Part 4 — Survivor knowledge of human trafficking is invaluable, will the government finally listen?

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

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

Human trafficking survivors become unintended experts of a brutal crime. 

Having lived through the violence inflicted by traffickers, they understand how these criminals methodically exploit their victims. If they eventually heal and are driven to help governments, policy makers and law enforcement, their knowledge can lift the veil that shrouds human trafficking. Survivors understand how traffickers target victims, often operating within vast criminal rings or small circles that identify communities and clients who create the demand for this barbaric exploitation. 

The knowledge survivors provide is now widely viewed as a key to reversing rapidly increasing rates of human trafficking across Canada.

The Canadian government has been slow to respond.

The national anti-human trafficking strategy, which expired at the end of 2024 with few details of what was accomplished and how a renewed framework was being established, recommended the creation of an advisory committee made up of survivors to inform the government. It was never done.

In an open letter to the federal government last year, as the old strategy was coming to an end, the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, Aura Freedom International, the FCJ Refugee Centre and a number of other organizations helping human trafficking survivors and survivors of gender-based violence across the country, urged lawmakers in Ottawa to quickly establish the recommended advisory group when the new strategy was drafted. 

“Survivors must be meaningfully engaged and consulted on an ongoing basis, at every stage of the work,” the letter underscored. “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 Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking made the same recommendation a year earlier, in June of 2023, a year-and-a-half before the previous national strategy expired. It was never acted upon.

The Region of Peel, a leader in Ontario on the implementation of policies and strategies at the local level to address human trafficking and help survivors, has also recognized the importance of their input. 

“Engaging people with lived experience to inform programs and paying them an ethical rate for their time and expertise, has become a paramount priority in the work of community and local, provincial and national governments,” a 2024 staff report highlighted. 

The Pointer’s Traffick Stop series throughout the month of February has addressed a number of issues with Canada’s approach toward human trafficking, featuring the expertise of advocacy workers on the frontlines. 

They have highlighted how human trafficking continues to increase across Ontario, with service agencies and law enforcement unable to keep up, while governments fail to invest in support for the small number of survivors who come forward; one of the reasons, in a dangerous cycle of violence, why more people trapped in trafficking situations feel they have nowhere to go. 

Part 3 of the series focused on the expertise of those working with survivors of trafficking and other forms of gender-based violence, navigating the challenges of Peel’s unique demographic and cultural landscape. They are advocating for flexible strategies that need to be designed with a nuanced understanding of individual communities across Canada. A cookie-cutter approach will create too many gaps for victims to fall into.

On Human Trafficking Awareness Day, it’s the survivor’s turn. 

The Pointer is providing a platform to three survivors. They address the biggest barriers and how to break them down, so women won’t suffer at the hands of traffickers the way they have.

Callie Love 

“We cannot allow another election cycle to pass where this issue is overlooked. It is time to demand that every party leader and candidate take a stand and treat sex trafficking with the gravity and urgency it deserves.”

(Joel Wittnebel/The Pointer)

Callie Love was trafficked starting at the age of 14. What she endured, and survived, has pushed her to launch the non-profit Phoenix Arise Foundation, dedicated to educating people about human trafficking and helping other survivors.

The Pointer will share more of Callie’s story tomorrow (February 23). 

What is the first thing that needs to change so more survivors come forward for assistance?

The number one thing that needs to change to enable more survivors to come forward for assistance in Canada is ensuring immediate, trauma-informed, and barrier-free support services—especially access to safe housing. Right now, too many survivors remain trapped because there is simply nowhere for them to go. Emergency shelters are full, transitional housing has waitlists, and for those in smaller communities, services are often nonexistent. If someone is fleeing trafficking or exploitation, they need a safe place right away—not weeks or months later.

There are multiple reasons survivors hesitate to come forward. Shame plays a major role—many don’t even have the right words for what happened to them, let alone feel comfortable asking for help. Fear of retaliation is another major barrier. Traffickers use threats, violence, and psychological control to keep survivors silent, and many know that reporting could put their safety—or the safety of their loved ones—at risk.

Beyond fear and shame, our justice system is failing survivors. People who commit horrific crimes often walk free due to lack of evidence, loopholes, cases being stayed or survivors being too terrified to testify. This sends a message that coming forward may not lead to justice but instead expose survivors to further harm.

Even when survivors do take the brave step of seeking help, they’re often met with waitlists for therapy, psychiatrists, and basic support services. 

