HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN BC FROM 2000 TO 2016:
GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL AND FRONT-LINE SERVICE PROVIDERS’
OBSERVATIONS
by
Ursula M. Kroetsch
B.A., University of British Columbia, 2009

THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF SOCIAL WORK

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA
April 2018
© Ursula Kroetsch, 2018

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Acknowledgements
I want to start by thanking my supervisor, Dr. Heather Peters, for her support throughout
this project, as well as Professor Dave Sangha for his encouragement and guidance. I would also
like to thank my committee members, Dr. Catherine Nolin and Professor Dawn Hemingway, for
their invaluable input.
Thank you to my mom, Steph, Lauren, and Grace who helped with editing, and thank you
to all those who donated their time as participants in this study. Your efforts remind me of the
good that can be accomplished by passionate individuals. I appreciate the role you have had in
this research but above all else, I want to express my gratitude for the everyday work that you do.
Finally, I want to acknowledge my partner, Ian Kerr, for his role in making this thesis a
reality. His unwavering support and his unconditional love allowed me to pursue this project and
for that I am incredibly grateful. It might be my name listed on the document, but the everyday
efforts that went into producing this thesis belong to the both of us.

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Abstract
Public discourse on human trafficking in British Columbia has shifted from a primarily
international narrative in the early 2000s, towards a more complex narrative that considers both
international and domestic crimes in 2016. Based on fourteen semi-structured qualitative
interviews, this research compares government personnel and front-line service providers’
observations about the narrative shift, as well as their overall understandings of what human
trafficking crimes look like in the province. The findings indicate that an
individual’s understanding of who is most commonly victimized, as well as their perceptions
about overall rates of victimization are largely influenced by their professional interactions with
victims. Education was perceived by both data groups to be a key component in developing more
effective anti-trafficking strategies; however, participants divergent understandings of who is
most at-risk continue to confuse the human trafficking debate and many of the structural causes
of the crime remain unaddressed.

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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... ii
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii
List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ vii
List of Acronyms ......................................................................................................................... viii
Chapter 1: Introduction and Definitions ......................................................................................... 1
Research Purpose and Question .................................................................................................. 2
Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................... 3
The Current Political Context ..................................................................................................... 4
Locating the Research in British Columbia ................................................................................ 6
Definitions ................................................................................................................................... 6
Thesis Outline ...................................................................................................................... 8
Chapter Two: Literature Review .................................................................................................... 9
The Effects of Inaccurate Data on Public Understandings .................................................... 10
Populations Vulnerable to Human Trafficking ......................................................................... 12
Sources of Vulnerability for Victims of Child Sexual Abuse ............................................... 12
Sources of Vulnerability for Aboriginal Youth ..................................................................... 13
Source of Vulnerability for International Migrants ............................................................... 16
Domestic Human Trafficking Processes in Canada .................................................................. 19
International Human Trafficking Processes in Canada ............................................................. 21
History of International Anti-Trafficking Efforts ..................................................................... 22
Prostitution Laws and Anti-Trafficking Measures .................................................................... 24
The Nordic Model: Protecting Vulnerable Individuals ......................................................... 25
Canada’s Prostitution Laws ....................................................................................................... 27
The Demand for Human Sex Trafficking .............................................................................. 28
National and Provincial Anti-Trafficking Measures ................................................................. 29
Federal Anti-Trafficking Legislation and Efforts .................................................................. 29
BC’s Provincial Anti-Trafficking Legislation and Efforts .................................................... 33
The Social Policy Decision-Making Process ............................................................................ 34
Can Education Change Human Trafficking Behaviours? ..................................................... 36
Social Work and Human Trafficking ........................................................................................ 37
Summary ............................................................................................................................ 39

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Chapter Three: Methodology ........................................................................................................ 40
Choosing Qualitative Research ................................................................................................. 40
Research Approach: Phenomenology ....................................................................................... 41
Strengths and Limitations of Phenomenology....................................................................... 43
Research Sample Design and Recruitment ............................................................................... 44
Table 3.1: Demographic Data – Front-line service providers ................................................... 46
Table 3.2: Demographic Data – Government Personnel........................................................... 47
Data Collection Methodology ................................................................................................... 48
Interviews with Government Personnel ................................................................................ 49
Interviews with Front-Line Workers ..................................................................................... 50
Research Analysis Process: Applied Thematic Analysis .......................................................... 50
Description of Thematic Analysis Phases ............................................................................. 51
Evaluating Methodological Quality and Ethics ........................................................................ 53
Assessing Worthy Topic ........................................................................................................ 54
Assessing Rich Rigor............................................................................................................. 54
Assessing Sincerity ................................................................................................................ 55
Assessing Credibility ............................................................................................................. 56
Assessing Resonance ............................................................................................................. 57
Assessing Significant Contribution ....................................................................................... 57
Assessing Ethics .................................................................................................................... 58
Assessing Meaningful Coherence ......................................................................................... 58
Limitations to the Research Approach ...................................................................................... 59
Summary ............................................................................................................................ 61
Chapter Four: Research Findings.................................................................................................. 62
Shifts in Human Trafficking Discourse .................................................................................... 62
Reasons Attributed to Shifts in Discourse ................................................................................ 66
Human Trafficking Narrative from the Early 2000s ............................................................. 68
Human Trafficking Narrative Today ..................................................................................... 70
Rates of human trafficking in BC today.................................................................................... 73
BC Anti-Trafficking Efforts Compared to Other Provinces ..................................................... 75
Education: An Effective Anti-Trafficking Tool ........................................................................ 77
Summary ............................................................................................................................ 81

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Chapter Five: Discussion, Implications, and Recommendations.................................................. 83
Important Differences in Observations between Sources ......................................................... 84
Is Human Trafficking a Growing Issue? ............................................................................... 85
Perceiving the Narrative Shift Favourably ................................................................................ 87
Attributing BC’s early Anti-trafficking Efforts to the Olympics .......................................... 88
Regarding Education as an Effective Anti-Trafficking Tool .................................................... 89
Do Canadians Lack Empathy for Others? ............................................................................. 94
How the Findings Relate to the Literature ................................................................................ 95
BC’s Anti-Trafficking Efforts Moving Forward ....................................................................... 96
Recommendations for Future Research .................................................................................... 97
Summary ............................................................................................................................ 98
References ................................................................................................................................... 101
Appendix A ................................................................................................................................. 119
Appendix B ................................................................................................................................. 122

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List of Tables
Table 3.1: Demographic Data – Front Line Service Providers……………………………….46
Table 3.2: Demographic Data – Government Personnel……………………………………...47

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List of Acronyms
BC

British Columbia

CCC

Criminal Code of Canada

ILO

International Labour Organization

IRPA

Immigration and Refugee Protection Act

OCTIP

Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons

OHCHR

Office of the High Commissions of Human Rights

PNP

Provincial Nominee Program

RCMP

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

SAWP

Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program

SAW

Seasonal Agricultural Worker

TFWP

Temporary Foreign Worker Program

TFW

Temporary Foreign Worker

UN

United Nations

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Chapter 1: Introduction and Definitions
Human trafficking is a worldwide phenomenon to which government responses are varied.
Since signing the United Nation’s Palermo Protocol in 2000, Canada has implemented two antitrafficking legislative amendments to prevent illegal migration for the purpose of exploitation and
to prosecute offenders who commit both international and domestic trafficking offences (Barnett,
2005; Ministry of Justice, 2013; Oxman-Martinez, Hanley, & Gomez, 2005).1 Over the past
seventeen years, public discourse has shifted from a primarily international narrative in the early
2000s, towards a more complex narrative that considers both international and domestic criminal
acts. This research compares participants’ observations about this narrative shift and suggests that
an individual’s professional interactions with victims partly influence their observations about who
is most commonly victimized by the crime, as well as perceptions about rates of victimization. A
possible implication of these findings is that divergent understandings of the phenomenon itself
form the basis for individual ideas about how best to address the issue of human trafficking.
The goal to end human trafficking is rooted in the belief that every person, regardless of
nationality, age, or gender, is held to a set of universal “principles which seek to ensure the equal
worth of each individual life” (O’Byrne, 2003, p.26). These rights are non-partisan, and efforts to
combat human trafficking have been, and continue to be, collectively pursued by government, law
enforcement, and community organizations alike. Accordingly, this research argues that social
workers have professional opportunities, and professional responsibilities, to integrate themselves
in the development and critical assessment of anti-trafficking efforts. As a profession rooted in
social justice, it is surprising that social work literature has almost exclusively focused on

The first amendment was to section 118 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) in 2002, and the
second was to section 279 of the Criminal Code of Canada in 2005 (Barrett & Shaw, 2013).

