Viewing cable 03OTTAWA577, CANADA - 2002 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT

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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 OTTAWA 000577 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, IWI, WHA/PPC, USAID 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB CA
SUBJECT: CANADA - 2002 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 
 
REF: STATE 22225 
 
The following is Mission Canada's submission for the 
2002-2003 Trafficking in Persons report. Answers are keyed to 
numbered paragraphs in reftel. Embassy POC is PolOff Craig 
Bryant, telephone (613) 688-5339, fax (613) 688-3098. 
 
Paragraph 16. Overview of A Country's Activities to 
Eliminate Trafficking in Persons: 
 
--A. Canada is a country of transit, destination and origin 
for the trafficking of men, women, and children. As a 
destination country, trafficking of persons who have arrived 
from other countries occurs within Canada's borders. Domestic 
trafficking of Canadian citizens or legal residents does not 
take place in significant numbers, but there have been cases 
of Canadian citizen minors trafficked to other parts of 
Canada (particularly urban centers such as Toronto, Montreal, 
and Vancouver) and to cities in the United States for 
exploitation in the sex trade. Trafficking does not occur in 
territory outside of the government's control. 
 
Reliable numbers showing the extent of Canada's trafficking 
problem are not available. A November 2000 University of 
Toronto research paper published by Status of Women Canada 
(SWC), a government agency, estimated that 8,000 to 16,000 
persons entered Canada each year as the result of 
trafficking, either to remain in Canada or in transit to the 
United States. Government and NGO sources have indicated this 
figure is no longer a reliable estimate, and that there is 
simply no hard data available on the number of persons 
trafficked in Canada. A January 2000 Government of Canada 
report on trafficking in women stated that information on 
trafficking in Canada is limited, and that satisfying data 
collection requirements presents a major challenge for the 
government. 
 
Sources of available information range widely, including 
police reports, social workers, NGO's, research documents, 
federal agencies, press reports, hospital data, and more. 
Reliability of these sources also varies widely. Women seem 
to be trafficked more commonly than any other group, though 
children are sometimes trafficked for work in the sex or drug 
trades. Men are trafficked as indentured labor, but 
apparently not in significant numbers. The most frequently 
trafficked persons are from countries in eastern and southern 
Asia, eastern Europe, and Latin America. 
 
--B. Trafficked persons most often come from East 
(especially China) and Southeast Asia (including Thailand, 
Cambodia, the Philippines) and eastern Europe (including 
Russia). Persons trafficked into Canada who do not remain 
here are most often trafficked to the United States. 
 
--C. There does not appear to have been any change in the 
direction or extent of trafficking. 
 
--D. There are no surveys planned or underway to document 
the extent and nature of trafficking in Canada. SWC published 
three reports in 2000 on different aspects of trafficking in 
Canada. After a new anti-trafficking law took effect in June 
2002, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police began gathering 
information on a nation-wide basis on human trafficking 
activity. 
 
--E. Conditions for trafficked persons are difficult. Many 
trafficking victims are forced by violence or intimidation 
into the sex trade, including some who are initially tricked 
into it. Forced labor outside of the sex trade is less 
common, though it does exist in slaughterhouses, sweatshops, 
farms, restaurants, and factories. Information on such forced 
labor is scarce. Persons trafficked into indentured or forced 
labor are subject to violence, threats, or intimidation to 
themselves, or to family members remaining in their countries 
of origin. Victims often have their passports or other 
identification documents confiscated by traffickers, which 
further restricts their ability to flee their oppressors. 
Victims have limited access to government assistance for a 
number of reasons: they may not speak English or French, they 
fear being jailed or deported, they are ashamed, or they are 
unaware assistance is available to them. 
 
--F. Canada is not a country of origin for significant 
numbers of trafficked persons. Of those Canadian citizens or 
legal residents who are trafficked, minors (mostly runaways 
or otherwise troubled youth) and aboriginal persons seem to 
be the main groups targeted. 
 
--G. There is political will at the highest levels of the 
Canadian government to combat trafficking in persons. The 
government is making a good faith effort to address 
trafficking, as demonstrated by a new law that went into 
effect in 2002 making trafficking in persons illegal. 
Funding for social services was increased in the GOC's most 
recent budget. The GOC is devoting increased resources 
(personnel, funding, and focus) in areas such as border 
control and immigration that should have an impact on 
trafficking in persons. 
 
--H. Governmental authorities or individual government 
employees do not facilitate, condone, and are not otherwise 
complicit in trafficking in persons. 
 