The reality is, it’s incredibly difficult for someone to leave when they don’t have housing, financial support, or mental health care lined up. For survivors in rural areas, the situation is even worse—many don’t have access to any resources close to home.

The most urgent change needed is a fully funded, survivor-centered support system that ensures safe housing, therapy, legal aid, and financial assistance are available immediately, without barriers. If these resources were in place, more survivors would feel safe enough to come forward, knowing that real help was available—not just in theory, but in practice.

What is the biggest barrier to confronting human trafficking right now?

The biggest barrier to addressing human trafficking is the demand that fuels it—the buyers, or “johns,” who purchase sex from trafficked individuals

Without buyers, there would be no market for trafficking. Yet, discussions around trafficking often focus on the victims and the traffickers, while those creating the demand operate largely without consequence.

A truly trauma-informed response to trafficking must recognize that it is demand-driven and that addressing buyers is the key to stopping it at its source.

Traffickers do not exploit people randomly—they do so because there is profit to be made from buyers who are willing to pay for access to another person’s body. The majority of trafficking victims in Canada are not kidnapped but are manipulated, coerced, or forced into the sex trade to meet this demand.

Despite laws that criminalize the purchase of sex in Canada enforcement is inconsistent, and buyers are rarely held accountable. Survivors, on the other hand, often carry criminal records for prostitution-related offenses, making it difficult for them to rebuild their lives.

There is a double standard in how we treat trafficking. Survivors are often asked, “Why didn’t you just leave?” instead of asking buyers, “Why do you feel entitled to purchase another human being?” The cultural normalization of buying sex allows buyers to operate without social stigma or real legal risk, while survivors face lifelong trauma.

Buyers often justify their actions, believing they are engaging in a harmless transaction, ignoring the reality that many people in the sex trade are there through force, fraud, or coercion.

The myth that trafficking victims “choose” their situation is perpetuated by buyers who do not want to acknowledge their role in sustaining exploitation.

Many survivors experience lifelong trauma, social isolation, and financial instability, while buyers walk away without a second thought. Even when survivors escape, they often struggle to access housing, employment, and mental health services, while buyers return to their everyday lives with no repercussions.This imbalance in accountability makes it easier for trafficking to continue, as buyers feel no personal responsibility for the harm they perpetuate.

The rise of online platforms, escort sites, and social media has made it easier than ever for buyers to access trafficked individuals with minimal risk. Many buyers don’t see themselves as participating in trafficking, especially when transactions happen in seemingly anonymous online space. Laws have not caught up to digital trafficking, and tech companies face little regulation or responsibility for facilitating the exploitation of vulnerable people.

To effectively disrupt human trafficking in Canada, we must target the buyers who create the demand. This means shifting our legal, cultural, and social focus in the following ways:

1. Increase Legal Consequences for Buyers

Strengthen enforcement of existing laws so that purchasing sex from trafficked individuals carries serious penalties.

Invest in “john school” intervention programs that educate buyers on the realities of trafficking and discourage repeat offenses.

Publicly track and report buyer convictions to reduce anonymity and social acceptance of sex buying.

2. Cultural Shift: Treat Buying Sex as a Social Harm

Society needs to see buying sex not as a personal choice, but as a behavior that fuels exploitation.

Public education campaigns should highlight the link between demand and trafficking, making it socially unacceptable to pay for sex.

Challenge the misconception that all sex work is voluntary, ensuring the public understands that coercion, abuse, and trafficking are common.

3. Hold Tech Companies Accountable

Online platforms that facilitate trafficking must be regulated, with laws requiring them to monitor, report, and remove exploitative content.

Buyers should not be able to access and purchase exploited individuals with the click of a button without facing scrutiny.

4. Shift Resources to Protect Survivors Instead of Buyers

End the criminalization of survivors and expunge records for trafficking-related offenses.

Increase trauma-informed housing, therapy, and financial aid so survivors have real options for rebuilding their lives.

Redirect law enforcement focus away from penalizing sex workers and toward prosecuting buyers and traffickers.

The bottom line: human trafficking in Canada exists because there is demand, and that demand is driven by buyers who purchase sex with little fear of consequences. While survivors carry the weight of trauma, stigma, and criminal records, buyers walk away untouched, perpetuating the cycle of exploitation. A trauma-informed, survivor-centered approach must recognize that if there were no buyers, there would be no trafficking. Ending trafficking means shifting the focus to those who create the market—not the people who are exploited by it.

