Narrator: If you think human trafficking isn't rare in Canada, it's not. According to Statistics Canada, between 2014 and 2024, police reported more than 5000 cases. And experts say that's just the tip of the iceberg. And some of the highest rates in the country were right here in Ontario. The vast majority of victims were women and girls, most of them under the age of 25. Human trafficking doesn't make up a huge chunk of police reported crime, but it has a big impact on marginalised communities. So what is actually happening here in Ontario and why does it keep happening? Welcome to The Rundown. Data shows that Ontario's rates of human trafficking exceed the national average is experts. Why this is such a big problem here and now, and what else could be done to stop it?

Narrator: Kiara Gharabaghi is the dean of the Faculty of Community Services at TMU, and the co-director of the centre for Combating Child Sex Trafficking and Online Child Sexual Exploitation. Liz Mulligan is director of intake at Children's Aid Society, Toronto. Melanie Clark is a staff sergeant in Investigative services with the Guelph Police Service, and Cassandra Diamond is an anti-human trafficking specialist and founder of BridgeNorth Advocacy, an organisation dedicated to ending sexual exploitation in Canada. I want to thank all three of you for joining us in studio. Cassandra, of course, for joining us on the line for an important conversation. Cassandra, I want to come to you first. When we talk about human trafficking, can you give us a definition? What does it mean?

Cassandra Diamond: Human trafficking is a crime here in Canada. It's a very serious crime that includes using force, fraud, coercion and or deception to really get a victim to do what a trafficker would like them to do, oftentimes, all the time, victims of this crime have not given consent. Like perhaps others would have given, which would be called a sex worker. They're very different.

Narrator: Okay with that, Melanie? How does it compare when we talk human trafficking? Compare with other types of trafficking? When we think in Canada, sometimes we'll think drug trafficking. Sometimes we'll even think labour as well. How does it differ?

Melanie Clark: Well, I personally in Guelph we don't see a lot of labour trafficking, but with the drug trafficking, I like to compare the two as far as the tangible versus the intangible. Right. So with a person, you're talking about a tangible item with the drugs they sell, the drugs, they go get more drugs with a person. That person is being violated and abused over and over and over again. So it's the heinous crime, the most heinous crime because of that, that repeat trauma.

Narrator: Kiara's, what does human trafficking look like in Canada? If we take a we'll get into sort of the data here in Ontario. But give us a broad picture. What does it look like here?

Kiara Gharabaghi: Well, it is very, very widespread. It is it is a crime that affects different communities differently. There is a disproportionate impact on especially Indigenous communities. Also in Ontario and Nova Scotia, black communities, and then very interestingly and often forgotten communities, disability communities, and especially neurodivergent communities. It's a it's also a crime across Canada and really around the world that sometimes is based on just one person committing a crime through through the relationships they have with individuals. And sometimes it's an organized crime that is transnational in nature and that impacts in Canada as well. So it exists at many different levels with many different nuances, but it affects the victims all in very similar ways. It's life altering, certainly.

Narrator: All right. I want to look at some data. This is police reported human trafficking incidents in Canada from 2014 to 2020. For a ten year period, 5070 police reported human trafficking incidents. Ontario is one of two provinces that exceeded that national average rate. 85% of incidents were reported in metropolitan areas, with the highest average annual rate in Thunder Bay. 93% of identified victims were women and girls, two thirds were younger than 25. Liz, I want to get your reaction on some of that information there.

Liz Mulligan: Well, I think that certainly from a child welfare perspective, when we think about the number of I think about the people that are coming in and the children and youth that are being referred to us, it's primarily girls, and certainly from a very young age. So 13 is the common age that we're for women. And I think that when we from a child welfare perspective, it's a very prevalent concern. And we have some families that we may get involved with. And when we routinely ask about human trafficking, it's starting how much the warning signs are that families are just not aware of.

Narrator: Okay, we'll talk about those warning signs a little later. But Cassandra, I want to get your your reaction as well on that data. These aren't not surprising to you.

Cassandra Diamond: I am a survivor of this crime. Ten years I was in the life being exploited and trafficked. But what I want to refer and talk to you about today is that there are more victims than you think there are, and they are younger than you think they are. BridgeNorth serves 12 to 17 year olds. In our program we operate a prevention program called Savvy and an intervention program called Life Edge. As a matter of fact, just last year we served 72 in our prevention program. 60% were under the age of 16. Last year in our intervention based program, Life Edge, we served 16 and total just last year. That's 45% under the age of 16, to the point that was made previously by my colleague. We have a 15% intra organizational referral rate. That means that people send participants to our prevention program thinking that they're at risk, but we discover they've already been being trafficked for sometimes many years.

Narrator: Help us understand. Looking at the data you had mentioned Ontario, what is it about Ontario that that makes it a hub here?