--I. Funding for law enforcement has increased overall at 
the federal level, but trafficking in persons is not a law 
enforcement priority. Official corruption is not a problem. 
Government aid to victims has been limited due to a general 
lack of awareness of the existence or extent of trafficking, 
and lack of a specific anti-trafficking program. The 
principal factor hampering efforts to combat human 
trafficking is that it has not been a highly visible problem 
in Canada. Another factor hampering anti-trafficking efforts 
is that Canada's law enforcement jurisdiction is fragmented, 
involving various levels of governments and numerous 
departments and agencies. Federal law enforcement authorities 
cannot claim authority over provincial cases. Finally, 
Canada's strong tradition of respect for the rights and 
liberties of all persons, including non-citizens, limits the 
means (such as investigative detention) that law enforcement 
authorities might otherwise employ in trafficking 
investigations. 
 
Paragraph 17. Prevention: 
 
--A. The government acknowledges that trafficking is a 
problem. 
 
--B. Status of Women Canada (SWC), Citizenship and 
Immigration Canada (CIC), Department of Foreign Affairs and 
International Trade (DFAIT), Human Resources Development 
Canada (HRDC), Justice Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted 
Police (RCMP), and the Solicitor General Canada are the 
federal agencies involved in anti-trafficking efforts. 
Provincial and local law enforcement authorities, such as the 
Montreal Police Department and Toronto Police Department, are 
also involved. 
 
--C. There are no current and there have been no previous 
anti-trafficking information or education campaigns, but the 
government has supported efforts by NGO's and community 
organizations to raise awareness of trafficking and has 
funded academic studies of the problem. A variety of 
organizations, including Canadian universities, serve as 
resource centers for trafficking information. The Center for 
Refugee Studies at York University in Toronto began research 
on global trafficking in women in 1998, and is currently 
working on a study of developed country "markets" for 
trafficked persons, with an emphasis on North America. 
 
--D. Canada is a western, prosperous democratic country that 
strongly promotes women's participation in economic and 
political decision-making, as well as efforts to keep 
children in school. 
 
--E. The GOC has implemented programs aimed directly or 
indirectly at preventing trafficking into Canada. For 
example, CIC deploys immigration control officers at 
strategic transit points throughout the world to deter the 
illicit transit of migrants to Canada. Canada recently 
adapted a "one person, one passport" policy, which, it 
believes, will help deter trafficking in children. Under 
Canada's previous policy, children could be included in the 
passports of adults and a photograph of the child was not 
required. Under the new policy all Canadian passports must 
include a photo of the holder, and children must have their 
own passports. The GOC also seeks to stop the spread of 
trafficking in developing countries by funding initiatives 
proposed by the Canadian International Development Agency 
(CIDA - equivalent to the U.S. Agency for International 
Development). (See 17-I below) 
--F. The GOC supports NGO's, and other organizations and 
elements of civil society concerned with the issue of 
trafficking, by funding research projects and sponsoring 
conferences. SWC supports community-based action to address 
trafficking by providing funding for educational forums. 
 
--G. The government adequately monitors the borders, but 
Canada is a large country with thousands of miles of 
coastline, and therefore surreptitious entry by migrants is 
difficult to prevent. There were two instances in recent 
years when boats were discovered trying to smuggle trafficked 
persons from China into British Columbia. The movements of 
known immigrants into Canada are monitored by CIC through a 
databank. 
--H. The GOC set up an interagency working group in 1998 
initially for the purpose of consulting on the UN Convention 
on Transnational Organized Crime and related protocols (the 
Convention and two related protocols were ratified by Canada 
on May 14, 2002). This interagency group has now turned to 
some of the domestic issues and challenges in respect to 
trafficking in persons. The International Crime and 
Terrorism Division in DIFAIT's Global Affairs Bureau leads 
this group. Other agencies represented are SWC, CIC, DFAIT, 
HRDC, Justice Canada, the RCMP, and Solicitor General Canada. 
(See above, Paragraph 17-B.) The group assists in 
coordinating national efforts to combat trafficking in 
persons. 
 
The federal government does not have a national 
anti-trafficking or public corruption task force. There have 
been several joint task forces of federal, provincial, and 
local authorities that have focused on trafficking rings in 
specific areas for a limited period of time. For example, 
Operation Trade in Toronto was a massive, multi-police force 
investigation of traffickers who had purchased young women in 
Thailand, transported them to Toronto, and forced them to 
work as sex slaves. In Montreal, the police force recently 
established a task force which focuses, in part, on the 
growing problem of juveniles being coerced into the sex 
trade. 
 
--I. CIDA is providing funding for programs which seek to 
stop the sexual and labor exploitation of children in 
developing countries, including Mali, Burkina Faso, and Benin 
in Africa; Nicaragua and Peru in Latin America; and Haiti in 
the Caribbean. Through the South East Asian Fund for 
Institutional and Legal Development (SEAFILD), CIDA is 
supporting the Illegal Labour Movements: Trafficking in Women 
and Children project addressing trafficking in the Mekong 
delta area. SEAFILD also funds the Support for the 
Development of Protocols for Repatriation of Trafficked Women 
and Children Project, by the Coalition to Fight Against Child 
Exploitation (FACE) in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. 
 
