Part 3 – Without a national human trafficking strategy Peel’s unique demographics pose local challenges

Traffick Stop is a four-part series covering a range of factors in the fight against human trafficking in Peel ahead of National Human Trafficking Awareness Day on February 22. The region has been a hub of this crime in Ontario for years. The series looks at how it happens, what is being done to stop it, the obstacles that continue to get in the way—and how to remove them, once and for all. 

Part 1 – THE CRIME: Human trafficking is increasing across Ontario—police and service providers can’t keep up

Part 2 – THE HELPERS: lack of funding in Peel puts survivors of human trafficking at greater risk

Four years ago, an arrest in Brampton exposed many of the darker underlying dynamics in the city’s large South Asian-Canadian community. 

Two men, Amritpal Singh and Harkuwar Singh, were each charged with a range of crimes involving a teenage girl who was under 18, after they allegedly trafficked her to provide sexual services to clients while keeping the girl forcibly confined. 

In local media that serves the South Asian population and among community members throughout the city’s Indo-Canadian diaspora, the reaction was widespread disbelief.

Many families and social institutions that glue together a tight cohesion among community members are motivated to preserve centuries-old cultural reputations tied to respect and honour. 

Suddenly, a story covered widely by the press and spreading like wildfire through word of mouth, challenged these polite public facing narratives. A hard-working immigrant community that prioritizes, above all else, values tied to family, was forced to look inside, at some of the darker realities that lurk within all societies.   

Residents could not comprehend that a young girl was human trafficked by men from their own community.

Pressures tied to the waves of international students who flooded into Brampton and Mississauga in recent years and other newcomer settlement patterns have created more complex layers for those trying to combat human trafficking in the region.

“Many of these students who have limited options end up in exploitative situations,” Jasminder Sekhon explains. “Many young men end up being labour trafficked, while many young women end up being sex trafficked.” 

The Peel native and graduate of Oxford University and the University of Toronto has a master’s degree in criminology and criminal justice and an undergraduate specialty in criminology and political science. Sekhon has extensive experience working in the field of gendered violence prevention, researching human trafficking, while sharing her knowledge of “honour”-based violence in the context of sexual violence and intimate partner violence. Through her past work with the provincial government she has helped with research analysis and has pushed policy changes in Ontario. 

Sekhon describes herself as a “South Asian woman who is a survivor of gender-based violence”.

She explained many of the dynamics facing those working with survivors of human trafficking in Peel.  

“I knew one young woman who was struggling to pay her $800 per month rent to live in a home which she shared with 26 other people. The landlord told her if she couldn’t pay, she could provide sexual favours to both him, his family members and friends, thus leading to her exploitation and trafficking.” 

Through her work as director of community engagement for Victim Services Toronto and CEO of GEquity Consulting, which provides consultation on gender-based violence, consent, human trafficking and "honour"-based violence, Sekhon sees first-hand what is happening in Peel and across much of the province. Growing up in Peel, she has seen how the reality for vulnerable women, especially new immigrants in the region and international students, has created vastly different dynamics compared to many other cities.

“Many new immigrants from South Asia have been immigrating on basic student visas. This is an especially vulnerable group, as they are young, having just completed high school, have limited family supports, and limited options for jobs and housing,” she explains, sharing that she recently spoke with a student who was forced to pay six months of rent up front in cash due to a lack of credit history. This financial vulnerability, coupled with a lack of personal connections can make these individuals dangerously susceptible to exploitation. 

Almost half of Peel’s 1.7 million residents identify as South Asian and Punjabis make up the largest ethnic group within the diverse South Asian community.

The increasing number of international students in the Region of Peel has created a new dynamic of human trafficking with many of these young newcomers placed in incredibly vulnerable situations.

(The Pointer files)

Human trafficking is occurring in practically every country in the world. 

In Canada, the routes traffickers take are widely known and documented. A detailed investigation by the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking tracked these well-worn routes from Toronto to Barrie to Owen Sound to Sudbury into Manitoba. Corridors between Calgary, Edmonton and north to Fort McMurray in the west, and from Halifax north to Truro and Moncton in the east. Many of Ontario’s common routes intersect Peel, a known human trafficking hotspot due to its ease of transportation, the location of a major international airport in its backyard, its many hotels, motels and Airbnbs, its proximity to Toronto and its growing market. With 1.7 million residents there is plenty of demand for illicit sex. 

