Just outside Toronto, a 14-year-old Canadian girl is auctioned on Craigslist for men to purchase by the hour. A violent criminal lures a teenage girl through Facebook and forces her to be sold for sex in British Columbia. A young woman is taken by slave traders from an African war zone to Canada to earn greater profits by exploiting her in prostitution. A mother makes a desperate plea for the safe return of her missing Canadian daughter who she fears has been trafficked to Las Vegas.
Hidden in plain sight, occurring in our own communities, the global problem of human trafficking is only beginning to be recognized in Canada. While other countries have been actively protecting victims and prosecuting traffickers for over a decade, Canada’s response has been lethargic. Until 2005, there was no Criminal Code offence of human trafficking. Victims are often left to fend for themselves after escaping or being rescued, while their exploiters are rarely charged. Canada has no national action plan to combat human trafficking. That’s our record.
But there are committed citizens working for justice. Author Benjamin Perrin works with government, police officers, social workers, and survivors to expose this hidden national tragedy. In Invisible Chains, Perrin shares heartrending cases of human trafficking, reveals the tactics used by traffickers, and passionately advocates for what we as a responsible society can do to stop it.
