for creation of a provincial task force to combat human trafficking. Though her motion passed, the government has yet to take any action.

That could change, though. This week, in response to the Star series, Wynne pledged to do “everything we can to be part of a solution to this problem.” And Tracy MacCharles, minister of children and youth services, says recommendations from the all-party committee’s report may be used to strengthen a new sexual violence and harassment law now working its way through the legislature.

The need for action is urgent. Police say human trafficking for sex is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the province because it is so lucrative. Pimps can earn up to $280,000 a year from a single sex-trade worker. One pimp interviewed by the Star, Matthew Deiaco, admitted he has had four “workers” at a time.

Wynne has demonstrated her commitment to ending sexual harassment and violence with a $41-million action plan that includes a law and innovative and compelling TV ads targeted at ending sexual violence and harassment.

Now she must ensure her plan includes much-needed funding to stop human trafficking for sex.

< http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2015/12/17/ontario-should-set-up-task-force-to-stop-human-trafficking-editorial.html >

Tags: budget, crime prevention, homelessness, ideology, mental Health, poverty, women, youth

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