We’re in the midst of political change. How do we get candidates that get elected to take real action?

The reality is that people often don’t pay attention to an issue until it affects them personally—but that cannot be the standard for action. Sex trafficking is not just a human rights violation; it is a public health and safety emergency, and it demands urgent attention from every level of government. In Canada, the average age at which a person is first trafficked is alarmingly young, with many victims introduced to trafficking around the age of 13, while the majority of those still trapped in it are in their 20s.

We’ve seen what happens when governments decide an issue is worth prioritizing. During COVID-19, the world came to a standstill, and every government mobilized massive funding, policy changes, and emergency response measures. Imagine the impact if that same level of urgency and investment were applied to fighting sex trafficking. Instead, anti-trafficking efforts remain chronically underfunded and deprioritized, with nonprofits, activists, and survivors forced to beg for resources that should already be in place.

To get real action from political candidates, we need to make it clear that this is not a partisan issue—it is a crisis that affects all communities. Candidates must recognize that trafficking is not just a distant crime happening in the shadows; it is happening in our own neighborhoods, schools, and online platforms, and the systems in place to prevent and respond to it are failing.

One of the biggest obstacles to political action is the reliance on statistics. Many decision-makers want to see hard numbers before taking action, but the reality is that trafficking is vastly underreported. Most survivors never come forward due to fear, coercion, or a lack of access to resources. Just because the numbers don’t fully capture the scale of the crisis doesn’t mean the crisis isn’t real—it means we’re failing to measure it properly.

Sex trafficking is one of the oldest and most pervasive forms of exploitation, yet instead of being eradicated, it is growing at an alarming rate. With advancements in technology and the immense profits it generates, it is only becoming more sophisticated and widespread. If our leaders fail to confront this epidemic now, the problem will only escalate.

We need every candidate running for office to publicly commit to addressing trafficking with real policy solutions. Voters must demand clear answers from those seeking to represent them: What are they doing to prevent trafficking? How will they support survivors? What resources will they allocate to dismantling these networks? We cannot allow another election cycle to pass where this issue is overlooked. It is time to demand that every party leader and candidate take a stand and treat sex trafficking with the gravity and urgency it deserves.

As a survivor, how do you feel when elected officials ignore organizations that support survivors?

As a survivor, it is devastating and infuriating to see those who are supposed to protect and support us continuously ignored by elected officials. How many more lives need to be destroyed before real funding and solutions are put in place? How many times will we see governments allocate resources to less critical issues while failing to invest in saving lives? Infrastructure projects like buses, bike lanes, and community events are important, but what about the urgent need to protect vulnerable children and survivors of trafficking?

In Durham Region alone, Children’s Aid Services is drowning due to a lack of resources, leaving at-risk children and trafficking victims without the support they desperately need. Children are having their lives and human rights stolen from them, yet our government continues to focus on initiatives that do little to support survivors. I have heard countless stories from individuals who cannot leave their trafficker or abuser simply because there is nowhere safe for them to go. When there are no emergency housing options, no sustainable long-term support, and no trauma-informed services, survivors are left with no choice but to stay trapped in dangerous situations.

I do acknowledge that there have been attempts by the government to address trafficking, but the reality is that anti-trafficking efforts remain vastly underfunded. It breaks my heart to see frontline workers, outreach teams, and survivor-led organizations burning out, unable to continue their life-saving work because they are constantly fighting for basic funding. I have witnessed survivors slip through the cracks—not because they were unreachable, but because the systems designed to help them lack the resources to intervene.

Elected officials have the power to change this, but they won’t unless they are forced to listen. Survivors and organizations have been screaming for support, but the silence from those in power is deafening. This isn’t just a policy issue—it’s a matter of life and death. Until our government treats sex trafficking with the urgency it deserves, more lives will be lost, and more survivors will be left without the help they need to rebuild their futures.

How do we change the current system that prioritizes enforcement over prevention?

As it stands, our current approach to human trafficking relies heavily on enforcement—identifying, arresting, and prosecuting traffickers—rather than addressing the root causes that allow trafficking to thrive in the first place. This enforcement-heavy model is fundamentally reactive; it waits for a crime to occur before stepping in. Without a serious shift toward prevention, we will never be able to stop human trafficking entirely.

