Record human trafficking numbers just ‘the tip of the iceberg’ in Canada
Global News
The Maritime provinces and Ontario saw their rates of reported human trafficking incidents surpass the national average, with Nova Scotia seeing the highest per 100,000 people.
Nova Scotia continues to see the highest rate of human trafficking incidents reported by police in Canada, with new Statistics Canada data showing the province’s numbers were triple the national average.
The data released on Monday looked at human trafficking data from 2014 to 2024 nationally and found during the 10-year span, there were 5,070 incidents reported by police — an annual average rate of 1.2 incidents per 100,000 people. In 2024, the national average was at 1.5 with 608 incidents reported.
In Nova Scotia, that average rate sat at 4.1 per 100,000 during 10-year period, a total of 452 cases. In 2024 alone, the rate was at 4.5 with a total of 48 cases.
This year, the three Maritime provinces and Ontario each saw their rates soar past the national average, with Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick hitting 2.8 and 2.0 respectively, while Ontario saw 2.3 incidents per 100,000.
Human trafficking is defined as recruiting, transporting, sheltering or controlling the movements of a person for the purposes of exploitation, usually for sexual reasons or forced labour, according to Statistics Canada. It also does not require the crossing of international borders and can occur within a single country.
Julia Drydyk, executive director of the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, said the numbers tell a story.
“The data issued by Statistics Canada and also data from the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline is only the tip of the iceberg,” she said. “We estimate that less than 10 per cent of human trafficking survivors are willing to engage with law enforcement as part of their journey.”
The centre operates the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline and has received almost 19,800 contacts and identified more than 2,030 cases of trafficking since its launched in 2019.
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