These are just a couple of tawdry listings under the section titled ‘therapeutic massage’ on Craigslist.

Two years after the popular buy-and-sell website bowed under pressure and removed its escort section, some wonder whether those selling sex have simply migrated to another spot on the site.

“You’re always going to have the potential for individuals to continue to violate the rules that Craigslist has set for this,” said UBC law professor Benjamin Perrin, an expert on human trafficking. “It doesn’t mean people aren’t being sold for sex exploitation; they still are.”

Craigslist, he said, isn’t the one-stop shop it used to be for sex but it’s still a place where women are exploited.

According to Perrin, author of Invisible Chains: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking, Craigslist used to be “the Walmart of sex trafficking.” Because the website is so commonly used for purchasing services like cleaning and such items as sporting goods and cars, many users visited the site to seek out sexual services.

Early this month, Edmonton resident Norman Washington Walters, 25, was sentenced to jail time for sexual assault with a weapon, unlawful confinement, robbery and theft after attacking three escorts he met through Craigslist in 2009.

Walters’ sentence came just after federal politicians met in late January to discuss legislation that would crack down on pornography and online exploitation of vulnerable persons.

Originally posted on 24 Hours Vancouver, Thursday, February 16, 2012.

Her next three victims were brought to Hamilton by others, but they too lived under her Mohawk Road East roof — with her actual common-law husband. They ate scraps, had their identification seized and were instructed to make false refugee and welfare claims. They never saw their benefit money or wages from work in her family’s construction businesses.

Gizella Kolompar, 43, pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring to commit human trafficking and participating in a criminal organization. Her co-accused in the biggest human trafficking case in Canadian history cannot be named because of a publication ban.

She was sentenced to two years in prison, on top of eight months spent in pretrial custody. Other charges, including fraud, were withdrawn because of the plea; but Superior Court Justice Stephen Glithero ordered she pay back the $13,724.26 owed to Ontario Works for her and her victims’ welfare claims.

Her husband of 24 years, Lajos Domotor, 43, pleaded guilty to similar charges last month. He is dying of stomach cancer and received a 10½ month sentence. A youth pleaded guilty to related charges in September and was deported.

Like her husband, Kolompar is recommended for early parole, but only to be deported.

Kolompar’s lawyer, Alex Burns, asked for an order to allow his client to see her dying husband in jail. But Glithero denied this request because Kolompar refused to show compassion for her victims, particularly when one man was not allowed to call home after his mother died.

Typically, a guilty plea comes with some sense of remorse, Glithero said, as Kolompar sat quietly with a Hungarian interpreter. “I’m not giving her any credit for remorse because I don’t think people like this woman care for anyone other than themselves.”

Both Kolompar and Domotor have criminal records and are wanted in Hungary on arrest warrants, RCMP Constable Lepa Jankovic told the court.

Yet nothing came up when their names were searched by border officials, and it took until last month for the RCMP to get a straight answer from Hungary.

Kolompar, the court learned, was previously convicted of theft and is wanted on two counts of extortion and two counts of fraud. Most of the other accused parties are also wanted in Hungary.

Assistant Crown attorney Toni Skarica, who routinely calls the criminal group “an invasion of evil,” said something has to change. If “the tiniest fraction of the world’s population” came to Canada and fraudulently claimed refugee status, “we’d be bankrupt,” he said.

“How can this be? What protection is there for the Canadian society?” Skarica said, imploring Glithero to comment on the broader problems this case exposes.

Glithero said he was cautious to respond, but added, “the case does raise concerns.”

Kolompar claimed refugee status and accessed government benefits “in about the amount of time it takes to utter the words (I am a refugee).”

In a statement read by Jankovic, both Kolompar and Domotor are described as latecomers to the organization, but Kolompar “played a substantial role in the crime group,” she said.

She came to Hamilton in November 2008 and her husband followed in May, Jankovic said. The couple’s role in the organization, which is made up of an extended Roma Hungarian family, “was as a recruiter, harbourer and transporter of some of the victims to various locations in order to further the aims of the overall conspiracy.”

Burns made few comments about the details of the case except to say that any wider problems with the immigration or refugee system are out of the control of Kolompar and are “better dealt with in Ottawa.”