One of the most glaring gaps in our system is the lack of focus on preventing individuals from becoming traffickers or abusers in the first place. We don’t educate people on the psychological and socioeconomic factors that lead someone down the path of exploitation. We also fail to provide adequate resources that would empower at-risk individuals—particularly those facing poverty, addiction, or systemic discrimination—to avoid being pulled into exploitative networks.

Additionally, society continues to overlook some of the key vulnerabilities that make people susceptible to trafficking. We do not adequately teach financial independence, critical thinking about coercion, or how to recognize and escape manipulative situations. Many marginalized communities remain isolated and unsupported, making them easy targets for traffickers who prey on economic instability, homelessness, and unaddressed trauma.

However, stopping human trafficking is not an impossibility—it requires a generational shift in how we educate and support people. If we truly want to dismantle trafficking before it begins, we must build a society that is trauma-informed, aware of coercion tactics, and equipped to protect each other from harm. This means integrating education on mental health, power dynamics, and bodily autonomy into school curricula from an early age. It also requires reforming economic and social systems so that fewer people are left vulnerable to exploitation.

Ultimately, the only way to end trafficking is to make it impossible for traffickers to operate—by eliminating the conditions that allow them to thrive. That means investing in education, strengthening community support networks, and shifting our mindset from punishment to true prevention. Without this, we will always be fighting a losing battle. 

Kaitlin Bick

“We need to have more people with lived experience in positions of power to make change. We need more allies who are willing to sit with us and be willing to make space and let us be heard.” 

(Joel Wittnebel/The Pointer)

When Kaitlin was 14, she lost her virginity to rape. She had been abusing marijuana for years, then cocaine and alcohol came later. The seeds of addiction were planted early in her life. She endured sexual assaults and beatings from men she was convinced loved her. 

Her vulnerabilities made her a perfect target for traffickers, and when she crossed paths with one inside a Scarborough trap house, she almost immediately fell in love with him. She was carefully groomed then trafficked for several months in Calgary throughout 2014. 

She now works as an Anti-Human Trafficking Specialist with Victim Services Toronto. 

Bick has helped inform much of The Pointer’s coverage of human trafficking, including during the COVID-19 pandemic when resources were cut off and lockdowns had widespread impacts on victims and survivors of gender-based violence. 

What support do survivors need to come forward for assistance?

More education and empowerment. How can survivors come forward when so many people still don’t know that human trafficking is happening in their own communities? 

Less saving. These survivors need to regain their power back, they don’t need to be saved. We have to meet them where they are at and help meet all of their basic needs so they don’t go back to their traffickers. We need to encourage them and build up their self esteem. They are the experts of their own lives. They know themselves the best. Who are we to tell them what they need? 

We need to be more inclusive and support all genders, races, backgrounds, cultures; this crime can happen to anyone. We have to break down all the myths and misconceptions. We need to make services more available and specialized. We need to have more people with lived experience in positions of power to make change. We need more allies who are willing to sit with us and be willing to make space and let us be heard. There are so many organizations receiving funding specific to human trafficking and they are not experienced in supporting this demographic. Get proper training and learn how to support survivors. Use the funding properly. 

What is the biggest barrier allowing traffickers to victimize more women?

People are being trafficked and they don’t even know they are being trafficked. We also direct most of our services to individuals who are female identifying. As we know from stats, this crime predominantly happens to women and girls, but we have to include our male identifying individuals if we are going to be inclusive. This crime can happen to anyone and everyone. It doesn’t matter what your gender is, what race you are, how much money you have or don’t have. It is primarily based on someone’s vulnerabilities. We need to be educating our children and youth so we can equip them with the proper knowledge and tools to identify human trafficking and whether or not someone is trying to lure them. Education is power, we are all still learning. We cannot combat human trafficking alone, we have to do it together.

How do we get candidates who will be elected to take real action?

They have to take it personally. What if this was happening to their own child? What if it was happening to their child’s best friend? What if it happened to someone they love? We all know at least one person who knows someone this crime has either happened to or is happening to. Make it personal. Educate yourself. Create awareness. Ask a lot of questions. If you don’t believe this crime is happening here you are still a part of the problem. Hire survivors, have them be a part of the conversation. 

When decision makers elected by the public ignore support for survivors, how do you respond?

It makes me feel like we still have a long way to go. People with lived experience will always have to prove themselves. I don’t think change happens with our politicians. I think change happens with our kids. We have to set an example for them. We have to show them that we can go through something so terrible and not let it happen to them. What happened to us wasn’t for nothing. 

