A new report from Statistics Canada shows a slight decrease in reported human trafficking cases in 2023 after a 10-year high in 2022.
The report, ‘Trafficking in persons in Canada, 2023,’ says cases across Canada decreased to 570 reported incidents compared 597 reported in the previous year. In B.C. there were 43 reported cases last year, with more than half, 28, of them being in Vancouver alone.
Julia Drydyk, the executive director at the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, a national charity dedicated to ending all types of human trafficking in Canada, says although it seems numbers have grown rapidly in the last 10 years, human trafficking has been happening for decades, and police only really started tracking these statistics in 2013.
“What we are seeing is that governments have been putting far more resources over the last five years or so, both into education and awareness, but also in training law enforcement to better see the signs of human trafficking and to be able to recognize it,” she explained.
Drydyk says human traffickers are often looking for people with “vulnerabilities in their lives. This could be anything from low self esteem to problems at home or school, but more often than not, it’s also issues related to poverty, homelessness, housing … when their other basic needs aren’t being met.”
One of the ways Drydyk says traffickers lure in their targets is by “love bombing” them. They’ll do this by showering “them with gifts and attention, they’ll find out their greatest dreams and aspirations as well as their greatest fears, and then they’ll start using that against them to test their sexual boundaries and coerce them into the commercial sex industry.”
Once a trafficker has the traffickers trust, victims have “almost no control over their life. When they eat, sleep, who they see or how many forced sexual interactions they need to have in a day [are] all for their traffickers profit,” she added.
Many human trafficking cases don’t make it to court: advocate
Statistics Canada also found the number of human trafficking cases seen in Canadian courts have increased since 2013, but only 10 per cent of cases have resulted in a guilty verdict.
Drydyk explains many victims don’t want to take their trafficking cases to court due to the dragged-out process and having to recount their traumas. She says the median time for a court case is about 398 days, which is twice as long compared to other violent-offences.
“Often, victims are put on the stand, having to recount the most horrible things they’ve ever gone through and then being accused of doing it to themselves — similar to what we’re seeing in rape cases,” she said.
“[Victims are] also dealing with really extreme forms of threats from their trafficker, both to them and their family members. So, many survivors of sex trafficking choose to move on with their lives rather than go through the court.”
Protect yourself from human trafficking by knowing the signs
Drydyk says the best way to protect yourself against human trafficking is by educating yourself on the subject, and the tactics used by traffickers.
“By understanding the signs and knowing what trafficking most often is and isn’t, in the Canadian context, then we’re actually building a resilience and a set of tools, especially amongst our youth, to be able to spot that type of toxic behavior and to be able to ask for this help, hopefully before they end up in a situation of extreme exploitation.”
Overall Drydyk says even if it’s just a bad feeling about something, you can contact the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline at +1-833-900-1010 about yours or a friends sitaution. The hotline is open 24 hours, 365 days a year.
“If something feels off in your gut, it probably is.”