Originally Published by the Hamilton Spectator,  Wednesday, February 8, 2012.

Officers will hear from Timea Nagy, a victim of human trafficking.

Nagy said she was lured to Canada with the promise of a job but not long after arriving was forced into the sex trade.

Shelly Gilbert of the Anti-Human Trafficking Action Group of Windsor knows of approximately 40 survivors – men and women – of human traffickers with ties to or residents of Windsor.

Windsor Police staff Sgt. John St. Louis spearheads the police anti-trafficking effort. He said officers and members of the general public should look for signs of human trafficking.

Signs include whether the victim is in control of their own identification and documents or money during hotel check-ins or purchases; and whether they are in control of items like cellphones — or does someone place the call for them?

“One of the skills the traffickers seem to have is the ability to force people into … incredible secrecy,” Shelly Gilbert said.

Victims vary in sex and age

Gilbert said victims are both male and female. Men are often enslaved in the construction field. Women work mainly in the sex trade.

“As there is more of a call for cheap labour, it allows recruiters to lure people … to Canada,” Gilbert said.

“The scope is a lot bigger than we initially recognized,” St. Louis said.

He is aware of one Windsor woman who was exploited. So it’s not just a crime that involves immigrants.

St. Louis said Windsor Police leaned on officers from Toronto for advice when developing the training initiative.

More resources needed

St. Louis and said previous awareness training has already paid dividends.

“One officer was able to come forward just as a result of going to a call. [Using] the awareness training that he received, he basically saw signs of a person being a victim of human trafficking and he was able to call our office. We were able to come in and follow this up,” he said.

St. Louis said the police will expand their anti-human trafficking initiative so the public is better informed.

“Officers sort of have to be aware of the various places that they may interact with potential survivors. I think it’s really important that we’re aware of what is happening in our communities and who these individuals are that are looking for help,” Gilbert said. “Certainly the officers on the street will be able to take these offenders off the street.”

Gilbert said there needs to be more resources dedicated to stop human trafficking.

“We have a group of really dedicated and passionate volunteers. But there are very little supports for this,” she said.

Gilbert praised the Criminal Code and its penalties for those found guilty of the crime.

“But we are not yet seeing anything being provided for the ongoing support and representation to survivors of human trafficking,” she said.

Originally posted on CBC News Wednesday, February 1, 2012.

“Modern day slavery is really manipulation of the mind,” said Joy Smith before speaking to a group of University of Alberta students Thursday afternoon.

“To convince people that they’ll give them everything they want, but their real intention is to sell them.”

It was part of the school’s iCraveFreedom campaign, aimed to shine light on modern day slavery.

“The youth are our future. They’re important people. Education is our greatest weapon. The more they know, the safer they are.” Smith said.

“It’s making a difference today when people are here listening to this, because they learn what to look for.”

Students should keep their eyes open for signs of abuse, she added.

Her passion to combat human trafficking was sparked by her son, who spent two years on the RCMP’s Integrated Child Exploitation Unit.

“The things he has seen has turned his hair grey,” she said. “I found out more than I wanted to know, and that’s when I started to try and do something about it.”

She says organizers of human trafficking rings target the unsuspecting, the vulnerable.

They’re manipulated into giving up their lives, and then once isolated, they are sold.

The trade is the second most profitable in the country next to the drug trade, said Smith.

So far, the RCMP have documented 49 ongoing cases of human trafficking before the courts, involving 76 human trafficking and 143 victims. Out of these 49 cases, 44 are cases of domestic trafficking.

Originally posted on Edmonton Sun, Thursday, January 19, 2012

Mark Anthony Burton, also known as Ricky Downey, appeared in court on Monday via video from Toronto East Detention Centre.

Burton, 43, was charged with two counts of procuring a person to become a prostitute, living on the avails of prostitution and procuring illicit sex. He was also charged with human trafficking.

While human trafficking has been in the Criminal Code for more than six years, Toronto police have laid few charges and have yet to land a conviction.

“This is the first time that we’ve actually laid human trafficking charges in relation to a domestic case, which means that it occurred here in Canada,” Det. Const. Leanne Marchen told CTV Toronto on Monday.