Kiara Gharabaghi: Well, there are a number of things. I think, first of all, it's really important to say that this is severely under-reported data. So it's even actually stated by Stats Canada that this is severely under-reported data. We we estimate that the data is at least tenfold, that so at least ten fold. That means that none of us would spend a day out and about in especially a city, without being within feet of this crime, either within feet of a victim sitting on the TTC or walking about downtown or over perpetrator. So, so definitely this is everywhere. Ontario is. First of all, we have big cities Toronto, Ottawa in particular, but we also have cities in the north where Indigenous communities are heavily impacted. Thunder Bay comes to mind, Kenora, other places, and we have lots of borders. And so there is opportunities for transnational activity as well. Ontario is a is a very diverse place. There are many cultural communities in which reporting this crime, or even indicating to an adult that something is happening that is unusual, is comes with consequences that perhaps are cultural in nature or that relate to our communities, deal with these kinds of things. So it really is a hotbed for for that activity. The other piece that's important to understand is Canada's rules, especially for in relation to online sexual exploitation and trafficking are easier to exploit for technology savvy perpetrators. And they would be in other countries. So there is it's it's much harder to trace. It is much easier to access sort of online portals in in this country and the regulations and the law is still catching up upon trying to control and sort of regulate these, these areas.

Narrator: Okay. I want to talk a little bit about community as you talk, Melanie. According to StatsCan, Guelph had the highest rate of human trafficking reported by police services in 2024. Tell us about the situation in Guelph. What makes it sort of unique in sort of its geography as well?

Melanie Clark: I think with those stats, needs a bit of a backstory to say how we got there. So in 2023, in the fall of 2023, our mayor and city council declared intimate partner violence an epidemic. So that created a lot of discussion around what are the real issues, how can we support our victims? We are very lucky in that we have a chief of police, Gord Cobey, who is a huge advocate of eradicating human trafficking and a huge support. So with that, he really worked on collecting or getting the resources to police it properly, which we were not doing because we didn't have the resources. At the same time, we had one human trafficking investigator that was working in a kind of a joint force operation with another service. And his experience, he brought back the fact that human trafficking and intimate partner violence are very interrelated in that many human trafficking investigations have that intimate partner violence element. So at the same time, in 2024 of January, we created a brand new unit that has that investigates. And they're cross trained in both intimate partner violence and human trafficking. So with that, every intimate partner violence incident that comes through our service, it's audited by this unit. So if there's any element of human trafficking, we follow up on that. So it's less about it's not more prevalent in Guelph than it was in 2023. It's not that. It's just that we are now responding. We're not we're now able to respond not only reactively better, but now proactively. We are educating the community. We just recently spoke to about 900 of our Catholic school board members, educating them on human trafficking and the internet child exploitation. So it's more of that piece that you're getting the numbers, and I expect them to continue to rise because we are really proactively investigating human trafficking.

Narrator: Chris, I want to come to you before I come to Liz, when we're talking about the age, we're talking when we talk. You said 13. You know, why is it such a big problem amongst youth?

Kiara Gharabaghi: Well, there are a number of reasons. And and the degree to which it has been a problem for young people has also shifted with shifts, especially in technology and in social media use and those kinds of things. The pandemic was a major amplifier and accelerator of that process because young people were sitting at home on on social media, essentially for extended periods of time. But I think the there are shifting norms, there are shifting peer relations, there are shifting conversations in youth culture about sex, about relationships, about what constitutes healthy relationships, and so on. And on the flip side of things, I think people seeking to exploit the moment also are much more sophisticated than they've ever been before. They are very good at what they do. And ironically, of course, the, you know, the work that a perpetrator does to really bring a victim into the life, as Cassandra referred to it, is, mirrors some of the best social work you have ever seen. Oh, wow. Without, of course, the rules of the ethics associated with it. So it is surprisingly easy. And there is some data coming from, I believe it was the RCMP that suggests that it takes only about four hours to to through social media to, to get a victim hooked.

Narrator: That's it. That's it. Four hours. Four hours. Okay, Liz, help us understand. Can we actually can I get an example of sort of you talk about you make that comparison of social work. What is it? What does it look like in that four hours.

Liz Mulligan: So, you know, there are many young people in our communities who are quite lonely, who feel excluded from in school, who feel excluded in peer groups and so on, who may also have very difficult scenarios unfolding at home in terms of their familial relationships and so on. Factors of poverty often figure into that alone time and so on and so, so knowing that or, you know, perpetrators seek out those young people, they try and figure out, okay, who is in this situation. And that makes young people extraordinarily vulnerable, because any sort of indication that somebody actually cares that you exist is is the beginning. And, you know, there is a there is a whole pattern of that often involves some sextortion as well. So, you know, just send me a little picture, I'll send you a little picture. And then before that there is no going back. This is extraordinarily difficult.