Survivors repeatedly say investing in enforcement over prevention is not a strategy.

Listen, I think we can talk all day about where to invest and who gets what amount of money. At the end of the day, it comes down to the community. What example do we want to set for our kids? If their caregivers can’t be that example, we have to be. It costs nothing to be kind. It takes zero effort to listen. Take time to listen and understand. If we teach our kids about consent, boundaries and healthy relationships, we have a better chance at combatting human trafficking. 

Our funding needs to be allocated to schools. After school programming, survivor-led initiatives and frontline organizations; that includes law enforcement. We need law enforcement and they need us. We are supposed to work together. It takes a community. I definitely didn’t get out on my own, I had a community.

Cassandra Harvey

“I think another barrier is we're not really addressing the root causes of human trafficking. We're not focussing on young boys who are often the most vulnerable to being brought into gang violence especially in marginalized communities, we don't focus on them. We're not teaching them about mental health or healthy relationships.” 

(Joel Wittnebel/The Pointer)

Cassandra Harvey was trafficked by three different men. Growing up in the child welfare system and experiencing abuse at the hands of her foster families created vulnerabilities that made her susceptible to grooming tactics traffickers use.

She is now a happy mother of two and an advocate for the growing number of women being trafficked. She’s studying to become a lawyer, and plans to apply to Harvard.

The Pointer previously told Casssandra’s story in September 2024. 

What will allow more survivors to come forward for assistance?

I think something that needs to change is policing in general. I think in my personal circumstance, one of the big barriers for me was navigating the legal system in the context of meeting police officers. Because I didn't have very kind police officers aside from the ones who had been there when I was at the hospital. After that, going through the detective and meeting different types of officers, the process itself was really traumatizing and police are often not seen as actual protectors. We know to call them when something goes wrong, but I think a lot of people, especially survivors, are hesitant to call them because they feel they themselves could be charged. They've never had a good relationship with police. In my circumstance I always thought of police as people who abuse their power because I saw how much they inflicted physical abuse on my peers. So I think educating people who are involved in the criminal legal system and those frontline workers like hospital workers or hospital staff or reception staff, if we're able to put them through the necessary trauma training, people may be more inclined to call the police and come forward with assistance to disclose that they've been a victim of human trafficking.

What is the biggest barrier right now?

The biggest barrier to addressing human trafficking is the lack of long-term support for survivors. I feel like we are very capable of providing that immediate support with the police and victim services and the crisis aspect of human trafficking, but we really lack the funding and long-term stable commitment to survivors.

For myself now, I'm really struggling with just mental health and day-to-day life and how to deal and cope with that trauma. Because I've kind of exited that crisis phase, and I'm sure other people can relate, they've exited that crisis stage, they've started their healing journey, they've done therapy, they've moved on, they've gone to school or they're working. It's really like what do we do now and where do we go from here and how do we still receive support? Maybe not the same level of support as when we were in a crisis, but still some sort of support that can help us navigate life. 

I think another barrier is we're not really addressing the root causes of human trafficking. We're not focussing on young boys who are often the most vulnerable to being brought into gang violence especially in marginalized communities, we don't focus on them. We're not teaching them about mental health or healthy relationships. 

The focus 100 percent should be women and having them recognize the signs of human trafficking, but it's also important that we are focussing on younger men who might be vulnerable.

Also the child welfare system, domestic violence, and addiction. We're not really putting our focus there. I feel like we're just giving Band-Aid solutions on how things should be operated.

How do we get elected officials voters are about to choose to create laws and policies that will make real change?

I think it's really important to raise awareness and encourage younger people who can vote to read the political platforms that the Progressive Conservatives and Liberals and NDP and so on by visiting their website and reading it in detail and reading it to understand it. The media is full of fear mongers and people who want to scare you, but if you really sit and read the agenda and what the political parties are striving for I think it gives you the knowledge to make a conscious decision on who you want to vote for. I think it's also important to look at the work that has been happening. If people were to look at the things that (Doug Ford) done in his time in office and the amount of budget cuts that he's done to social services and especially victim services—he eliminated the compensation fund when he came in office— so I think it's important for people to go onto the political party’s website and read exactly what each party stands for because ultimately it is going to affect everyone in some way or another.