Burton, wearing an orange jumpsuit, showed no reaction to the new charges, CTV Toronto’s Tamara Cherry reported.

During a routine traffic stop at a downtown intersection last summer, Burton was pulled over, police said.

Police allege that they found Burton with an underage sex worker.

“These girls would do sex work and hand over all their earnings in exchange for drugs or a meal,” Marchen said. “Is it voluntary? I don’t believe it is…The one young lady was subjected to physical violence.”

In 1992, Burton was convicted of procuring a person to become a prostitute and assault causing bodily harm. Six years later he was convicted of procuring, exercising control and living on the avails of prostitution.

He also has convictions for gun and drug crimes, robbery, sex assault, extortion, uttering threats and criminal harassment.

Police allege Burton began grooming one girl for prostitution over the phone while he was doing time at Kingston Penitentiary. He was released in 2009.

Burton faces 25 charges, including two counts of human trafficking and two counts of material benefit from human trafficking.

He is scheduled to stand trial on the pimping and human trafficking charges in mid-March.

Police said that they believe there are still victims who have not come forward. They’re asking anyone with information to call the Toronto Police Special Victims Unit at 416-456-7259.

Originally posted on CTV News Toronto, Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Reza Moazami, 27, was released from custody Thursday night after two months in jail on 18 criminal counts including trafficking in underage persons, living on the avails of a juvenile, sexual interference and sexual exploitation.

The case marks the first time that the charge of trafficking in underage persons has been used in B.C. since it came into effect last year, and legal experts it signals a change in how prostitution cases are prosecuted.

“Police are no longer willing to look these cases as simply prostitution cases, which is historically how they have been dealt with and often dismissed by many people…. Now they’re being recognized for what they are, which is serious allegations of child sex trafficking,” UBC law professor Ben Perrin told CTV News after the charges were announced.

The trafficking charge carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison.

Advocates say that human trafficking can encompass crimes far beyond illegal trade in people.

“It’s the exploitation, using people as property, as slaves, to some extent,” said Rosalind Currie of the Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons.

She says human traffickers prey on the most vulnerable people in society.

“We believe aboriginal women and girls are often very vulnerable, runaways kids that are in trouble with the law…. We really need to protect them,” she said.

The father of one of Moazami’s alleged victims describes what happened to his daughter as abduction.

“They were lured into it. It’s not like my daughter decided, ‘I want to be a prostitute.’ It doesn’t work that way. It was well planned,” said the dad, whose identity is protected by law.

“She’s a very, very confused kid. The damage is done.”

Moazami is scheduled to make his next appearance in court in January.

Originally Posted on CTV News, December 23, 2011

Kildonan-St. Paul MP Joy Smith tabled a petition Tuesday in the House of Commons with more than 2,900 signatures, asking the government to “decriminalize the selling of sexual services and criminalize the purchasing of sexual services and provide support to those who desire to leave prostitution.”

She also tabled a petition with more than 6,000 signatures calling for a national action plan to combat human trafficking.

“The girls on the street are the victims,” Smith said. “We need to target the market.”

Smith said the petitions were sent to her office but she did not start or solicit either of them. Smith introduced her own national strategy on human trafficking in 2010, and one of its recommendations was to go after the buyers of sex.

In June, she said she planned to introduce a private member’s bill to address decriminalizing prostitution and instead criminalize the purchase of sex. However, when she introduced the bill this fall it did not touch on that topic.

The federal government is appealing a ruling by an Ontario judge in 2010 that struck down all three criminal provisions related to prostitution in Canada — those being pimping, operating a common bawdy house and communicating for the purposes of prostitution. The judge said the laws increase the risk to prostitutes and it is too “high a price to pay for the alleviation of a social nuisance.”

The federal government feared having a bill on the order paper trying to decriminalize the sale of sexual services would hurt the government’s plan to appeal in the case.

Smith did not support the Ontario judge’s ruling because it struck down the laws against prostitution without also going after the buyers or providing help for women victimized by prostitution.

A spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said the government will be implementing a national action plan to combat human trafficking and will support organizations that support victims. However, there does not appear to be government support to change existing criminal laws on prostitution.