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intervention strategies to reduce individual risks with a limited discussion on how social workers
can collaborate as agents for policy change (Hodge, 2008). In response, I study human trafficking,
its root causes and efforts to combat the issue, from a structural lens that considers the issue from
both micro and macro levels of analysis.
Research Purpose and Question
Through this research, I endeavor to contribute to on-going discussions about human
trafficking in Canada by studying observable changes to the level and type of human trafficking
in BC. Notably, the province of BC does not have legislation specifically related to human
trafficking crimes, which is why I focus on federal legislation; however, the province itself was
chosen for reasons explained later in this chapter. In studying observable changes to the level and
type of human trafficking in BC, I examine the tension that exists between observations made by
two different data groups: government personnel and front-line service providers. Government
personnel were chosen because the federal and provincial governments are both responsible for
social policy decision-making. Front-line service providers were chosen because they work
directly with victims impacted by this crime as well as at-risk populations. I focus on observations
about human trafficking starting from 2000, the year Canada signed the United Nations’ Palermo
Protocol making an international commitment to prevent, protect against, and prosecute human
trafficking. Alone, these findings will not provide conclusions about the responsiveness or efficacy
of Canada’s anti-trafficking legislation, nor will they make conclusions about shifts in human
trafficking discourse; however, the findings do provide insight into this important and on-going
public discussion at-large.
The primary question of this thesis is: “What observable changes to the type of human
trafficking have occurred in BC since 2000, and how do observations made by government

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personnel compare to those made by front-line service providers?” In exploring the tension
between the perspectives made by two different data participant groups, this research questions
why perceptions about a specific social issue diverge or converge depending on the source. It also
questions whether or not divergent understandings about the same issue create barriers to antitrafficking efforts. Two sub-questions provided a base from which to ask the primary question:
“what are participants’ perceptions of the number of documented victims of international human
trafficking in BC?”, and “what are participants’ perceptions of the number of documented victims
of domestic human trafficking in BC?” Efforts to combat human trafficking should be developed
for the benefit of people impacted and victimized by this crime. When there are differences
between policy-makers’ and front-line workers’ understandings of the same issue, it suggests there
might be disconnects between policy and front-line practice that are worth exploring.
Theoretical Framework
This research is rooted in structural social work, which argues that structures themselves
establish and maintain inequalities within society (Lundy, 2004). Specifically, this approach to
social work critically examines existing social, economic, and political structures with the
assumption that transformation is not only possible, but it is also desirable (Mullaly, 2007).
Structural social work theory considers multiple forms of oppression such as race, gender, sexual
orientation, physical ability, geographical location, and class, as intersectional. It argues that
individual problems arise from systems that favour dominant groups in society; and so, structural
change must occur to alleviate the negative effects unjust systems have on people (Mullaly, 2007,
p.211). In the field of human trafficking research, structural social work theory examines the role
of systemic racism, gender inequality, globalization, and institutional poverty as factors that

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perpetuate the crime by rendering certain populations at-risk and incentivizing offenders to commit
criminal acts.
A philosophical underpinning of structural social work theory is the notion that individual
challenges cannot be wholly addressed without broad systemic transformation, as the two concepts
operate simultaneously. Systemic transformation occurs in many ways, including through the
development and implementation of social policy. Although imperfect in nature, social policy is a
transformative tool that, when guided by ethics, can better peoples’ lives and alleviate social
inequalities by directly challenging institutions that reward certain groups in society while
simultaneously oppressing others. Not all personal problems are systemic in nature, but there “is
always a structural element in any experienced problem” (Fook, 1993, p.75). If good social policy
reduces social marginalization, then bad social policy perpetuates and creates inequalities.
Analysing the human trafficking phenomenon in BC from the perspectives of different key
‘players’ in society lends itself towards making better social policy as it helps identify areas for
development by encouraging questions about gaps between policy objectives and practice realities.
The Current Political Context
This research occurs in the context of two salient public issues in Canada: first, the
heightened political interest into the murdered and missing indigenous women and girls in
Canada2; and second, the federal government’s recent promise to reconsider current prostitution
legislation under the Criminal Code of Canada. According to data from the Native Women’s
Association of Canada collected between 1960 and 2010, an estimated 582 Aboriginal women and
girls have gone missing or been murdered in Canada (Human Rights Watch, 2013, p.I). The highest

The terms ‘Indigenous’ and ‘Aboriginal’ are used throughout this paper as umbrella terms to refer to First
Nations, Metis and Inuit Peoples (Government of Canada, 2012, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada:
Terminology, p. 1).
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number of victims is within the province of BC where Aboriginal women are 3% of BC’s
population but comprise 33% of missing and murdered investigative cases (Oppal, 2012, p.14). In
2012, a BC provincial inquiry concluded that ongoing systemic racism within society plays a role
in Aboriginal women’s heightened risk for violence “simply because they live in a society that
poses a risk to their safety” (Oppal, 2012, p.7). The threat of violence against Aboriginal women
includes experiences of sexual exploitation and domestic human trafficking (Sethi, 2007).
At a national level, the extent to which law enforcement targets Aboriginal women and
girls and the extent to which individual vulnerabilities are a result of systemic racism remain highly
contentious issues and ones that this thesis does not address. In 2015, the federal government
announced its interest in conducting an inquiry into the social and systemic contexts that render
Aboriginal women disproportionately more vulnerable to violence than non-Aboriginal women
(Mas, 2015, para. 2). The anticipated inquiry is currently underway, but has itself become
contentious and has been met with criticism (Canadian Press, 2017).
A second public issue that likely influences this research is the current debate over
Canada’s prostitution legislation. Given that all sex trafficking occurs within the sex trade, a
nation’s approach to prostitution influences its anti-trafficking agenda. In 2014, under Bill C-36
the Harper government enacted amendments to the prostitution laws in Canada after a court ruling
stated that the existing Victorian laws were unconstitutional (Supreme Court of Canada, 2013).
The Harper government argued that the sex industry is inherently oppressive towards women, and
legislation was enacted with an overall intention to abolish the industry. The current Trudeau
government argues for a different ideological approach to the sex trade that does not seek to abolish
all sex work (Payton, 2015). The ideological difference proposed by the current government could
mean further amendments to prostitution laws in the country.

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Locating the Research in British Columbia
Trafficking in persons occurs throughout Canada; however, I located this research in the
province of British Columbia (BC) for four reasons. First, it is currently the only Canadian
province with a provincial government office dedicated to coordinating and combating human
trafficking.3 Second, BC is a province where trafficking was presumed by politicians in the early
2000s to occur frequently due to its coastal border. When debating Bill C-49 to amend the Criminal
Code of Canada in 2005, Member of Parliament Vic Toews stated that “the United States
Department reported that British Columbia had become an attractive hub for East Asian human
traffickers” (Parliament of Canada, 2005, para. 1230). Notably, there is no known evidence to
substantiate this claim. Third, the province is home to a large Aboriginal population, a population
considered to be at-risk for domestic human trafficking; and fourth, I live and work in BC and this
research is reflective of my interests and experiences.
Definitions
a) Boyfriend/Trafficker: traffickers who approach victims, usually young women, as “would-be
suitors” (NWAC, 2014, p.8).
b) Domestic Trafficking: the act of transporting, recruiting, and exploiting victims within Canadian
borders (Trepanier, 2003, p.48).
c) Exploitation: “a person exploits another person if they cause them to provide, or offer to provide,
labour or a service by engaging in conduct that, in all the circumstances, could reasonably be
expected to cause the other person to believe that their safety or the safety of a person known to

3

In June 2016, the Ontario government announced its plans to develop a provincial anti-human trafficking
coordination office (Women’s Directorate, 2016).