Women are trafficked locally, inter-provincially and sometimes internationally. This exploitation is carried out in hotel rooms, massage parlours and spas, bedrooms, basements and family homes in major cities across the country.

 Major highways that stitch Canada together also serve as easy corridors for traffickers to move their victims.

(Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking)

There are thousands of victims and survivors annually, millions of dollars is made off the exploitation of these (mostly) women, and the heinous act only continues to evolve as it shifts online to target new and often younger victims. 

Advocates state that in order to drive a big enough wedge between traffickers and potential victims and disrupt the ongoing cycle of exploitation, it requires an incredibly detailed, multi-sectoral plan with actionable strategies that can be tailored to the specific needs and demographics from Canada’s biggest cities to its smallest towns.

At a meagre 24 pages, the Government of Canada’s previous national strategy—heralded by elected leaders as the guiding light for the country’s anti-human trafficking efforts—was none of these things.

Even with its small size, the government couldn’t complete many of its key recommendations. Those that were completed have been met with mixed results and every facet of the plan was insufficiently funded. Overall, the government concluded it was impossible to determine whether the five-year plan from 2019 to 2024 made any significant impact. 

“Without a better understanding of the extent of human trafficking in Canada it is challenging to measure the ultimate impact of the National Strategy,” a June 2024 review of the plan states. 

For dedicated advocates, statements like these are usually met with frustration and anger, but that is starting to fade into hopelessness. 

Canada has known for years that it needs to improve its data-gathering efforts on human trafficking, which means an end to simply relying on police-reported data, and investing in service providers who can conduct surveys and analyses at the local level to finally create an accurate picture of this hidden crime. 

It hasn’t happened. 

The June 2024 review notes that the national strategy was meant to address this, but significant gaps still remain. A management plan was put in place to determine the best way to fill these data gaps with a report to come forward in April of this year. It’s unclear with the ongoing political upheaval in Ottawa whether this timeline is still feasible.

The strategy has seen some success. FINTRAC has made great strides in tracking suspicious banking transactions to help identify human traffickers, and service providers were able to help hundreds of survivors across Canada with desperately needed services. Although, many of them told the government the short-term funding the strategy offered was not sufficient—many service providers in Peel have told The Pointer the same thing with all funding opportunities available for human trafficking. 

Mostly recently, the government announced the hiring of Jennifer Richardson as the Chief Advisor to Combat Human Trafficking, a position that is designed to keep anti-human trafficking efforts at the forefront of Public Safety Canada’s mandate. The position has been vacant since September 2021.

But its successes have also been met with failures and question marks. For example, records indicate the strategy failed to allocate all the dollars it had been given with a $7.2 million discrepancy between the funding allocated to the strategy and what was actually spent. The June 2024 review attributes some of this underspending to the COVID-19 pandemic, but does not provide further details, only noting spending “appears to be back on track”. 

As part of efforts to help survivors connect to services, the government spent a mere $14 million over the five years of the strategy as part of the $75 million over six years that was committed. The June review found this was not nearly enough. The funding level does not match the strong words government leaders tout when talking about this crime and the “whole of government” approach to addressing it. For context, the government is spending $5 billion to renovate Parliament Hill. 

All five pillars of the national strategy—empowerment, prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnerships— require additional investment, Julia Drydyk, executive director of the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, told The Pointer. As operators of the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline at the Centre, she said “the supply of services is not meeting demand.” 

“We need to be building off of existing resource allocations and enhancing it, especially what we're seeing right now around housing. The housing crisis that we're experiencing nationally is even more extreme for people exiting extreme forms of exploitation, or who are generally considered vulnerable,” she said.

With the expiration of the previous strategy, Canada is currently without a national action plan for addressing human trafficking. As previously reported by The Pointer, work was underway on a new, updated version. But with the departure of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as Liberal Leader and the prorogation of Parliament at the beginning of this year, it remains unclear what will happen with that work as a federal election is projected for later this year.

