Ontario seeing more Newfoundlanders being trafficked, says Durham victim services

The executive director of victim services in one of Canada's human trafficking hotspots says she's seeing an increase in people from Newfoundland and Labrador in her caseload.

Krista MacNeil is the executive director of Victim Services of Durham Region, encompassing the Greater Toronto Area towns of Ajax, Oshawa, Whitby and several smaller communities.

As a Mi'kmaw woman born and raised in Stephenville, N.L., MacNeil said she can't help noticing when victims from her home province are referred to her organization.

"My heart will always be in Newfoundland," she said Friday. "Any time I see someone who's been victimized it pulls at my heartstrings regardless of where they're from, but definitely there's a passion there … when I see they come from my home province."

Prosecutors in Newfoundland and Labrador are seeking the province's first conviction for human trafficking. MacNeil said the lack of court cases doesn't mean it's not a problem, and the fact she's seeing victims turn up in Ontario indicates victims are being trafficked to other jurisdictions.

Durham, situated along Highway 401 through the heart of southern Ontario, has become a hotbed for criminal networks transporting people across the country. The victim services office has seen a 263 per cent increase in referrals for human trafficking cases over the past four years.

MacNeil said she doesn't have exact numbers on how many came from Newfoundland and Labrador but there's been a noticeable increase over that period.

Women and girls are sometimes trafficked from Newfoundland and Labrador and moved to Ontario, MacNeil said, or they moved to Ontario for other reasons and were groomed and entrenched in the sex trade while there.

"The unique challenge when we see individuals that are trafficked and they're from Newfoundland is that they are at an increased vulnerability because they're so far away from home. They're so far away from their social support system. So with that obviously comes an increased risk for trafficking. Traffickers will look to exploit any vulnerability."

MacNeil said all the cases are disturbing but some cross into an extreme level.

"What we have seen throughout the pandemic is an increase in the brutality used against victims, and recently we did have one particular client from [Newfoundland and Labrador] where unfortunately some of the forms of abuse that they're enduring is equivalent to what prisoners of war face. It's the same torture tactics."

Kendra MacKinnon, a specialist with the Canadian Council to End Human Trafficking, says people usually have the wrong idea when they think about this crime.

"Oftentimes, people think human trafficking is like the movie Taken, right? Somebody is kidnapped off the side of the street and then is forced into sexual exploitation."

That's rarely the case, said MacKinnon. She spoke at a conference held by the Association For New Canadians in St. John's last week on Human Trafficking Awareness Day, sharing information with different groups about how trafficking happens and how to spot the warning signs.