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them would be threatened if they failed to provide, or offer to provide, the labour or service”
(Ministry of Justice Canada, 2015, Section 279.04).
d) Human Rights: “universal rights that are applicable to all people by virtue of their being human.
In this sense, human rights are universal, applying to everyone in all places” (Banks, 2012, p.129).
e) Human smuggling: “involves a willingness to cross an international border without proper
documentations and is considered a crime” (Busch-Armendariz, Nsonwu, & Heffron, 2014, p.8).
f) Human Trafficking or Trafficking in persons: the recruitment, transportation, transferring,
harbouring or receipt of persons by means of force, abduction, fraud and for the purpose of
financial or resource exploitation, to which voluntary consent or agreement cannot be given
without deception by individuals over the age of 18 (OHCHR, 2000, Article 3).
g) Immigrant: “a person who has been granted the right to live in Canada permanently by immigration
authorities” (Statistics Canada, 2011, para. 1).
h) International Trafficking: the act of transporting individuals illegally across the Canadian border
for the purpose of exploitation (Burke, 2013, p.5). Although international trafficking and human
smuggling can, and often overlap, they are two distinct activities and phenomena. International
trafficking differs from smuggling and only includes victims who are transported to, or through,
the country by force, coercion, or deception (Trepanier, 2003; Weizter, 2015).
i) a John: a term used to describe a male client who purchases sex (Barrett, 2013, p.4).
j) Labour trafficking: a combination of “deceptive recruitment practices and aggravating exploitative
work arrangements which result in situations that explicitly or implicitly prevent migrants from
leaving employment situations in a manner that informs the legal definition of human trafficking”
(Sikka, 2013, p.1).

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k) Re-trafficking: “a situation in which a person has been trafficked on one occasion as set forth in
the definition provided in the United Nations Palermo Protocol; has then exited that trafficking
situation by any means; and has then later re-entered another trafficking situation” (Jobe, 2010,
p.17).
l) Reserve: a geographical location that has been designated by the federal government for the use
and benefit of a band in Canada. ‘On reserve’ refers to people, things, or activities occurring within
that space (NAHO, 2016, para. 52-54).
m) Sex trafficking: the exploitation of a person through criminal sexual acts (Barrett, 2013, p.6 & 7).
n) Victim: “any individual harmed or damaged by another or who perceives him or herself as harmed”
(Viano, 1987, p.4).
Thesis Outline
This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One provides the introduction, including
information on the research question and theoretical framework. Chapter Two consists of the
literature review and considers social work literature and human trafficking. Chapter Three is a
description of the research methodology applied including the research approach, design, and
details of the participants, data collection, and data analysis steps. It also describes existing
research limitations and explores ethical concerns considered during the research process. Chapter
Four provides the research findings and Chapter Five contains the research analysis. In that
chapter, I compare the research findings to the literature and conclude with suggestions for further
areas of research.

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Chapter Two: Literature Review
Interest in the topic of human trafficking dates back to the nineteenth century when
feminists sought to abolish the abduction of white women forced into prostitution: a practice they
described as ‘white slavery’ (Boris & Berg, 2014; Chuang, 2010; Derks, 2000; Gozdiak & Collett,
2005). However, it was not until the 21st century that the issue gained widespread attention. Today,
an expansive body of literature exists on the subject, albeit with a bias towards sexual exploitation
to the exclusion of human trafficking for other purposes. The concentration of research on this one
area of criminal activity shapes public perceptions that are narrow in scope and leaves many other
aspects of this phenomenon poorly understood. This chapter considers these limitations, as well as
existing research on victims, known trafficking processes, and government legislative responses,
all of which contribute towards the development of anti-trafficking efforts in Canada, and in BC
specifically.
To start, I describe how unreliable data affect public understandings, awareness, and victim
identification. Next, I note certain populations in both BC and Canada that are most at-risk for this
crime by outlining specific victim vulnerabilities. The unique trafficking processes employed by
both domestic and international traffickers are outlined, as well as the relationship between
government legislation and the sex trade. Exploring the tenets of Sweden’s prostitution laws, I
discuss how certain legislation approaches are intended to protect victims of sexual exploitation,
and compare Canada’s recent prostitution bill that is, in part, informed by the demand for
purchased sexual services. Anti-trafficking efforts at both the federal and BC provincial level are
outlined as well as influences on social policy decision-making processes. Finally, a review of
existing social work literature about this crime is examined.

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The Effects of Inaccurate Data on Public Understandings
The purpose of outlining the lack of evidential data in the literature is threefold. First, it is
important to note that certain aspects of this phenomenon are under-studied. At present, limited
information exists about transgender and non-heterosexual victims,4 labour exploitation of legal
migrant workers, domestic labour trafficking, and incidents of organ harvesting in Canada (Zhang,
2009). Second, it is difficult to assess the effectiveness of anti-trafficking legislation without
identifiable data. Instead, efficacy is measured by observations and correlations, two concepts
which are influenced by individual subjectivity. Finally, the lack of evidential data presents a
barrier to combating widespread myths about trafficking processes, their victims, and the
frequency with which the crime occurs. In 2010, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
released a public report claiming difficulties in identifying victims due to individual
understandings that are often “clouded by stereotypes, bias, and sensational media reports” (p.9).
Although public awareness is improving, definitional confusion continues to exist (Kaye,
Winterdyk, & Quarterman, 2014). The limitations of human trafficking data are particularly
important given that the measurement tools used to determine the number of victims also
determine government responses (Merry, 2016). Statistics provide policy makers with information
that legitimizes certain decisions, and, therefore, it is notable that unreliable data on human
trafficking influences public perceptions and government policies (Merry, 2016; Ogrodnik, 2010;
Perrin, 2010; RCMP, 2010; Saewyc et al., 2013). Researchers Keo, Bouhours, Broadhurst, and
Bouhours (2014) note that:
the literature is replete with unsubstantiated, extraordinary estimates of the extent and
profitability of the phenomenon, as well as unsupported claims about its control by
In a unique provincial study, Saewyc et al. (2013), surveyed 1,845 vulnerable youth aged 12 to 25 living in BC
and found that non-heterosexual male and female youth were twice as likely to be sexually exploited compared to
heterosexual youth (p.96).

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organized crime syndicates. The striking statistics, estimates, and claims are recycled and
augmented, report after report, by uncritical authors who routinely conflate human
trafficking with human smuggling and prostitution (p.204).
The expanding criteria of what is considered ‘human trafficking’ has led to the growth of its
definitional parameters that arguably reach beyond the immediate problem itself (Chuang, 2014).
The exact number of people victimized by human trafficking is unknowable (Laczko, 2005;
RCMP, 2010; Trepanier, 2003, UNODC, 2012; Weitzer, 2015). The crime itself encompasses a
broad spectrum of activities and operates differently in different parts of the world, rendering it
difficult to assess, identify, and quantify (Merry, 2016). As such, estimating the number of people
impacted by trafficking in persons is a form of intelligent guesswork (Weitzer, 2015; Zhang, 2009).
In 1999, Kevin Bales, a frequently cited American activist, asserted there were 27 million people
worldwide victimized by trafficking (2003, p.8).5 In 2005, the International Labour Organization
(ILO), a subsidiary of the United Nations (UN), claimed that there were nine times the number of
labour trafficking victims than sex trafficking victims worldwide (ILO, 2005, p.12). That same
year, the UN claimed that sex trafficking was more common than labour trafficking (UNODC,
2012, p.7). In 2016, the Global Slavery Index estimated 45.8 million people were living in slavery
worldwide (p.4).6 These variant claims lend themselves towards contentious beliefs about whether
sex trafficking or labour trafficking is more prevalent worldwide (Merry, 2016). It is not possible
to accurately estimate the scope of a predominantly hidden social issue, and yet this
methodological barrier appears to be largely ignored. Human trafficking has become a ‘rigor-free

Bales first proposed the number 27 million in his 1999 book Disposable People and it has since been repeated
and adopted by a number of sources with “uncritical acceptance of the estimate” (Bales, 2003, p.344; Bernstein,
2007; Merry, 2016).

