Canada’s strategy to combat human trafficking expires this year; advocates demand government action on a new, stronger plan

For the last five years, a national strategy has guided Canada’s efforts to combat human trafficking—a devastating crime that ruins lives, families and communities. This brutal victimization of girls and women has continued to increase in all corners of the country. But at the end of 2024, the roadmap used to fight back against criminals and support survivors is set to expire. 

Little has been done by the federal government to figure out how to renew the expiring plan and ensure critical projects are funded without disruption. 

Advocacy organizations, including the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking (CCET), are calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government to immediately begin consultations to update the strategy and prevent momentum from being lost in the ongoing fight against all forms of exploitation, including sex and labour trafficking.

“To our knowledge, the official consultation process to inform the new strategy has not yet begun. We are calling on the government to undertake a meaningful consultation process that prioritizes survivors, front-line agencies, and other levels of government from across Canada,” James McLean, Director of Research and Policy at the CCET states. “Taking the time to hear from those most impacted by trafficking will give the federal government the insights they need to develop a whole-of-government strategy that will make meaningful progress toward eradicating all forms of human trafficking in Canada.”

The 2019-2024 strategy has seen numerous successes through funding necessary programs across Canada that support survivors in everything from finding desperately needed housing to escape their traffickers and counselling to help them manage the complex trauma this crime inflicts. There have also been notable failures, with key elements like a Survivor’s Advisory Committee, celebrated by advocates and the government alike when it was promised in 2019, but never materialized. 

This measure needs to be implemented immediately, McLean states. 

“Ensuring that government responses are informed directly through lived experience is critical to developing programs, policies and interventions that address the root causes of human trafficking in Canada,” he tells The Pointer.

According to a spokesperson for Public Safety Canada a “horizontal review” of the national strategy is currently underway and results of this study will be made public once its complete.

No timeline for a draft of an updated strategy or consultations was provided by the government, with the spokesperson only stating things are “in the early planning stages”. 

The national strategy expires in five months. When the previous strategy expired in 2016 it took nearly three years before the government introduced a new version, which set back efforts to gain a foothold in the fight against human trafficking, and put key programs that supported survivors at risk. 

The PSC spokesperson stated that the government will ensure funding allotted under the program continues to flow to the organizations that rely on it to support survivors, undertake awareness campaigns and education efforts. But advocates are still concerned. Any disruption in funding could mean programs survivors rely on for critical assistance are either scaled back or shuttered outright. 

“The CCET is concerned that another delay in renewing the National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking would both hamper the progress made to date, and cause instability and uncertainty across the anti-human trafficking sector,” McLean states. 

Long term data from Statistics Canada show, save for a slight decrease in 2018, the rate of human trafficking increased annually between 2012 and 2021. In 2022, there were 528 incidents reported to police—the large majority of them related to sex trafficking. This is a minuscule drop from 2021 when 555 incidents were reported to police. This data only provides a peephole-sized view of the true extent of this crime in Canada. Opening the door to see its true size will require not only increased data collection efforts—something the U.S. States Department has been urging Canada to invest in for years—but also initiatives and supports aimed at reducing the stigma around this crime and educating young people about what trafficking looks like. Many survivors who escaped their traffickers were completely unaware that a crime was being committed or even what human trafficking entailed. In February, as part of Canada’s Human Trafficking Awareness Day, the CCET launched a campaign hoping to spark conversations about human trafficking among families and friends.

”Despite legislation prohibiting all forms of human trafficking both within and outside Canadian borders, it is difficult to detect and measure due to its hidden nature,” reads a 2022 report from Public Safety Canada. “Victims of human trafficking are generally isolated and concealed from the public, and many may experience barriers or be unwilling to report to authorities for various reasons, including a general distrust of authorities, feelings of shame, fear of consequences, language barriers, or a lack of human rights knowledge.” A 2020 study completed by Family Services of Peel—a social service organization helping survivors in Peel Region, the epicentre of human trafficking in Ontario—found the top reasons survivors did not come forward was a lack of trust in the systems designed to support them, and feelings of shame or embarrassment. 

A 2020 study by Family Services of Peel found there are many reasons why survivors of human trafficking do not come forward for support or to report what happened to them. 

(Family Services of Peel)

Throughout the 2019-2024 strategy, the Liberal government has provided annual progress reports on completed actions outlined in the plan. A significant success under the plan was the creation of the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline, which the government provided $12.5 million over 6 years for the CCET to operate. In addition, the Liberals announced in 2019 $57.22 million over 5 years and $10.2 million of ongoing funding to implement the numerous initiatives included in the strategy. The PSC spokesperson acknowledged that there is a lot more to be done. 

In May of last year, the CCET sent an open letter to the Minister of Public Safety outlining 19 recommendations for improving the national strategy. Among the requests were increased resources to address labour trafficking—a particular issue among Canada’s migrant workforce—and increasing the capacity for research and knowledge sharing among anti-human trafficking agencies across the country. 

A similar open letter was issued in June by the Toronto Counter Human Trafficking Network, a collective of over 30 of Canada’s most prominent anti-human trafficking service providers. This letter, addressed directly to Trudeau and his top ministers responsible for this file, demanded action on renewing the national strategy.

The letter urged the government to move fast and to ensure consultation on the updated strategy includes the voices of survivors. 

“Survivor input and recommendations are invaluable, and must be treated with the same regard and respect as other experts in the anti-trafficking space. They are, in fact, the real experts,” the letter reads. “In this light, we also believe that survivors should be compensated fairly for their time and expertise in their role as advisors. Indeed, survivors must be treated as equal partners in all aspects of this work.”

According to Public Safety Canada, results of the “horizontal review” will be shared “as they become available”. 

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