“We have seen a really strong commitment to addressing human trafficking from all parties, but specifically Liberal and Conservative parties,” Drydyk said. “This has not been a political issue to date, and we are not expecting it to be one. This is an issue of human rights and basic decency, so we're hopeful that once a government is formed that they'll continue to build on the work that we've done nationally in preventing and addressing human trafficking.”

The Pointer sent questions to the government about whether the work is still underway to update the national strategy, and when it is expected to be completed. Public Safety Canada did not respond. 

It means for the time being, human trafficking hotspots like Peel are left to address this issue on their own. 

Julia Drydyk, the executive director of the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, is hopeful whichever party forms government in Ottawa following the next election, creating a new national human trafficking strategy will be a priority.

(Joel Wittnebel/The Pointer)

When a woman is targeted to be groomed for exploitation it often pushes them into a series of decisions that are practically impossible to avoid. Sometimes they aren’t decisions at all.

The stigma that exists in South Asian culture around these types of crimes is what contributes to the vulnerability of many young women in the first place and is often the root cause of their isolation from family and friends, increasing their susceptibility to exploitation. 

“Most people don’t understand what the cycle of violence looks like, and whether we like to admit it or not, there is stigma for people who do sex work,” Sekhon explains. “There are added layers of stigma when someone comes from a South Asian culture which is collectivist in nature and someone’s actions that are perceived as ‘dishonourable’ can impact the entire family, threatening their future and survival.”

This stigma and shame can also act as a barrier for survivors to getting the help they need. As discussed in Part 1 of The Pointer’s Traffick Stop series, Family Services of Peel found feelings of shame and embarrassment was one of the reasons cited by survivors for why they did not come forward. 

(Family Services of Peel)

“Families who do not understand the nature of sexual violence or sex trafficking may cause further harm, which is why many trafficked South Asian youth do not feel comfortable sharing what has happened with their families, and traffickers often use the threat of exposing their sexual exploitation as leverage to keep young people in trafficking situations,” Sekhon highlights. 

“Women and gender diverse people in the South-Asian Canadian community face the unique challenges of navigating two systems of patriarchy, both Canadian and South Asian. The Canadian patriarchy poses unique challenges rooted in colonialism, discrimination and systemic sexism. This includes the gender pay gap where women in Canada generally earn less than men for the same work. Gender wage gaps are largest for immigrant women (who arrive) as adults (20.9 percent) and Indigenous women (20.1 percent) and smallest for immigrant women (who arrive) as children (10.5 percent) and Canadian-born women (9.2 percent).”

These gaps are part of the basis for exploitation, and men who prey on potential victims are well aware of those in financial difficulty.

“The affordability crisis in Canada is posing additional barriers. Many South Asian people, especially those who are coming to Canada as new immigrants, end up in exploitative working situations.” Sekhon says it’s common to see women working for cash under the table, often for far less than minimum wage with no labour protections.

Family Services of Peel (FSP), which offers the type of culturally competent support for survivors Sekhon advocates for, has been demanding increased funding for anti-human trafficking efforts, particularly within diverse populations, for years. The organization’s 2019 Human Trafficking Needs Assessment identified numerous barriers to meeting the needs of a diverse array of survivors, and advocated for declaring human trafficking a public health crisis—which could help eliminate the stigma criminal justice issues can carry. 

“From a systems lens it hasn’t gotten into the system as to the needs of this population quite well,” Sandra Rupnarain, the executive director of FSP told The Pointer. “The systemic approach that we are advocating for is not happening and I think that’s the problem right there. You’re talking about areas essential for people to survive—a long term support system.”

It’s one of the many things that needs to be addressed locally, and nationally, Rupnarain says. 

Consultations to inform the updated national strategy concluded in January. A goal of that process was to determine emerging issues and trends in human trafficking so they could be addressed in the renewed strategy. 

Tailoring programs to diverse communities is critical to the success of this new strategy.

“Those who desire to support this group, must do the work to develop cultural competency to provide adequate supports and resources to learn about this issue. In order to do so, additional funding, resources and energy are required,” Sekhon states. 

Another emerging trend the Canadian government will need to address when it comes to human trafficking is the impact on our changing climate. 

The words “climate change” appear nowhere within Canada’s 2019 to 2024 national strategy, but international advocacy organizations monitoring human trafficking across the globe know it must form a part of the updated version. 