5

The research methodologies applied by organizations such as the Global Slavery Index are controversial and
have been openly criticized. Activists, NGOs, and state agents are criticized for citing these numbers without
applying due diligence to the original sources or the data collection methodologies (Merry, 2016).

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zone’ from which claims are made and left unchecked (Chuang, 2014). Still, while the range of
estimates is broad, it is accepted that human trafficking is a major criminal enterprise; and although
the numbers are not precise, the existing data sheds light on the magnitude of the crime
(Countryman-Roswurm & Bolin, 2014).
Populations Vulnerable to Human Trafficking
Though incidents of both international and domestic human trafficking occur in Canada,
the selling and purchasing of domestic victims for sexual purposes is believed to be more common
than international sex trafficking, labour exploitation, and organ harvesting (Government of
Canada, 2012, National Action Plan).7 Research estimates that women and girls are
disproportionately more likely to be victims of domestic sex trafficking than males, and that people
with a history of child sexual abuse as well as Aboriginal youth are more likely to be victimized
than the general population (Cottingham, Nowak, Snyder & Swauger, 2013; Perrin, 2010).
Furthermore, legal migrant workers represent a disproportionate number of internationally
trafficked people for both sexual and domestic servitude purposes (Barrett, 2013; HolgerAmbrose, Langmade, Edinburgh, & Saewyc, 2013; Sethi, 2007). The vulnerabilities of individuals
sexually abused as children, Aboriginal youth, and migrant workers are explored below.
Sources of Vulnerability for Victims of Child Sexual Abuse
Childhood sexual abuse is a predictive indicator of domestic sexual exploitation in Canada
(Benoit, Oulette, Jansson, Magnus, & Smith, 2017; Farley, Lynne, & Cotton, 2005; RCMP, 2013;
Schissel & Fedec, 1999). Studies suggest that sexually abused children often hold distorted images
of their bodies that may lead them to “expect that their worth will only be acknowledged when

It is possible that data on human trafficking disproportionately reflect incidents of sexual exploitation in Canada
due to law enforcement regimes that are more apt at monitoring the sex trade than legal labour markets.
7

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they permit sexual access” (Schissel & Fedec, 1999, p.36). A Vancouver study by Farley, Lynne,
and Cotton (2005) found that 96% of Aboriginal sex workers and 82% of European-Canadian sex
workers interviewed reported having been sexually abused as children (p.253). Researchers
Schissel and Fedec (1999) theorize that child abuse leads to future exploitation because “when
youth have been abused in the past by family members, they are more likely to believe that
strangers can use and abuse them” (Schissel & Fedec, 1999, p.36). Traffickers prey on vulnerable
youth by misusing the effects of childhood trauma to emotionally and psychologically manipulate
their victims. Instances of familial-based trafficking exist, and the psychosocial trauma
experienced by these victims is acute (Boyer & Kampouris, 2014; Sethi, 2007).8 Ultimately, people
with a history of childhood sexual abuse are more likely to normalize abusive sexual behaviours
compared to the general population, rendering them vulnerable to domestic trafficking and creating
barriers for social service workers who are seeking to provide protection services (HolgerAmbrose et al., 2013).
Sources of Vulnerability for Aboriginal Youth
To determine which populations are most vulnerable to trafficking, researchers look to
street-level sex work and note the gross overrepresentation of Aboriginal women and girls in the
sex trade (Farley, Lynne, & Cotton, 2005; NWAC, 2014). By way of explanation, researchers
consider the role of government policies towards First Nations people, stating that race-based
policies perpetuate racist ideology and render Aboriginal youth more likely to experience sexual
violence than non-Aboriginal youth (Amnesty International, 2004; Boyer & Kampouris, 2014;
Kubik, Bourassa & Hampton, 2009; Lloyd, 2011; NWAC, 2014; Sethi, 2007). In the Report of the

The extent to which familial-based human trafficking occurs in Canada is unknown as there are no known
studies of this issue. A 2013 study conducted by Covenant House in New York City found that approximately 25%
of youth surveyed reported having been trafficked by immediate family members (Covenant House, 2013, p.10).

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Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba (1999), one judge stated that offenders in a sexual assault
case seemed to “see young Aboriginal women as objects with no human value beyond sexual
gratification” (Amnesty International, 2004, p.17). Racialized social norms negatively portray
Aboriginal women and girls as objects of sexual violence: a norm that can manifest into acts of
domestic trafficking. Furthermore, colonization has created a tense relationship between law
enforcement officials, the criminal justice system, and Aboriginal people (Kubik, Bourassa, &
Hampton, 2009, p.19; Oppal, 2012). This relationship is fraught with mistrust, and many
marginalized victims report a reluctance to turn to the police for protection out of fear of
criminalization and prosecution (Amnesty International 2004; Sethi 2007). Calling attention to
discriminatory police practices against Indigenous people, Justice Wally Oppal writes in
Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry (2012) that:
law enforcement agencies mirror the society they serve. Thus the historical and continuing
racism and sexism within Canadian society is likely to be reproduced in discriminatory
policies and practices within law enforcement, unless and until steps are taken to actively
work towards bias-free policing (p.18).
Undoubtedly, mistrust of law enforcement has severe consequences for victims who are seeking
to escape their traffickers (Barnett & Canada Parliamentary Information & Research Service,
2008).
Research on Aboriginal domestic sex trafficking tends to focus on sexual exploitation in
urban areas, most likely because urban areas provide a larger research sample. However, sex
trafficking also occurs in rural and remote communities. Sethi (2007) argues that risks for human
trafficking increase on reserves because of higher levels of child sexual abuse experienced by
Aboriginal children living on reserve compared to those living off reserves. Inadequate
transportation and high rates of poverty ultimately force youth to leave their home communities in
search of safety and employment. In some remote areas, sexual violence has reached epidemic

15

proportions, and victimized youth often lack opportunities to stop familial-violence (Hamilton &
Sinclair, 1991; Jacobs, 2002). Aboriginal youth in these areas are sometimes left without a voice
to advocate for their fundamental human rights and might find themselves in the precarious
situation of choosing between their family and their safety.9 Whether the choice is conscious or
not, youth without foreseeable options might reasonably decide to leave life on a reserve in the
hope of seeking security in an urban area (Perrin, 2010; Sikka, 2009). Homeless youth and those
migrating from rural areas to urban centres are vulnerable to traffickers who prey on their need for
shelter, food, companionship, and affection (Saraceno, 2010; Sethi, 2007; Sikka, 2009). While a
portion of the literature on Aboriginal sexual exploitation notes the vulnerability of youth on
reserves, no known studies specifically explore the frequency with which Aboriginal youth are
first exploited in rural and remote areas compared to those first exploited in urban centres. This is
an area of future research that might help shape preventative efforts in rural and remote BC.
The correlation between inadequate transportation and victim vulnerability is a noted
concern in BC. In 2012, the Missing Women Commission Inquiry put forward a recommendation
to improve transportation along Highway 16 located in the northwest region of the province
between Prince George and Prince Rupert where at least forty women and girls have gone missing
or been murdered (Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, 2015; NWAC, 2014; Oppal,
2012; Stueck, 2015). Residents, law enforcement, and government agents agree that victims
hitchhike due to a lack of alternative resources and there is a collective acknowledgment that
inadequate transportation enhances danger (Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, 2015).
However, coordinating transportation services is challenging due to low ridership and the long

When youth run away from home they are at an increased risk for trafficking regardless of the circumstances
that lead to their departure (Gibbs, Hardison Walters, Lutnick, Miller, & Kluckman, 2015).