I think it's also important to raise awareness on the fact that people can agree with both and there's nothing wrong with that. You can be socially liberal, and be supportive of LGBTQ rights, and preventing human trafficking and all of those things, but you can also be economically conservative and think that the Liberal government isn't the best at maintaining the economic landscape. I'm not a politician so in terms of that, my knowledge is very limited, but I just think people don't vote because they don't feel like it's gonna make a difference and a lot of people don't vote because they don't take the time to actually be educated on an issue.

How do you feel when dealing with decision makers who ignore support for survivors?

I feel really shitty and horrible about myself when I'm speaking to these policymakers. My story isn't the same as every other survivor and some of our needs and wants may be different. But I think sometimes when I'm really speaking about a policy I think should change I feel like policymakers are just taking that input to say ‘oh this is a survivor-lead initiative’, or ‘we had a survivors input’. It's kind of like the context of lndigenous peoples and Europeans and colonialism. The government has a very good way of making or giving the idea that they are incorporating ideas of minorities and of people with lived experience, but they're not because when the legislation comes out and you see all of those things come to the surface, it's all of their ideologies and everything that they want and what they see is right rather than taking that step back and actually incorporating a survivors experience. 

In terms of organizations when they're ignored, these organizations are saving people's lives. I'll be honest, the police didn't save my life. They did help, yes, but what saved my life was going through BridgeNorth and with Casandra (Diamond), the founder, and working with her and her being by my side, whether it was physically or virtually. That is what saved my life, and to see nonprofits and charities be restricted in funding or not get the necessary funding that they need, it's heartbreaking because these are the people who are doing that frontline work and that groundwork to make sure that survivors aren't slipping back into the sex trade or being trafficked. 

It's honestly heartbreaking and I wish that these politicians would see that and would understand that these charities and nonprofits are really the people who are saving lives.

With so much money invested in policing ($144 million extra in Brampton and Mississauga this year) has the enforcement focus crippled strategies aimed at prevention to end human trafficking?

This is something I'm really passionate about. No, I don't think we can stop human trafficking and I don't think we will ever be able to stop human trafficking at least in my lifetime. I think it's something that's always going to exist and I think it's always going to exist because we are not getting at the root cause of where human trafficking derives from. 

I think if we all looked at it from a systemic perspective, a lot of the people, whether they are pimps or drug dealers or whatever the case maybe, but in this context, to pimp, a lot of these people have gone through abuse themselves and they've grown up in marginalized communities. They've been recruited to gangs, they've been taught that violence is the answer. They haven't received the necessary mental health support. They have to make money somehow and if that meant pimping out someone else and forcing them to participate in sexual services, that was their means of getting money. I would say 90 percent of the people who do end up involved in the criminal legal system were subjected to violence themselves as kids. 

It's the cycle of violence and the constant abuse and then they're incarcerated and then they're subjected to more abuse and then they have no choice but to be violent towards other inmates. Then we release them back into society and we think that that is what's going to help. As if witting in a 4 x 4 cell 23 hours a day is going to help fix people, it's really not. When they get released back into society, they are released without housing without a job without money without the proper resources to build a life for themselves so naturally they are going to go back to pimping out girls, and selling drugs and robbing banks and doing all of those things. 

We need to address these real issues. For example welfare hasn't gone up in years. When I was being trafficked I was also on welfare and I don't think that the cost has changed. You get the same amount of money as you would have in 2017 or 2018. But then if you look at the rent cost, they have drastically skyrocketed. So how can we expect people who are living in poverty to not go to extreme measures to make sure that their families are being fed? And then not expect them to do all of those things?

Overall, the current system with enforcement over prevention is not working and it's proven to not work for decades because our crime rate has only gone up. The human trafficking rate has only gone up, domestic violence has only gone up. I believe in Nova Scotia within the last four months, a woman has died every single month from domestic violence so obviously the framework isn't working. 

But it's kind of like talking to a wall. If you bring it to the eyes in the ears of politicians they say they care, but their actions and their policies prove otherwise.

Email: [email protected]

At a time when vital public information is needed by everyone, The Pointer has taken down our paywall on all stories to ensure every resident of Brampton, Mississauga and Niagara has access to the facts. For those who are able, we encourage you to consider a subscription. This will help us report on important public interest issues the community needs to know about now more than ever. You can register for a 30-day free trial HERE. Thereafter, The Pointer will charge $10 a month and you can cancel any time right on the website. Thank you