“We will continue to address the challenges associated with prostitution, including focusing on prevention, awareness and research, as well as supporting the enforcement of existing laws to ensure that those involved in prostitution are protected from exploitation and abuse,” said Mike Patton in a written statement.

Smith’s call is for Canada to adopt a law similar to what’s known as the Nordic Model, based on a law introduced in Sweden in 1999.

“The Nordic model is really gaining legs because it targets the market,” said Smith.

That law was based on a belief prostitution victimizes women by normalizing sexual exploitation. Being caught buying sex in Sweden can net you a fine of 50 days pay or up to one year in jail. The law also focused on providing help for women and children working in prostitution.

The hope is that the public shaming of buyers of sex would curtail their activities. A report from the Swedish government in 2010 reviewed the law 10 years later and said street prostitution had been cut in half, and there was no evidence the law had simply pushed prostitution off the streets and into brothels or onto the Internet.

The report also found Sweden was the only country in Europe where prostitution and sex trafficking had not increased over the previous decade.

Norway adopted a similar law in 2009 and in a single year one municipality in Norway reported a 20 per cent drop in street prostitution and a 16 per cent drop in indoor prostitution.

Posted on The Vancouver Sun, Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The investigation was launched after U.S. police found documents that described how leaders of a breakaway Mormon sect shuttled children over the border to be married to much older men.

Three years ago, Texas police said they discovered a hidden vault of records when they raided a compound belonging to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

There were hundreds of boxes that included the dictated diaries of the church’s self-proclaimed prophet, Warren Jeffs, and meticulously kept marriage records.

Jeffs is serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison for sexually assaulting two of his child brides, aged 12 and 15.

Affidavits filed by B.C.’s attorney general allege the two leaders of separate FLDS sects in Bountiful, B.C. — Winston Blackmore and James Oler — may have been witnesses at U.S. marriage ceremonies involving child brides, may have provided their own daughters or were married themselves to children.

The RCMP won’t divulge who is being investigated, said Cpl. Dan Moskaluk.

“These allegations are historical allegations that occurred in the late ’90s upwards to as late as 2006,” Moskaluk said.

After months of planning, he said investigators will meet in mid-December with Texas police and prosecutors to interview possible victims and witnesses.

The timing has nothing to do with this week’s B.C. Supreme Court decision upholding the ban on polygamy, Moskaluk said.

Some of the documents seized in Texas were submitted as evidence during the B.C. court hearing.

A former FLDS member who fled the church and now lives in Washington, Kathleen Mackert, alleges that child trafficking did occur.

“Child brides have been trafficked to Canada for my entire life and before then. As long as I’ve known, it’s been going on,” Mackert told CBC News in a telephone interview Friday.

Mackert said that although the progress in the Canadian investigation has been slow, she’s hopeful co-operation between authorities in both countries will speed things up.

Originally posted by CBC News, November 25, 2011.

Migrant smuggling, which is distinct from human trafficking, is a dangerous, sometimes deadly, criminal activity that cannot be rationalized, justified or excused. Failing to respond effectively to migrant smuggling and to deter it risks emboldening those who engage in this illicit enterprise. Proceeds from these illegal activities benefit organized crime and criminal networks; fund terrorism and facilitate clandestine terrorist travel; endanger the lives and safety of smuggled migrants; undermine border security with consequences for the Canada-U.S. border; and undermine the integrity and fairness of Canada’s immigration system.

Re-introduced in Parliament in June 2011, the Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada’s Immigration System Act (Bill C-4) includes amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) that continue to generate controversy.

On a global basis, thousands of people have perished at sea during migrant smuggling operations. Migrant smuggling cannot be a viable option even for legitimate refugees to come to Canada. An unclassified report by the RCMP Criminal Intelligence Directorate reveals that smuggled migrants entering Canada include a mix of improperly documented migrants, economic migrants, criminals and terrorists. Bill C-4 adds minimum jail terms based on the number of people smuggled, whether the alleged smuggler harmed the migrants, and whether the offence was in any way associated with a criminal organization or terrorist group. But Bill C-4 does not criminalize the migrants themselves, instead it provides disincentives, like delaying their ability to sponsor family members to come to Canada.

However, Bill C-4 contains a maligned provision that would automatically detain migrants who are part of a group arrival designated by the Minister for a year without access to review, unless they are released by the Minister or they are granted refugee status earlier.