9

16

distances between rural and remote communities. With few transportation options, on reserve
youth are more likely to resort to hitchhiking, thus increasing their risk of danger and their
vulnerability to trafficking (Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, 2015; NWAC, 2014).
Finally, poverty on reserves in rural and remote BC increases relocation rates among
unemployed youth. In Canada, Indigenous children experience a poverty rate of 40%, compared
to 15% for all other children in the country (MacDonald, 2013, p.12). Children living on reserve
are more likely to live in extreme poverty compared to the national average, and they are less likely
to have access to education and healthcare resources (Blackstock, Clarke, Cullen, D’Hondt, &
Formsma, 2004). Poverty and unemployment are two factors that encourage youths to leave their
home communities in search of precarious employment (Sethi, 2007). Reserves without recreation
facilities and apprenticeship programs struggle to engage their youth exacerbating the likelihood
of urban migration among youth (NWAC, 2014). First Nations organizations and advocates have
argued for youth services on reserves to prevent sexual exploitation, and while there appears to be
a public consensus that recreational activities are necessary, it is often left to communities to
develop, establish, and maintain these services by their own means (Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs,
2009).
Source of Vulnerability for International Migrants
In the mid-2000s, research shifted from a predominantly international narrative towards a
domestic one, leaving cross-border trafficking in Canada an area of limited academic study (Sikka,
2013). In general, international human trafficking victims fall into one of two categories: legal
migrants and immigrants, those who have legal rights to be in the country, and illegal migrants,
those without legal rights to be in Canada. The vulnerabilities experienced by each group vary;
however, both are at-risk given the increased likelihood that migrant workers might be less familiar

17

with local labour standards and criminal laws (Kaye et al., 2014; Ministry of Justice, 2013).
Internationally trafficked people brought to Canada for labour exploitation purposes are
disproportionately male, except those in domestic services such as housekeepers and nannies.
Legal migrant workers make up the majority of all international labour exploitation victims,
contradicting the stereotype that all victims are illegally smuggled into the country (Kaye,
Winterdyk, & Quarterman, 2014, p.33). Victims tend to be workers who come to Canada under
the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) or the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program
(SAWP) to work as live-in caregivers, domestic workers, nannies, restaurant workers, and
agricultural workers (Ministry of Justice BC, 2013, p.8).
In 2014, nearly a quarter of all temporary foreign workers (TFWs) and seasonal agricultural
workers (SAWs) in Canada came to the province of BC, totaling almost 27,000 people (Canadian
Council for Refugees, 2016, p.14).10 Many of these workers are at increased risk for exploitation
due to social isolation, an inability to speak the language, precarious employment, lack of access
to permanent residency, barriers in accessing services, and difficulties in gathering information on
workers’ rights (Canadian Council for Refugees, 2016). Furthermore, the temporary migration
model in Canada creates situations of dependency. SAWs are dependent on their employers for
housing, food, and employment, and often work on isolated rural farms, shielded from government
oversight. Caregivers and TFWs experience similar vulnerabilities as their temporary status is tied
to a single employer through closed work permits11 (Canadian Council for Refugees, 2016;

Across Canada, 94, 109 unique persons held temporary foreign worker program work permits in 2014 (CIC,
Canada facts and figures, 2014, p.9).
10

The Government of Canada issues open work permits to workers under the International Mobility Program;
however, this does not include individuals entering the country under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program
(TFWP) (CIC, 2015, Temporary resident permits, para. 1 & 2).
11

18

Ministry of Justice, 2013). Under these circumstances, a non-permanent migrant worker might
choose to remain in an exploitative work situation out of fear of losing their legal status and being
required to return to their home country (Jobe, 2010). Ultimately, vulnerable TFWs and SAWs
experience considerable risks without adequate avenues to expose their abusers and maintain their
right to temporary employment in Canada (Canadian Council for Refugees, 2016).
Migrants brought to Canada through unlawful channels are highly vulnerable to
exploitation due to circumstances of poverty and the risk of deportation. In fact, the most
significant driving force of international human trafficking is poverty (Burke, 2013; Kuokkonen,
2008; Laczko; 2005; Perrin, 2010). Globalization has created conditions that leave many victims
with severe economic constraints on their ability to meet familial responsibilities sending them
overseas to countries such as Canada in search of employment (Cottingham et al., 2013; Ellis,
2015). Immigration into Canada is harder for poor, uneducated immigrants because the country
prioritizes “high-quality migrants” who are seen as capable of immediately contributing to the
national economy (Ellis, 2015, p.97). With limited options, low-skilled migrants look towards
irregular channels to enter the country including through acts of human smuggling. Although
smuggling differs from human trafficking, there is an increased risk that migrants brought to
Canada through illegal channels risk encountering traffickers who withhold passports or threaten
deportation as a means to control and exploit victims (Bungay, Halpin, Atchison, & Johnston,
2011; Burke, 2013; Castles & Milller, 2009; Cottingham et al., 2013; Heyman & Smart, 1999;
Kuokkanen, 2008; Ministry of Justice, 2013).12 Deportation is a significant concern for victims,

The terms ‘smuggling’ and ‘trafficking’ are often incorrectly used interchangeably. Smuggling is the
facilitation, transportation, or illegal entry of a person across an international border. Typically, smuggling is a
voluntary act, although the smuggled person may be subject to unsafe conditions during the smuggling process.
When the smuggled individual has arrived at the destination country, their relationship with the smuggler generally
ends. Comparatively, international human trafficking is the transportation of a person across a border under
12

19

and Canada has been criticized for being a ‘revolving door’ of re-trafficking cases due to limited
resources and legal protections that support international victims brought here through illegal
channels (Jobe, 2010; Oxman-Martinez, et al., 2005).
Labour trafficking reports are rare, and it is uncommon for authorities to identify cases
through one-on-one police dealings with migrants (Sikka, 2013, p.2). Labour markets are not
protected by the same law enforcement regimes as sex markets (i.e., police and RCMP officers),
and incidents of exploitation tend to draw attention from public authorities only when there is a
connection to labour standards, occupational health and safety concerns, or when there are labour
rights violations identified by non-governmental organizations (Sikka, 2013). The federal and BC
provincial governments have made efforts to improve victim identification through training
programs targeted at border agents and labour authorities, but to date, reports of labour exploitation
remain low (Ministry of Justice, 2013; Sikka, 2013). Victims are often misunderstood as wronged
parties in employment standards issues rather than victims of human rights violations (Kaye et al.,
2014, pp.32-33). This is true even in circumstances where labour exploitation clearly meets the
conditions for trafficking as per the Criminal Code of Canada (Kaye et al., 2014, p.33).
Domestic Human Trafficking Processes in Canada
Domestic traffickers groom, manipulate, and coerce their victims by preying on their
search for love, affection, and attention (Perrin, 2010; RCMP, 2010). They often recruit victims
over the Internet or through personal acquaintances before manipulating them into exploitative
relationships (Burke, 2013; Perrin, 2010; RCMP, 2013). Some street gangs call this process ‘love
bombing’ in which traffickers present as boyfriends; and it is a documented tactic used throughout

coercion, threat, or force for the purpose of exploitation and upon entering a destination country, the victim
continues to be exploited by their trafficker (Burke, 2013; Busch-Armendariz, Nsonwu, & Heffron, 2014).

20

Canada (Dorais, Feldstein, & Corriveau, 2009, p. 35; Perrin, 2010, p.61). Traffickers impose
restrictive rules that render their victims dependent on them for food, money, clothing, and shelter
before forcing them to engage in sexual acts to repay an arbitrary debt. This process demonstrates
how abusers employ psychological and emotional manipulation, and it also acts as a barrier for
social service providers seeking to connect with sexually exploited street youth (Holger-Ambrose
et al., 2013; Saewyc et al., 2013). The psyche of the victim is influenced into believing that her
boyfriend/trafficker cares for her despite evidence of abuse (Holger-Ambrose et al., 2013; Ministry
of Justice BC, 2013).
The boyfriend/trafficker tactic is a barrier to victim identification as a person cannot
consent to be trafficked.13 There must be elements of coercion, deception, or threat, and people
who engage in street-level sex work often describe ‘pimps’ as protectors even in circumstances
that appear to be abusive (Boyer & Kampouris, 2014). Victims rationalize their abuse in
contradictory terms, describing themselves in a relationship with their boyfriend/trafficker despite
evidence of exploitation. In a qualitative study on sexually exploited street youth, Holger-Ambrose
et al. (2013) noted one participant as stating “pimps are seen as a friend that likes to party and have
drugs” (p.332). The same study reported that victims held troubling illusions that “they were
earning money through ‘sex work’ to mask the painful truth that they were being exploited because
they felt they had no other choices” (Holger-Ambrose, et al., 2013 p.333). This illusion makes it
particularly challenging for individuals seeking to escape conditions of human trafficking due to
distorted interpretations of affection and belonging.