Other federal agencies provide funding to international 
organizations to assist in combating trafficking. CIC, for 
example, has provided funding to the International 
Organization for Migration (IOM) to assist in a case study on 
migrant trafficking originating in Nicaragua. DIFAIT's Human 
Security Program recently made a grant of C$200,000 to a 
Latin American NGO, Casa Alianza, and IOM for assistance to 
Honduran street children at risk of falling victim to human 
traffickers. A portion of this grant will be used for the 
voluntary repatriation to Honduras of approximately 100 
juveniles who had been transported to Canada by drug 
trafficking gangs and forced to work as street dealers. 
 
--J. Canada does not have a national action plan to address 
trafficking in persons. 
 
--K. The interagency working group on trafficking (see 17-H) 
is responsible for developing government anti-trafficking 
programs. 
 
Paragraph 18. Investigation and Prosecution of Traffickers: 
--A. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Bill C-11) 
was passed by Parliament and signed into law by the Governor 
General in 2001. The Act entered into force June 11, 2002, 
when regulations to implement the Act were finalized. 
While there have been no prosecutions under C-11 to date, the 
significance of the bill is that, for the first time, a law 
is in place in Canada specifically prohibiting and punishing 
trafficking in persons. In Part 3, under the main heading 
Enforcement, Paragraphs 118 and 119 state: 
 
 ¶118. (1) No person shall knowingly organize the coming 
into Canada of one or more persons by means of abduction, 
fraud, deception or use or threat of force or coercion. 
 ¶118. (2) For the purpose of subsection (1), 
"organize", with respect to persons, includes their 
recruitment or transportation and, after their entry into 
Canada, the receipt or harbouring of those persons. 
 ¶119. A person shall not disembark a person or group 
of persons at sea for the purpose of inducing, aiding or 
abetting them to come into Canada in contravention of this 
Act. 
 
--B. The potential penalties for trafficking in persons are 
set out in Paragraphs 120 and 121 of the Act. They state: 
 
 ¶120. A person who contravenes section 118 or 119 is 
guilty of an offence and liable on conviction by way of 
indictment to a fine of not more than $1,000,000 or to life 
imprisonment, or to both. 
 ¶121. (1) The court in determining the penalty to be 
imposed under subsection 117 (2) or (3) or section 120, shall 
take into account whether (a) grievous bodily harm or death 
occurred during the commission of the offence; (b) the 
commission of the offence was for the benefit of, at the 
direction of or in association with a criminal organization; 
(c) the commission of the offence was for profit, whether or 
not any profit was realized; and (d) a person was subjected 
to humiliating or degrading treatment, including with respect 
to work or health conditions or sexual exploitation as a 
result of the commission of the offence. 
 
--C. The penalty for sexual assault is up to 10 years 
imprisonment. The penalty for sexual assault using a weapon, 
threats against a third person, or when bodily harm results 
is up to 14 years imprisonment. The penalty for aggravated 
sexual assault is up to life imprisonment. 
 
--D. No cases have been prosecuted under the new 
anti-trafficking provisions in the short period since they 
took effect. The government has prosecuted and even convicted 
a few human traffickers and smugglers for related offenses, 
but penalties imposed have been minimal. For example, in a 
Toronto prosecution brought as part of the Operation Trade 
investigation, a judge sentenced the person described as the 
mastermind of a sex slave operation to less than two years of 
house arrest. This situation is likely to change as law 
enforcement officers and prosecutors become more 
knowledgeable about investigating and prosecuting cases under 
the new anti-trafficking law. 
 
--E. Reports show that traffickers operate at all levels - 
as freelancers, in small crime groups, and as part of large 
international organized crime syndicates. Marriage brokers 
sometimes serve as a front for traffickers. Government 
officials are not involved in trafficking. 
 
--F. The government actively uses modern anti-crime methods 
to investigate cases of trafficking, but until now there has 
not been a sustained focus on preventing or prosecuting 
trafficking in persons. After the new anti-trafficking law 
took effect, the RCMP began collecting and analyzing data on 
trafficking on a nation-wide basis. 
 
--G. In the past the government has not provided specialized 
training for government officials in the investigation and 
prosecution of trafficking, but with the implementation of 
the new anti-trafficking law it now plans to provide such 
training. 
 
--H. The GOC cooperates with other governments in 
investigating and prosecuting trafficking, though on an ad 
hoc basis. Canadian and U.S. law enforcement authorities 
have cooperated on cases in the past, including a 1998 
investigation into smuggling from China through Toronto and 
on to New York City that resulted in the arrest of 11 people 
in Canada and 30 in the U.S. 
 
