Human Trafficking in Canada… a Problem…

Think human trafficking doesn’t happen in Canada? Think again. It’s a problem and one that won’t get any better unless we take action on it and raise awareness about it. CTV writes about the break up of the Toronto trafficking ring…

A fourth Toronto-area man has been charged with bringing foreign women to the country to work as sex slaves.

He is one of seven people charged in a human trafficking ring that has brought a number of women from Eastern Europe to Canada with fake passports.

The suspects are accused of luring women to the country under the pretext they’d be working as models in Canada.

Police allege the women were held against their will when they arrived and were told they’d be working as escorts for the ringleaders of the operation.

Their duties included performing prostitution-related activities.

Officers from Toronto and York Regional Police searched numerous residences and arrested six people from the GTA on Thursday.

Toronto resident Artur Tomchin, 35, and Richmond Hill residents Andrei Khazarov, 39, and Daniel Leshinsky, 38, face several charges.

After police made the initial arrests, they located an additional victim who gave information leading to yet another suspect.

Volha Vassilievna Venar, a 35-year-old Toronto resident, was arrested on Sunday and charged with conspiracy, human trafficking, exploitation, procuring a person to become a prostitute and living off the avails of prostitution.

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Human Trafficking in Canada… a Problem…

Think human trafficking doesn’t happen in Canada? Think again. It’s a problem and one that won’t get any better unless we take action on it and raise awareness about it. CTV writes about the break up of the Toronto trafficking ring…

A fourth Toronto-area man has been charged with bringing foreign women to the country to work as sex slaves.

He is one of seven people charged in a human trafficking ring that has brought a number of women from Eastern Europe to Canada with fake passports.

The suspects are accused of luring women to the country under the pretext they’d be working as models in Canada.

Police allege the women were held against their will when they arrived and were told they’d be working as escorts for the ringleaders of the operation.

Their duties included performing prostitution-related activities.

Officers from Toronto and York Regional Police searched numerous residences and arrested six people from the GTA on Thursday.

Toronto resident Artur Tomchin, 35, and Richmond Hill residents Andrei Khazarov, 39, and Daniel Leshinsky, 38, face several charges.

After police made the initial arrests, they located an additional victim who gave information leading to yet another suspect.

Volha Vassilievna Venar, a 35-year-old Toronto resident, was arrested on Sunday and charged with conspiracy, human trafficking, exploitation, procuring a person to become a prostitute and living off the avails of prostitution.

Olympics could lead to increase in human trafficking

The Epoch Times has a fabulous article about how 2010 will likely translate into an increase in human trafficking in Vancouver. They talk about a recently released report by the Calgary based Future Group which suggests that the Olympics will simply exacerbate the problems that Vancouver is already experiencing relating to human trafficking. The worst part of this story? The fact that, try as I might, I can’t find another news outlet that has covered this important story. So, let’s do their job for them and pass it on!

Big sporting events such as the Olympics and the World Cup soccer tournament are known to generate an increase in prostitution, which in turn leads to a rise in human trafficking.

A recent report by the Calgary-based The Future Group, an anti-human trafficking NGO, said that during the 2006 World Cup in Germany, authorities implemented a wide range of actions to combat human trafficking during the event, with relative success.

The result was that, while there was an increase in prostitution, authorities did not detect a rise in human trafficking.

However, when Greece hosted the Olympics in 2004, the measures adopted were not as extensive as those in Germany, and a 95 percent increase in human trafficking was recorded for that year.

Human trafficking—the biggest money spinner for organized crime after drugs and firearms—has been steadily increasing in Canada and around the world.

Canada is apparently particularly bad for human trafficking, as is Vancouver:

Sabrina Sullivan, managing director of The Future Group, says the number of people being trafficked to or through Canada each year could be as high as 16,000.
In the international human trafficking trade, Canada serves as a destination country and a transit country. It is a source country as well, with Aboriginal women, mainly from Winnipeg or rural areas, being the most likely victims.

“Women from reserves are even being taken away and trafficked, either within the country or across borders,” says Sullivan.

Globally and nationally, the majority of those trafficked are women and children, including boys, and many are forced into the sex trade. It is estimated that up to four million are sold world-wide into prostitution, slavery or marriage.

Vancouver was singled out in the U.S. State Department’s 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report as being a destination city for trafficked persons from Asia. The report also stated that a “significant number” of victims, particularly South Korean females, transit Canada before being trafficked into the United States.

So what do we do about it? NOW’s NYC chapter is currently tackingly this problem and is doing so with great energy and sophistication. They might make a good model for action in Vancouver:

Launched in the Fall of 2006, NOW-NYC’s human trafficking campaign set out to get a state law that recognized trafficking as a crime, increase public education on this modern-day slavery, collect trafficking victims stories, access how state agencies are identifying, tracking and prioritizing this issue, and shed light on how the trafficking industry is a part of the local economy and identify the legitimate businesses that do business with traffickers.

It won’t be easy. Much like the Domestic Violence movement 25 years ago when this phenomenon didn’t have a name, much less cultural understanding, it will take the dedicated work of activists and the NOW-NYC team to raise awareness and convince legislator, law enforcement, prosecutors and the courts, this issue deserves to be a priority for civil rights.

The Last Frontier of Rank Discrimination

Hello Ladies (and Gentlemen who support us),

I suppose I should introduce myself. I’m not a regular blogger for the magazine (just a temp really) but I’m one of the co-founders of Willa (The Women in Legislative Leadership Association). I’m a business student at Simon Fraser University, entering my fourth year. I’m planning to major in International Business and probably Marketing, Finance or both.

I’ve been in Taipei on exchange for the past four months and I’m heading to Europe to visit family and do a short internship, in about a week. So, I’ve been busy, as I’m sure you all have been. Just wanted to pop in and support Amanda and her team’s stellar work on this blog and the magazine.

I have a quote from a great article I think you all should read if you get a chance. Thanks to Ayesha Laher, who sent me the article regarding our recent discussions of the last appointment which sealed the UBC Executives (President and VPs of Everything) as all-male.

From: The Last Frontier of Rank Discrimination (The Province July 7th 2007)

There are still five times more men in Parliament than women.

Women working full-time make 71 cents for every $1 men earn. Two-thirds still work in pink ghettos of traditional “women’s work” such as health care, clerical and administrative jobs. Little more than a third of all managers are women.

Women are poor in disproportionate numbers with 38 per cent of single mothers living below the poverty line compared to only 17 per cent of single fathers.

Women are more likely to be victims of violence than men. One in every 10 Canadian women reports having been stalked in the past 10 years.

Women are many more times more likely to be forced, enticed or trafficked into prostitution and, once there, many times more likely to be charged, even though the Criminal Code offense of communicating for the purposes of prostitution was aimed at punishing the buyers and not just the sellers.

If any racial or ethnic minority had been subjected to anything near the discrimination women have suffered and continue to be subjected to, Canada would be an international pariah.