A person under 18 years of age cannot consent to exploitation regardless of whether or not there are elements of
threat, coercion, or violence (Ministry of Justice, 2015, Section 279.011).
13

21

Social media and online websites play a significant role in domestic trafficking. The
Internet is used to recruit, groom, and facilitate exploitation (Boyer & Kampouris, 2014).
Approximately three-quarters of all teenagers have social media networking profiles on sites such
as Facebook and Instagram, and traffickers use these forums to prey on vulnerable youth and to
move them across the country (Public Safety Canada, 2007; Vitale, 2012). According to Public
Safety Canada (2007), youth hold overconfident ideas about “the level of safety and security
offered online” putting them at heightened risk for victimization as they are more visible via social
media than they would be in everyday life (p.7; Vitale, 2012). The Internet is a large arena that is
nearly impossible to monitor, and it plays a role in the growing demand for purchased sexual
services (Perrin, 2010). Victims are advertised, bought, and sold online using e-commerce, and the
market remains relatively unregulated and easy to access. It has become an environment for illegal
enterprises offering anonymity and easy communication to abusers that is unprecedented (Boyer
& Kampouris, 2014; Vitale, 2012).
International Human Trafficking Processes in Canada
Unlike domestic trafficking, international trafficking is associated with organized crime
groups and networks (RCMP, 2010, p.1). Traffickers solicit victims with promises of fraudulent
work opportunities or misrepresented employment positions (Ruchti, 2013). This is true in cases
of both sex trafficking and labour exploitation. These networks are thought to recruit women
overseas for employment in urban centres, only to traffic them upon arrival (RCMP, 2010; Ruchti,
2013). Many identified victims coming from Eastern Europe and African countries are recruited
via this process; however, the recruitment process for victims from Asian countries does not
necessarily begin overseas. Instead, many Asia-born victims report having answered employment

22

advertisements for work after they arrived in Canada by their own accord, except those who enter
the country under the TFWP (RCMP, 2010, p.1).
International human trafficking encompasses complex concerns about migration and
human rights. Specifically, migration for the purpose of sex work is a controversial concept as it
embodies the clash between an individual’s labour rights and their right to protection against
exploitation (Trepanier, 2003). In and of itself, illegal migration for the purpose of voluntary sex
work or voluntary labour is not necessarily human trafficking (Jeffrey, 2005). Fundamental to the
Criminal Code of Canada is the element of exploitation, and people over the age of eighteen who
migrate and engage in work without aspects of coercion, threat, or violence are unlikely to be
considered trafficking victims even if they work in illegal markets (Ministry of Justice, 2015).14
This includes circumstances in which women ‘choose’ to work in trafficking-like conditions,
although their choices are largely influenced by structural forces such as poverty, race, and gender
inequality (Burke, 2013).
History of International Anti-Trafficking Efforts
In the late 1970s, the international community began concentrated efforts to suppress child
exploitation and protect vulnerable women from prostitution. State interest in legislated human
rights arose, in part, from a collective desire for accountability at the global stage (Merry, 2016).
The Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women was signed in 1979,
and in 1989, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was developed to protect all children
from sexual abuse. A decade later, the ILO enacted the Convention 182 on Prohibition and

Under the Criminal Code of Canada, the ‘reasonable person standard’ states that to prove human trafficking
occurred, the facts of the case must show that a reasonable person would have believe their life was in danger or the
life of someone they care about was in danger (Ministry of Justice, 2015, Section 279.04).
14

23

Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour to eliminate the
procurement of children for the purpose of prostitution (Barrett & Shaw, 2013).
Concerns about smuggling and child exploitation in the late 1990s enhanced government
interest in tackling the topic of human trafficking, especially as it related to national security,
crime, and terrorism (Barnett, 2008; Merry, 2016; Oxman-Martinez et al., 2005). In the United
States, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (2000) was the first document of
its kind that explicitly described and legally criminalized human trafficking activities. That same
year, in October 2000, 100 countries, including Canada, negotiated and signed the Protocol to
Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, of the UN
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo Protocol) (Ditmore & Wijers,
2003). The document outlines the first internationally agreed upon definition of human trafficking
as:
The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the
threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of
the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments
of benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the
purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the
prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services,
slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude of the removal of organs (OHCHR, 2000,
Article 3).
The Palermo Protocol suggests three key anti-trafficking objectives from which signatories are
expected to develop national legislation and policies. The objectives include prevention,
protection, and prosecution (Barrett & Shaw, 2013).15

The Protocol differs from previous

conventions in that it distinguishes between voluntary prostitution and sex trafficking, allowing
individual nation-states the freedom to recognize sex work as legitimate labour (Roots, 2013). As
Canada has since added partnership to the list of objectives (Government of Canada, 2012, p.9, National Action
Plan).

15

24

of 2012, 134 countries have enacted laws criminalizing human trafficking, and many nations have
sponsored research initiatives and programs to locate and assist victims (UNODC, 2012, p.88).
Prostitution Laws and Anti-Trafficking Measures
All incidents of sex trafficking occur within the commercial sex market, whether legal or
illegal, and government responses to prostitution play a significant role in perpetuating and
creating the conditions for sexual exploitation (Department of Justice, 2014, p.3). In general, there
are three broad variants of prostitution legislation: criminalization, decriminalization, and
legalization (Barrett & Shaw, 2013). Criminalization refers to three sub-categorical models:
prohibition, abolition, and neo-abolition. Prohibition criminalizes both the supply and demand and
all aspects of prostitution, whereas abolition controls prostitution to varying degrees to protect
public order and safety. Neo-abolition criminalizes the solicitation and other related activities,
allowing prostitution to occur as long as it does not infringe on public safety and order (Barrett &
Shaw, 2013). Decriminalization provides some minimal regulations on prostitution while
repealing criminal prostitution laws, and legalization involves legal regulation of prostitution
through criminal law and policies.
Debates over the commercial sex trade dominate international discussions about antitrafficking (Chuang, 2010). Some advocates oppose all sex work, whereas others argue that
women should have the right to engage in voluntary commercial sex work and distinguish between
human trafficking and other acts of prostitution (Merry, 2016). The ideological division between
the two groups is pervasive in the literature; each offering divergent solutions to the issue based
on their respective understandings of the problem. The degree to which a nation-state interprets
sex trafficking relative to prostitution varies from country to country, as does the extent to which
countries have been successful in reducing rates of human trafficking (Barrett & Shaw, 2013;

25

Roots, 2013). In 1999, Sweden adopted a neo-abolitionist approach to prostitution under the
Prohibiting the Purchase of Sexual Services Act, which has since been coined ‘The Nordic Model’
(Barrett & Shaw, 2013). By 2014, the European Parliament endorsed it as the most effective
method of preventing and combating human sex trafficking (Department of Justice, 2014, p.12).
The Nordic Model: Protecting Vulnerable Individuals
The ‘Nordic Model’ is intended to protect individuals in the sex trade by challenging the
demand for services and social stigma, with the ultimate goal of ceasing (or abolishing) the
commercial sex trade. In Sweden, it is legal to sell sex but illegal to purchase it. The objective is
to promote “gender equality through laws and programs to reduce violence against women and
children” while removing ideas of morality from prostitution discussions (Holger-Ambrose et al.,
2013; ICCLR, 2010, p.24). This approach is rooted in a model intended to protect vulnerable
people against sexual exploitation and, therefore, it is considered an anti-trafficking measure.
Sweden has made efforts to challenge social perceptions of the commercial sex trade and in recent
polls, 80% of Swedes support the view that prostitution is a product of gender inequality, a noted
increase from attitudes at the time of the Nordic Model’s inception (Murphy, 2014, p.7). In 2009,
the Swedish Ministry of Justice evaluated the law and found that street prostitution had halved
since 1999 and that there were no known increased rates of indoor prostitution (Skarhed, 2010).
The report also noted that 70% of the Swedish population favoured the legislation and that the law
had created a substantial drop in the proportion of men saying they had purchased sex, decreasing
from 13.6% (1996) to 7.9% (2008) (Barrett & Shaw, 2013, p.19). It is possible that the report
inaccurately estimates the extent to which indoor prostitution changed or the possibility that
prostitution in Sweden was pushed underground, further increasing the risk of danger to workers.
Still, the documented changes to public attitudes suggest that legislation plays a role in reframing