It is hard to imagine that a warming planet could fuel the dark world of human trafficking, yet as climate disasters uproot lives, traffickers move in like vultures. 

The latest Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2024 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) sheds light on this troubling connection, revealing how climate change is a powerful driver of human trafficking. 

Nowhere is this more evident than in Africa, where displacement and insecurity have left millions vulnerable to exploitation.

Climate-induced displacement and loss of livelihoods heighten trafficking risks, forcing many into unsafe labour or transactional sex for survival, especially in conflict-affected regions of Africa.

(UNODC)

“Climate change is affecting everyone and in all religions of the world, but in particular, the African continent is affected because rural communities are more affected by climate change and Africa is home to the largest poor rural community in the world,” Fabrizio Sarrica, Research Coordinator on Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants, Research and Trends Analysis Branch, Division for Policy Analysis and Public Affairs, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told The Pointer in an interview.

Armed conflicts, climate-induced disasters, and the resulting displacement are intensifying human trafficking patterns across Africa, the report states. 

“Climate change is aggravating, is impacting communities, on the segment of the population that is already starting from a very vulnerable situation,” Sarrica noted. This is only intensified when climate change eliminates the basic foundation of financial stability for many in the region—agriculture. 

In 2022, the Horn of Africa or the Somali Peninsula faced its worst drought in 40 years, leading to 1.2 million internally displaced persons in Somalia due to the collapse of pastoral farming. Concurrently, flooding in West and Central Africa devastated crops and homes, worsening food insecurity and pushing desperate individuals into the hands of traffickers. 

“Large displaced populations, particularly as a result of natural disasters and climate change, may end up in situations of trafficking while trying to improve their food security,” Sarrica explained, saying it’s happening everywhere in the world including Canada. 

“Traffickers often target vulnerable populations suffering from socio-economic hardships. These individuals, seeking to improve their circumstances, are deceived into what they believe is a labour migration opportunity, only to be exploited once they reach their destination.”

This type of labour trafficking has been widely reported in the Niagara Region, and is projected to worsen as more individuals flee their homes and seek asylum in Canada. The influx of these asylum seekers is placing immense pressure on Peel’s emergency shelter system. 

Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly susceptible to trafficking due to widespread rural poverty, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports. With few legal migration options, many individuals fall victim to traffickers preying on their desperation.

“Because of climate change, we had a drastic reduction of the cocoa production worldwide, particularly from the African continent, because of the diseases that affected the cocoa plantations connected with more rainy seasons and so forth,” Sarrica said.

A report by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) highlights how shifting climate patterns have significantly impacted cocoa production. In Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire—responsible for 60 percent of the global cocoa supply—the El Niño phenomenon caused extreme temperatures and heavy rainfall in 2023, leading to widespread crop failures.

By 2024, the same weather pattern resulted in severe drought, further reducing yields and pushing cocoa prices to record highs in January 2024.

According to IWMI, precipitation levels in the region have steadily declined over the past three decades, exacerbating water stress and contributing to a drier climate—and driving down farmer yields. 

A farmer harvests cocoa pods on his farm in Ghana.

(Seifu Tilahun/IWMI)

An FAO study in Côte d'Ivoire found that during dry periods, farmers increased both children's working hours and the number of child labourers, exacerbating the risks of forced labour.

The economic desperation fueled by declining cocoa production highlights the broader human trafficking crisis. As productivity drops, illegal deforestation increases in search of fertile land, and child labour surges to maintain cocoa exports.

In other parts of Africa, climate-related crises have exacerbated the risks of trafficking. In Ethiopia, heavy rains led to a 20 percent increase in child labour, while in Malawi, post-disaster conditions saw the trafficking of boys into Zambia for forced labour. In Ghana, families struggling with climate-induced economic stress have increasingly turned to child marriage or exploitative labour as coping mechanisms.

“Families in order to cope with the socio-economic stress resulting from natural disaster, they tend to send their daughters, the younger daughters, for marriage,” Sarrica said. “And similar situations where sexual exploitation is increasing in the aftermath of natural disasters, again as a coping mechanism for families to solve the situation of economic stress resulting from natural disasters; they are engaging their daughters in sexual exploitation.”

