Hon. Julie Miville-Dechêne: Next Wednesday, February 22, is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Human trafficking violates the fundamental rights of human beings and is unworthy of our civilization.

The number of victims of modern slavery has increased significantly over the past five years. It is estimated that 28 million people are subjected to forced labour and 22 million are trapped in forced marriages. Women and children are more vulnerable to human trafficking, which is increasingly moving online with growing sexual exploitation of children. The pandemic has made matters worse.

Unsurprisingly, human trafficking is more prevalent in poor and unstable countries. In contexts of war or extreme poverty, children become assets that can be sold and young girls are forced to marry, as a so-called solution to rape.

However, Canada is not immune to the scourge of human trafficking. There have been calls here in Canada to prohibit marriage for youth between the ages of 16 and 18 to limit forced or arranged marriages by families. The phenomenon is difficult to measure but some countries, like France and the United Kingdom, have already chosen to minimize the risks by raising the legal age of marriage to 18 almost without exception.

The fact that the number of images of the sexual exploitation of children online is doubling yearly, according to police, is another tragedy. We’re talking millions of images and tens of thousands of reports of child sex crimes every year. In a major investigative report by La Presse, a police officer summed up the situation like this:

We don’t have time to arrest everyone. The number of people who like to look at images of kids being raped is staggering. That is just a fact.

According to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, 80% of the victims are under 12. Over half are under three.

At noon today, I met with a broad coalition of groups and survivors headed up by Courage for Freedom, whose mission is to eradicate the trafficking of girls and boys. Young migrant girls are particularly at risk because of their unfamiliar surroundings.

What can we, as individuals, do? Our laws prohibit these practices, but they are happening anyway. It is therefore everyone’s responsibility to pay attention to what is going on around us, be proactive and listen to survivors. That’s what the February 22 awareness day is all about.

Hon. Julie Miville-Dechêne: Honourable senators, tomorrow, February 22, we will mark National Human Trafficking Awareness Day for the second time in Canada. This day was established last year thanks to the efforts of the All Party Parliamentary Group to End Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, of which I am a member. The aim is to educate the general public about this often misunderstood scourge.

It is often thought that trafficking only occurs outside our borders, never here in Canada. That is not true. In Canada, 95% of human trafficking convictions involve Canadians. Nearly all the victims are women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation.

Sex trafficking often occurs right before our very eyes, without us realizing it. A girl or woman is lured by someone she knows or considers to be her lover. Indigenous and racialized women are overrepresented. It starts with gifts, outings or a seduction operation during which the trafficker exploits the vulnerabilities of his prey before desensitizing her by raping her to achieve his goal: forcing her into prostitution.

How can the victim’s parents or close friends detect the troubling signs of this trap? The Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking provides a few potential signs to look out for. We could see such signs, for example, in the case of a girl or young woman whose behaviour has changed suddenly, who seems controlled by her partner, who isolates herself, who suddenly wears clothing that is not age appropriate, who receives expensive, unexplained gifts or who has several cellphones.

The pandemic has heightened the risk of human trafficking of girls and women on the Internet, whether through the recording of intimate images without consent or the posting of illegal images of minors online.

Canada is also a destination for people trafficked from abroad. They are lured by false or real job offers, often for seasonal work, or a contract to work as a server or child care provider. Unfortunately, the job that is promised sometimes becomes a form of modern slavery with excessive hours, threats, or the confiscation of the person’s passport.

Throughout the world, an estimated 25 million adults and children are victims of forced labour, often accompanied by trafficking. There too we can be vigilant as consumers, because these shameful human rights violations are used to produce goods and food at the lowest price possible. The labelling provides a certain number of indications that can alert us, but it is far from enough.

Beyond the legislation and policies, each of us can contribute in our own way to fighting human trafficking. When we confront these tragedies we cannot look away. On the contrary, we must open our eyes.