26

social narratives of sexual exploitation. As an anti-trafficking measure, the Nordic Model is
believed to render human trafficking in Sweden more ‘undesirable’ than elsewhere because the
smaller market means a reduction in profits; a disincentive to traffickers (Lederer, 2010).16
Anti-trafficking proponents who favour the Nordic model argue that the most common
alternative approach to prostitution, legalization, increases the number of human trafficking
victims. Their argument stems from two observable economic principles. First, the ‘scale effect,’
which states that legalization leads to an expansion of the supply and demand in the sex market;
and second, the ‘substitution effect,’ which argues that legalization reduces the demand for
trafficked women as legal prostitutes are favoured. Studies conducted by Cho, Dreher, and
Neymayer (2012), Farley (2009), and Jakobsson and Kotsadam (2011) suggest that the scale effect
outweighs the substitution effect, meaning legalized sex markets are prone to higher numbers of
exploited people. The ILO estimates that in Sweden, 40% (1500) of all people in the sex industry
are victims of trafficking. In Germany, where prostitution is legal, the ILO estimates that 20% (32,
000) of all workers are victims of human trafficking (Cho et al., 2013, p.23-25). The percentage
of trafficking victims in illegal sex markets is much higher than legal markets; however, more
people are victimized in legal markets than illegal markets because the markets themseves are
larger. Differences between the ethical merits of criminalization versus legalization stem from
dichotomous objectives - public safety versus individual rights - and the prioritization of one
objective over the other will vary from nation to nation (Merry, 2016).

Since 1999, a number of countries have adopted similar legislative models including Norway, Iceland, and
Finland (Barrett & Shaw, 2013).
16

27

Canada’s Prostitution Laws
In 2014, the Government of Canada passed similar neo-abolitionist legislation under Bill
C-36. The new law penalizes the purchasing and soliciting of sexual services while exempting sex
workers from prosecution for advertising their services. Responses to this bill are divided and
highly contentious. Some critics argue the law inadvertently places Canadian sex workers in
heightened danger; others take issue with the argument that all prostitution is a form of male sexual
violence against women, and others argue that the new law reduces women’s agency over their
bodies (Barrett, 2013; Trepanier, 2003). Barrett (2013) writes “these arguments carry some weight
although they tend to delve into the theoretical in ways that cannot be easily tackled through
legislation” (p.20). It is possible that Canada’s new prostitution legislation pushes sex work
underground placing workers at heightened risk and renders trafficking victims even more
invisible to law enforcement and social service providers. Second, prostitution is, in many ways,
a product of patriarchal views and an expression of gender oppression, but it is also a product of
globalization, neo-colonialism, poverty, addiction, and racism (Chuang, 2010; Cottingham et al.,
2013). Finally, legislating the extent to which people can engage in sex for purchase does place
legal limits on their body even if these limitations are intended to protect vulnerable people,
maintain public safety, and address structural inequalities. Critics draw attention to the fact that
people have different experiences in the sex trade and these experiences are multi-dimensional. In
protecting vulnerable populations, it bears considering the negative effects laws and policies might
have on individuals who do not consider themselves to be victims of sex work (Barnett, 2008). In
Canada, the expectation is that under the new law prostitution rates and violence against women
in the sex trade will decrease over time, as well as the demand for human trafficking; however, the
legislation is in its infancy, and its impacts have yet to be measured. Bill C-36 was introduced

28

under the Conservative Harper government, a party with very different ideological beliefs than the
current Liberal government. In late 2015, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Jody Wilson-Raybould announced her intentions to review current prostitution laws, stating her
pledge to consult with sex workers on potential reform (Ball, 2015, para. 1 &2). As such, Canada’s
prostitution legislation and the country’s approach to anti-sex trafficking remain in flux.
The Demand for Human Sex Trafficking
Prostitution laws and anti-trafficking measures respond to assumptions about the sex trade
including its economic gains and the demand for commercial sex. In 2014, Reza Moazami was
charged and eventually convicted of human trafficking in BC. Court records state that one of his
victims estimated she was exploited for approximately $1,000 per day, almost all of which
Moazami confiscated (The Supreme Court of British Columbia, 2014, Sec. 166). Not only did her
testimony provide evidence of human trafficking, but it also suggested that she came into contact
with hundreds of Johns, who were either unaware of her trafficking circumstances or did not care.
To date, no known studies specifically examine the purchasing of sexual services from known
human trafficking victims; however, there are studies that examine attitudes of those who purchase
sexual services in both legal and illegal sex markets (Barrett, 2013).
Purchasers of sexual services in both legal and illegal sex markets are overwhelmingly male,
although women also engage in the demand side of the industry as both purchasers and consumers
(Barrett, 2013; Roberts, Jones, & Sanders, 2013). Those who do purchase sexual services in illegal
markets tend to hold attitudes and behaviours that distinguish them from non-purchasers.
Specifically, purchasers are believed to hold more patriarchal views of women than the general
public (Barrett, 2013; Hughes, 2005). In a 2011 study in Boston, Massachusetts, researchers found
that purchasers of sexual services displayed less empathy for women in the sex industry than non-

29

purchasers (Barrett, 2013, p.27). Neo-abolitionists argue that by reducing the demand for
purchased sexual services through social policy, a country can decrease the number of trafficking
victims (Lederer, 2010). One of the benefits of this approach is that it puts the onus on purchasers
to become more aware and better able to identify vulnerable people, rather than putting the burden
on victims themselves to ‘change’ or ‘improve’ individual characteristics that make them
vulnerable to exploitation.
National and Provincial Anti-Trafficking Measures
In Canada, acts associated with human trafficking are illegal under international, federal,
provincial, and municipal laws (Barrett & Shaw, 2013, p.65). Efforts to combat trafficking include
federal and provincial legislation, coordinated inter-governmental groups, changes to eligibility
for Temporary Residency Permits (TRP), and a unique provincial governmental office in BC
dedicated to coordinating anti-trafficking efforts and building local capacities.
Federal Anti-Trafficking Legislation and Efforts
Under the Criminal Code of Canada, it is an illegal offense to contact anyone under the age
of 18 for the purpose of sexual contact (Section 172.1). The country also has prostitution legislation
that prohibits the purchasing of sexual services of any kind (Department of Justice, 2014). In
response to its international commitments made in the Palermo Protocol in 2000, Canada has made
efforts to address and stop international trafficking from entering the country. In 2002, Canada
amended Section 118 of the IRPA to state:
[1] No person shall knowingly organize the coming into Canada of one or more persons by
means of abduction, fraud, deception or use or threat of force or coercion, and
[2] For the purpose of subsections (1), “organize”, with respect to persons, includes their
recruitment or transportation and, after their entry into Canada, the receipt or harbouring
of those persons (Justice Laws, IRPA, 2015).

