Human trafficking strategy helping girls being moved along Highway 401 corridor

Over the past six years, 267 victims of human trafficking have sought support through the Hope Found Project in Ottawa, a group that helps those who've been or who are being trafficked. 

Only two of those survivors were from outside Canada.

Human and sex trafficking is a growing domestic concern according to advocates who work with survivors, and in Ontario, the 401 corridor between Windsor and the Quebec border is a common route for traffickers to transport young girls between communities, forced to sell sex. 

Truckers, hotel managers and school boards are all being called upon to help fight the problem.

"This is in our communities. Ontario is a major hub," said Cynthia Bland, executive director of Voice Found, a survivor-led organization and resource for victims of sexual abuse. 

"If somebody is trying to leave their trafficking situation … we'll help them with safety planning."

She said most of the people who seek help are girls and young women — many between the ages 12 and 19. They come from our own high schools and communities, she said. 

Feb. 22 marks the second annual National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. 

"Often we're asked what makes someone vulnerable to being trafficked," said Bland. "The largest vulnerability is ignorance to the issue, not really understanding what it is." 

Human trafficking involves recruiting, transporting, transferring or harbouring a person, or exercising control or influence for the purpose of exploiting them. According to Statistics Canada, the type of trafficking that is "most detected" by authorities is sexual exploitation.

A report from the federal department released last year showed a growing increase in police-reported incidents between 2009 and 2019. Police reported 511 incidents of human trafficking in 2019. And that number represents only the cases police knew about.

Changing public perception is key to combating the problem, according to Julia Drydyk, executive director of the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, a national charity based in Toronto with a goal to mobilize collective action to stop trafficking. 

"When they think about human trafficking, they think about women being forcibly confined, shipped across borders with handcuffs, that's really not what we're seeing in Canada," she said.

One of the regions of greatest concern to advocates and the Ontario government is the 401 corridor.