--I. The GOC has rarely (if ever) extradited human 
traffickers to other countries because Canada did not have a 
law against trafficking in humans. With the implementation of 
the new anti-trafficking law, Canada will be better able to 
extradite traffickers. 
 
--J. There is no evidence of government involvement in or 
tolerance of trafficking at any level. 
 
--K. N/A 
 
--L. Canada ratified ILO Convention 182 in 2000. Canada 
signed the Sale of Children Protocol supplementing the Rights 
of the Child Convention in 2001. In 2002, Canada ratified the 
Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, as well as the 
Optional Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish 
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children; and 
the Optional Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by 
Land, Sea, and Air. 
 
Paragraph 19. Protection and Assistance to Victims: 
 
--A. There are a number of programs and services in Canada 
that can assist trafficking victims, even though they are not 
specifically aimed at such victims. These include health 
care, legal service, and other social services. Trafficking 
victims are eligible to apply for permanent residence status 
in Canada under humanitarian/compassionate provisions of 
Canadian immigration law. In addition, trafficking victims 
can make claims for Convention refugee status. The Canadian 
Immigration and Refugee Board introduced Gender-Related 
Persecution Guidelines in 1993 that may be relevant to some 
trafficking cases. The new Immigration Act (Bill C-11) states 
that the best interests of the child may be considered in the 
context of applications for permanent residence on 
humanitarian and compassionate grounds and certain decisions 
taken by the Immigration Appeals Division. 
 
--B. The federal government does not provide funding or 
other support to NGO's for service to victims. Services and 
assistance for crime victims are normally a provincial 
matter. Victims of trafficking are eligible to apply for 
assistance from victims' assistance funds maintained by the 
provincial governments. Many victims are eligible for refugee 
status, but this presents a problem because traffickers are 
aware of and can exploit this fact. 
 
--C. Victims of trafficking may be detained, fined and 
deported. This is a source of frustration for federal and 
provincial authorities who need to obtain the assistance of 
victims in prosecuting traffickers. Many police and 
immigration officers view foreign prostitutes brought into 
Canada by traffickers as illegal immigrants and petty 
criminals, and not as victims. This attitude is slowly 
beginning to change, but will require more training and 
education. 
 
--D. The government sometimes encourages victims to assist 
in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking, but this 
is a difficult task. Victims often come from countries where 
the police are corrupt and dangerous and may even be part of 
the trafficking network. In addition, victims may not speak 
English or French or understand their rights or what the 
police want from them. Victims are therefore often reluctant 
to cooperate with the police in a prosecution. 
 
A victim who is a material witness against a trafficker is 
permitted to obtain a humanitarian and compassionate visa to 
remain in Canada, which would entitle him or her to work. 
Under Canada's Criminal Code and victims' compensation 
programs at different jurisdictional levels, victims of 
trafficking can obtain damages for injuries suffered. In 
addition, the provincial governments of Alberta and Ontario 
recently enacted legislation giving those provinces the power 
to sue pimps and other sexual exploiters of children in order 
to recover the cost of treating their victims. 
 
--E. Protection for trafficking victims is available, though 
it is a new concept. Such protection is needed, as motorcycle 
gangs and organized crime groups that frequently resort to 
violence and intimidation are heavily involved in human 
trafficking. Many law enforcement officers do not view 
foreign prostitutes or illegal workers as victims of 
traffickers, and do not understand that these persons often 
require additional protection from organized crime. 
 
--F. Government officials do not receive specialized 
training for providing assistance to victims of trafficking. 
 
--G. As there are few if any Canadian victims of trafficking 
repatriated to Canada, there is no government program to 
provide assistance to such persons. 
 
--H. The following NGO's work with trafficking victims in 
Canada: 
- The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (Vancouver, BC) 
- The Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (Victoria, 
BC) 
- Philippine Women Center (Vancouver, BC) 
- Kid Friendly Society of British Society (West Vancouver, BC) 
- Multicultural History Society of Ontario (Toronto, ON) 
- Toronto Network Against Trafficking in Women (Toronto, ON) 
- Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, 
(Toronto, ON) 
- Save the Children Canada (Vancouver, BC and Toronto, ON) 
- Kelowna Women's Resource Center Society (Kelowna, BC) 
- Prostitution Alternatives Counseling and Education Society 
(Vancouver, BC) 
- Federation Des Femmes Du Quebec (Montreal, QC) 
- Alberta Association of Sexual Assault Centers (Calgary, AB) 
- Prostitutes Empowerment, Education, and Resource Society, 
(Victoria, BC) 
- Saskatoon Communities for Children Inc. (Saskatoon, SK) 
- Passages Women's Shelter (Montreal, QC) 
- Migrant Agricultural Workers Support Centre (Leamington, ON) 
 
CELLUCCI