With six million people displaced by natural disasters in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2023—following 7.4 million in 2022—climate-induced migration has fueled trafficking risks. 

A study in Kenya found that 37 percent of climate-displaced people had witnessed or experienced human trafficking.  In Burkina Faso, climate-induced displacement has pushed many into cities where traffickers actively recruit victims. 

Extreme economic distress has forced some into dangerous coping mechanisms. 

A survey in East Africa found that 17 percent of respondents cited child marriage as a response to environmental shocks, while 13 percent noted child labour migration as a strategy to combat poverty. In Zimbabwe, families struggling with drought have increasingly resorted to marrying off young daughters for financial relief. 

In its efforts to address the intersection of climate change and human trafficking, the UNODC calls on national authorities to broaden legal migration pathways, ensuring that vulnerable populations are shielded from the exploitation of traffickers, while simultaneously advocating for the implementation of compensation mechanisms that can alleviate the economic losses faced by communities affected by climate change. This recommendation is being complicated by growing anti-immigration sentiment in North America. 

The organization emphasizes the importance of promoting youth employment and education, not only as a means to combat poverty but also as a strategy to reduce the socio-cultural practices that contribute to trafficking, and underscores the necessity of strengthening partnerships with civil society organizations to generate economic opportunities and provide vital support to at-risk communities.

The potential increase in human trafficking survivors either arriving as asylum seekers, or being brought to the country for exploitative purposes, it’s clear this issue must form a part of the updated national strategy. 

As Peel waits for any news on the updated strategy and what it will include, Peel Regional Police are attempting to build bridges between law enforcement and survivors. 

It’s no easy task, and the vast majority do not trust law enforcement. 

Joy Brown is with PRP’s Community Mobilization Unit and is the Chair of the Peel Human Trafficking Services Providers Committee says this work begins with education, and letting survivors know what is available to them. 

“I work directly with victims and survivors of human trafficking, so those conversations and getting those supports and services that they need is key,” she says. “We may be that first point of contact, and then being able to get them the resources that they need to be successful (is critical).”

Peel Police currently has 17 officers in its specialized human trafficking unit, but specialized training launched in 2023 in coordination with Timea’s Cause saw all officers trained in identifying the potential warning signs of human trafficking.

“The officers are contacting us more frequently now, reporting things that they thought might be suspicious, and their spidey senses have told them that this looks like human trafficking, and it was because of the training,”  Detective Sergeant Bob Hackenbrook who leads the unit told The Pointer. “I think it was a great opportunity for members of the organization, and I'm really happy that we did that here in Peel.”

Despite the increased complexity of this crime in Peel, and despite the addition of 300 new officers planned in 2025, Hackenbrook says there are no plans to expand the unit. It is currently the third largest human trafficking unit in the country, behind Toronto and Montreal. 

While he says he hasn’t identified any new trends in human trafficking in the region, he admits the unit is very busy. 

“Unfortunately, anytime when you have people who want to take advantage of other people, we are going to be busy, right? So human trafficking is just as much psychological offense as well as a physical offense,” he told The Pointer.

The additional 300 officers approved for Peel Police this year was a controversial decision by Region of Peel council. With no new resources going to addressing human trafficking on the enforcement sign as acknowledged by Hackenbrook, it means millions of dollars that could have gone to help service providers address this crime upstream have simply been removed from human trafficking altogether.

This only contributes to the status quo of community organizations fighting amongst themselves for the scant funding that is available through the provincial or federal governments. 

“Community-based organizations and service providers delivering vital services have become increasingly scant, siloed and splintered due to chronic underfunding,” a letter from the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies to Ontario’s Minister of Children, Community and Social Services sent in August 2024 reads.

Advocates are urging the federal government to ensure the new national strategy addresses this underfunding, and puts an emphasis on upstream solutions.

“It is clear that sexual exploitation and trafficking is rooted in deeper systemic issues of unaffordability, the housing crisis, a lack of sexual health education, a lack of gender-based violence education, and the need to move towards a just society that respects women,” Sekhon states. “Until we address the root causes of trafficking and respond in a culturally competent way, this crime will continue to plague our communities.”

• With files from Muhammad Hamza 

Email: [email protected]

Email: [email protected]

Email: [email protected]

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