Narrator: All right. I'm hoping you can connect the dots here from from a welfare perspective. Is that kind of what we're hearing?

Liz Mulligan: Absolutely. When we think about the, I guess, characteristics of the youth that we're working with that have been exploited, it's it's much of what we're talking about here in terms of may have trauma in their past, may have some mental health in their past, come from disrupted family environments as well as concerns around their online activity and getting involved with what they perceive to be a legitimate romantic relationship, when it really is just a form of recruitment.

Narrator: All right. With that, what does Children's Aid Society of Toronto do to intervene and support families?

Liz Mulligan: So when we are involved with families, we work closely with our Toronto police partners in terms of their piece, of course, is focusing on the crime aspect. And our piece is perspective is really focusing on the victim and the individual, and it really is helping to identify whether those risk factors, whether or not they're present, as well as working with the individual to understand what what's going on for them in terms of some of the social issues that we're talking about, to be able to respond and make sure that they get the help and respond to some of those concerns, and really working with them around safety planning and ensuring that not only do they have short term safety plan, but a long term safety plan as well.

Narrator: Just to add to that, and I just wanted just the public to know that the police yeah, obviously we want to catch the bad guy. That's what we want to do. But ultimately, with regards to human trafficking, our goal is to assist our supports, our partners in removing that person. That's our number one goal. It's not to arrest. It's not to get a statement. It's not to collect that evidence. It's to assist in removing her or him from that situation and get them to a place of supports and safety. And if in time, they're ready to talk to us at that time, we will obviously be open to that. But I think that's really important piece that police aren't just there to okay, give us a statement. We want the evidence, right. We want to protect them and bring them out of that.

Narrator: Absolutely. Yeah. For sure. You want to stick with you when we talk about signs, what what are some of the signs that parents and community members can look out for when many when it comes to many of the indicators for trafficking?

Liz Mulligan: Yeah. And this is really important. And I'm sure my colleagues can add to this. Right. But there and speaking of young people, so you have a young girl who is now showing up with, you know, her hair is done, her nails are done. Her clothes are a lot nicer than they used to be, with no real explanation of how that's happening. They could be showing signs of anxiety. They can be showing more, a little more isolated. They're missing their classes where they never used to before. They're very secretive on their phone. They have a very controlling boyfriend who you're not going to meet. So those are some of the signs, right. But I also want to add to that. Like those are also maybe signs of just being a teenager. Right. So some of these signs are yeah, you might be being human trafficked, but it might just open up conversations just to dive a little deeper into why that behaviour is happening. Right. And I'm sure there's again, more signs, but those are some of the ones.

Narrator: That let me get Cassandra in there as well. Get your thoughts on some indicators as well. But some of the stuff that Liz and Melanie and others have been saying, if you wanted to add on.

Cassandra Diamond: Let me say briefly, there are four stages of exploitation. That is when someone's at risk, when somebody is transitioning in, when somebody is entrenched in the life and when somebody is exiting, those are going to provide different indicators. So for example, if somebody is at risk of being trafficked. Many of the signs that were just mentioned also being very happy, elated one moment and very upset or disappointed the next, because the trafficker is starting to put them on the roller coaster, you know, love them one minute and then they've done something terribly wrong. And now the victim is trying to get this to get back to those feelings of romantic or belonging or love. Again, other signs are it starts. It's a series of events. So when a child starts coming late to class, then a week or two later starts also leaving early, these have to add up together, right? We're not looking for one sign. There's usually more than one and it's a series of events.

Narrator: Cassandra, I do want to follow up. And possibly this is that third point of being entrenched. You know, a lot of people might be asking, why might a victim not come forward? What would deter someone? Because it sounds like a lot of this is psychological. This is not necessarily someone who is, you know, tied to something.

Cassandra Diamond: A lot of victims think that they won't be believed. Traffickers are telling them that they are the ones who are committing the crime. They are the ones who would be in trouble if anything were to ever surface. Oftentimes, traffickers are telling victims don't trust the police, they're going to harm you. So the very people that are there to assist you are somehow now thought or believed to be unsafe. Also, victims that are out of their family homes or in schools, right? They're being trafficked oftentimes from from a school setting. And so feelings of hopelessness start to sink in. Feelings of shame and fear of what could possibly happen to them if they were to reach out, are reasons why people don't reach out. This is a crime. We have to reach in to find those people, right?

Narrator: Kiara get you to add on that.