While the general detention review timelines in the IRPA are unworkable in the context of a large smuggling event (requiring hearings for every individual within 48 hours, seven days, then every month thereafter), Bill C-4 goes too in the opposite direction.

In 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada used the Charter to strike down a provision in the IRPA that required detention for 120 days without review of foreign nationals believed to be terrorists. The court required an initial review within 48 hours, with further detention reviews every 6 months. Given this precedent, it is inconceivable that the Court would permit the automatic detention of smuggled migrants without review for a year.

Bill C-4 should accordingly be modified as follows:

- Smuggled migrants should receive an initial review within 48 hours, with further reviews every three or six months thereafter; and,

- Minors should be exempted from the new regulations, and handled under the current rules that related to their age group.

Bill C-4, so modified, would help address migrant smuggling. But more is needed. There is a great need for ongoing international cooperation, aimed at both detecting and deterring migrant smuggling, and ensuring failed refugee claimants are promptly returned to their countries of origin. The international community must also work to alleviate the plight of refugees so that they will not feel it necessary to take the enormous risk (both legally and to their safety) of putting their fates in the hands of migrant smugglers as they seek a new life abroad.

- Benjamin Perrin is law professor at UBC and a senior fellow of the MacdonaldLaurier Institute, which just released a study of migrant smuggling and a detailed evaluation of Bill C-4. Macdonaldlaurier.ca

A 27-year-old Vancouver man is facing multiple charges of trafficking in underage teenagers he allegedly forced into the sex trade.

Sgt. Richard Akin of the Vancouver Police Department’s vice unit said Friday that the charges, coming at the end of a three-month investigation known as Project Sabr, are the first of their kind in the force’s history.

Four Lower Mainland girls between the ages of 14 and 17 have been taken into care in connection with the case.

“They’ve shown a lot of courage talking to us,” Sgt. Akin said. “We’ve had to gain their trust. While they might have been involved in sex work activity, they are victims.”

Experts in the field of human trafficking praised the VPD for Project Sabr. Despite their belief that the trafficking of juveniles and forcing them into prostitution is widespread, they noted that few charges of this nature are ever laid in Canada.

“This is a real wake-up call that what is often identified by police as prostitution cases involve individuals who use force, fraud or coercion to extract profits from these vulnerable individuals,” said Benjamin Perrin, a law professor at the University of B.C. and author of a book on human trafficking, Invisible Chain.

These are B.C.’s first sex-trafficking charges involving minors, he said. “This is a significant case, because of the number of victims, allegedly controlled by a single trafficker. I applaud the VPD for pursuing this.”

Rosalind Currie, director of the province’s Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons, said the extent of human trafficking for sexual purposes can’t be judged by the meagre number of convictions.

“There is a lot of fear among trafficked persons to come forward. It’s a very hidden crime,” said Ms. Currie. “So the charges [Friday] are really a positive sign. They are going to raise awareness of the prevalence of this situation.”

In all, 18 charges have been laid against Reza Moazami, including four counts of trafficking in persons under the age of 18 and four counts of living off the avails of a juvenile, using force or the threat of violence.

Those charges, upon conviction, now carry a mandatory sentence of at least five years, since a private member’s bill spearheaded by Conservative MP Joyce Smith became part of Canada’s Criminal Code last year.

Before then, Prof. Perrin, who first proposed the measure, said sentences were abysmal. “Police said victims were increasingly loathe to come forward when punishment was so lax.”

He added that it was unfortunate, however, that there are no charges against any of the “thousands of men who paid to abuse these individuals. They need to be held accountable, as well.”

Police chose to call their investigation Project Sabr, because ‘sabr,’ according to Sgt. Akin, is the Farsi word for “probing a wound [or] examining a business to the bottom.”

“That defines exactly what we did. It couldn’t be more apt in terms of what we wanted to achieve.”

A publication ban prevents police revealing more information about the victims and further details of the case.

Mr. Moazami was taken into custody earlier this month. He is also charged with four counts of living off the avails of a juvenile, four counts of sexual exploitation, and two counts of sexual interference.

Two minors were found at the South Vancouver residence where the accused was arrested, police said.