Kiara Gharabaghi: I just want to add to that that, you know, a core strategy of traffickers is to isolate their victims. And so, so, you know, going and really raising some questions about really does your mother really love you? Are you really that close to your brother? Is that friend really your friend? And before you know it, many of these young people really have nowhere to turn. There is one other thing I'll just because people often don't think about this, another strategy of traffickers is to create dependency, including financial dependency. And this becomes very relevant in stage four that Cassandra mentioned, because traffickers sometimes will take out loans in the name of their victims and then create a credit dependency, because the credit rating of the victim will be horrific. And so there are so many different ways in which traffickers, in non-violent ways, incidentally. So it's not obvious to a 14 or 15 year old really exert a level of control that is very, very hard to shake and hard to explain to somebody. You know, it's that's not so simple.

Narrator: Well, speaking of explaining, Liz, I know a lot of the cases. These are sensitive cases. Does this sound like some of the stuff that you're dealing with when we're talking about just how how wide ranging in terms of tactics people are using?

Liz Mulligan: Absolutely. And I think that when we think about the psychological aspect and we think about the belonging and being trusted, and we link that to the disrupted family environments, some of these youth don't have that trusted adult. They don't have that individual that they could turn to. And so when you speak about the isolation, I think that that is very key and very much, I would say, a thread that we see in most of the cases that we that we're involved in.

Narrator: And just quickly with regards to getting out, a lot of them as as it's black and white to us and I can say you are being human trafficked. They like they believe that this person is their boyfriend. They love this person. They have a trauma bond to this person. So that's also a huge piece is that this is their boyfriend. You are not disrupting that.

Narrator: All right. In the last couple of minutes that we have I want to focus on some solutions here. What is one recommendation? If we had the Minister of Public Safety sitting across from us on this table? Cassandra, what is something that you would that you think is perhaps not being discussed, but something that could push and move that needle?

Cassandra Diamond: We have to suppress the demand for paid sex. We do not have strong enough laws to deter bodies of sex, especially those who are who are purchasing those under the age of 18. And so we have to have stronger deterrence laws. And also I'll be very direct. Public safety is the house for the national strategy. And there have been some promises made to us as survivors that have not yet come true. One of those, for example, is a lived experience kind of round table at the national level, where survivors like myself gather together to help the government to understand the people that they are attempting to serve and to make help them to make programs and provide financial. Solutions.

Narrator: And like I said, it's getting the youth educated because that's that's where it starts. That's yeah.

Liz Mulligan: I agree, I think education is important, but I also think action. And so if people who are listening today and they're hearing what the warning signs are and they think they might, they're not sure to reach out, to reach out to an Organisation that specializes in human trafficking. Certainly when it comes to children and youth under the age of 18, they can contact their local Children's Aid society to have a conversation so that we can determine what the next steps are and whether or not this is something that that needs a swift response.

Narrator: I'm going to ask you this because I think when you talked about sort of the perpetrators here, they are quite advanced. And I think that we just sort of dismiss it. And I want to know if there's something out of the box that we are just not looking at that could push this needle that could, would require people to come together. When we talk about when we're talking about those sort of silos breaking those down, is there something out of the box that we are not thinking about that would sort of fix this?

Kiara Gharabaghi: I don't know how out of the box this is, but we just have to make real the things that we talk about. So first of all, I want to really reinforce Cassandra's point around survivors and notably, survivor leaders. You know, Cassandra is somebody who I would describe as a survivor leader who not only has the lived experience, but has had years to really think that through and connect to other sectors and talk with people and has something to offer in that regard. It is always very awkward when professionals, you know, who really are working through disciplinary ways and sort of what they've learned, try to address issues that don't fit within any discipline. It's so that's one problem. I, I do think the other piece and it's not an innovative piece, it's just a, it's just a piece that's not happening is that this is a public health issue. Fundamentally, this is a public health issue. And we are there are many, many groups doing amazing work. Policing does very good work. Child protection does very good work. Schools are starting to do really good work. But where we are completely fragmented in that context and sometimes working across purposes. For example, in policing there is something called forensic interviewing, which is how do you interview somebody in order to begin to sort of collect what you need to, to have a case against the perpetrator. And in child welfare, there is also interviewing going on, but it is not necessarily forensic interviewing. And sometimes these things are across purposes. And then the case collapses because we've done it differently. And we created sort of problematic evidence. So bringing people together and understanding that it's you know, yes, it's policing, it's child protection, it's education, but it's also hotels. It is also the transportation industry and truckers in particular. It is it is groups of people one doesn't think of as being part of the solution, but who must become part of that solution? That is what is essential, I think, to make a dent into into this.

Narrator: All right. We are going to have to leave it there. I want to thank you, everyone, for your insights, your expertise and an important, important conversation. Thank you so much.

Cassandra Diamond: Thank you, thank you. Liz Mulligan: Thank you. Melanie Clark: Thank you.

Narrator: I'm Jayn thanks for watching The Rundown. We'd love to know what you think of the show, so send us your suggestions and feedback at TVO.org/rundownfeedback or leave us a comment on YouTube. Until then, we'll see you tomorrow.