30

In 2005, Bill C-49 amended Section 279 of the Criminal Code of Canada to prohibit the trafficking
of persons. The bill added the following three prohibitions:
279.01 (1) Every person who recruits, transports, transfers, receives, holds, conceals, or
harbours a person, or exercises control, direction or influence over the movements of a
person, for the purpose of exploiting them or facilitating their exploitation is guilty of an
indictable offence and liable:
[a] to imprisonment for life if they kidnap, commit an aggravated assault or
aggravated sexual assault against, or cause death to, the victim during the
commission of the offense; or
[b] to imprisonment for a term of not more than fourteen years in any other case.
(2) No consent to the activity that forms the subject matter of a charge under subsection [1]
is valid.
279.02 Every person who receives a financial or other material benefit, knowing that it
results from the commission of an offence under subsection 279.01(1) or 2790.011(1) is
guilty of an indictable offense and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than ten
years.
279.03 Every person who, for the purpose of committing or facilitating an offence under
subsection 279.01(1) or 279.011(1), conceals, removes, withholds or destroys any travel
document that belongs to another person or any document that establishes or purports to
establish another person’s identity or immigration status is guilty of an indictable offence
and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years, whether or not the
document is of Canadian origin or is authentic (Justice Laws, Criminal Code of Canada,
2017).
This amendment passed the federal House of Commons and the Senate with all-party support
(Barnett, 2005). At the time, politicians cited a pressing need for Canada to live up to its
international commitments (House of Commons Debate, 2005). During the deliberation period,
comments by parliamentarians focused on criminal justice, concerns about the exploitation of
children, and discussions about the links between human trafficking and immigration (Barnett,
2005; Parliament of Canada, 2005).

31

Since 2005, three enacted amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada passed related to
acts of human trafficking from private member bills. In 2010, Bill C-268 imposed a minimum fiveyear sentence for trafficking involving a minor. Specifically, it amended the following:
279.011 (1) Every person who recruits, transports, transfers, receives, holds, conceals, or
harbours a person under the age of eighteen years, or exercises control, direction or
influence over the movements of a person under the age of eighteen years, for the purpose
of exploiting them or facilitating their exploitation is guilty of an indictable offence and
liable:
[a] to imprisonment for life and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a
term of six years if they kidnap, commit an aggravated assault or aggravated sexual
assault against, or cause death to, the victim during the commission of the offence;
or
[b] to imprisonment for a term of not more than fourteen years and to a minimum
punishment of imprisonment for a term of five years, in any other case.
(2) No consent to the activity that forms the subject matter of a charge under subsection
[1] is valid.
In 2012, Bill C-310 added human trafficking as an extra-territorial offence meaning that Canadian
citizens or permanent residents who commit acts of trafficking outside of the country can be
prosecuted in Canada. Bill C-310 is an important amendment to criminalize Canadian tourists who
travel abroad and engage in sexual acts with children (Department of State, 2015).17 Bill C-310
also modified the definition of exploitation to include the following interpretive clause:
279.04 (1) For the purposes of sections 279.01 to 279.03, a person exploits another person
if they cause them to provide, or offer to provide, labour or a service by engaging in conduct
that, in all the circumstances, could reasonably be expected to cause the other person to
believe that their safety or the safety of a person known to them would be threatened if they
failed to provide, or offer to provide, the labour or service.
(2) In determining whether an accused exploits another person under subsection (1), the
Court may consider, among other factors, whether the accused
In 2005, Donald Bakker became the first Canadian to be charged with child prostitution committed abroad in
BC. His charges pre-date amendments under Bill C-310 but helped raise awareness about this issue (Armstrong,
2005; Perrin, 2010).
17

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[a] used or threatened to use force or another form of coercion;
[b] used deception; or
[c] abused a position of trust, power or authority.
(3) For the purposes of subsection 279.01 to 279.03, a person exploits another person if
they cause them, by means of deception or the use or threat of force or of any other form
of coercion, to have an organ or issue removed (Justice Laws, Criminal Code of Canada,
2017).
Clause 279.04 enforces a reasonable person standard, which means human trafficking can only
be legally proven if a reasonable person would think that their safety, or the safety of a person
known to them, was under threat (Ministry of Justice, 2015, p.344). In practice, the criminal justice
system relies heavily on victim testimony to prove exploitation occurred. The majority of cases
involve traffickers charged with multiple offenses, and many prosecutors have shied away from
laying human trafficking charges or dropped the charges in the plea bargaining process. This does
not imply that individuals who have committed acts of trafficking are not imprisoned; rather that
alleged traffickers are frequently convicted of alternative offences (Karam, 2016; RCMP, 2013).18
Still, conviction rates are seen as a deterrent to future crime and the government has made efforts
to hold traffickers accountable. Most recently, Reza Moazami, convicted of human trafficking in
BC, was given a twenty-three year sentence, the lengthiest human trafficking sentence in Canada
to date. While the Moazami case is a legal victory, low human trafficking convictions rates remain
a public concern. According to the RCMP website, as of January 2015, eighty-five convictions of
human trafficking in Canada were secured (RCMP, 2015).

Karam (2016) reports that the majority of completed adult criminal court cases involving human trafficking
often result in a finding of stayed or withdrawn (p.4). In a 2013 RCMP report, it states that human trafficking
charges are dropped or alternative charges are pursued for “various reasons, such as non-cooperation of the victim”
(p.43).
18

33

Aside from legislative amendments, the federal government and law enforcement officials
have made additional efforts to coordinate public human trafficking responses through nonlegislative measures. In 1999, the Interdepartmental Working Group on Trafficking in Persons
(IWGTIP) was established to coordinate the nation’s ongoing negotiations for the Palermo
Protocol. The group continues to exist today and consists of representatives from 18 departments
and agencies (GAATW, 2013). By 2005, the RCMP established the Human Trafficking National
Coordination Centre (HTNCC) located in the Immigration and Passport Branch at RCMP
headquarters in Ottawa. The HTNCC is intended to provide a central point for law enforcement to
collaborate their efforts to combat criminal organizations involved in human trafficking. Their
mandate is to develop and coordinate activities related to prevention, protection, prosecution, and
partnership with domestic and international agencies (GAATW, 2013, p.17).
To protect victims of international trafficking, migrants who experience exploitation can
apply for a Temporary Residency Permit (TRP), which secures their immigration status for up to
180 days and grants them access to certain healthcare services. TRPs are renewable, recipients are
exempt from processing fees, and they are eligible for medical and social counselling and other
health care services under the Interim Federal Health Program (Barnett, 2008; CIC, 2015; Ellis,
2015). In 2009, the first TRP was issued in the province of BC, and by 2013, 14 TRPs were issued
to suspected victims of human trafficking nationwide (CIC, 2014, Annual Report to Parliament
on Immigration, Section 2 para.3; Perrin, 2010, p.108).
BC’s Provincial Anti-Trafficking Legislation and Efforts
In the province of British Columbia, acts associated with human trafficking are illegal
under provincial laws such as the Child, Family and Community Services Act (1996), the Victims
of Crime Act (1996), and the Crime Victim Assistance Act (2001). BC does not have legislation

34

that specifically relates to human trafficking. In fact, Manitoba is the only province in Canada with
such a specific law; but it is difficult to say whether or not provincial laws are effective means of
combating human trafficking (Barrett & Shaw, 2013). According to Statistics Canada, Ontario and
Quebec have the highest rates of human trafficking charges laid in Canada. BC has the third highest
number of charges laid. Most likely, BC’s pre-screening practices in which court prosecutors lay
charges based on a review of police evidence influence its charge rates (Department of Justice
Canada, 2006).
BC’s Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons (OCTIP) was established in 2007 and has
since assisted with a number of human trafficking cases (Barrett, 2013). It is the only provincial
government office in the country dedicated to addressing human trafficking.19 OCTIP supports
community services and builds local capacities to address human trafficking better. It also raises
awareness through training and education, identifies gaps and barriers in services and policies, and
contributes to national and international efforts to stop trafficking in persons. The BC Action Plan
(2012) reflects the OCTIP’s commitment to a four pillars approach to combating human
trafficking: prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnership (Ministry of Justice, 2013).
The Social Policy Decision-Making Process
Graham, Swift and Delaney (2000) describe the policy-making process as a decisionmaking system that ascribes power and privilege to those in elite positions. People with ‘power’
in capitalist societies tend to influence policy to best suit economic growth despite responsibilities
to ensure social justice objectives are met in the policy-making process (Wharf & McKenzie,
1998). Knowledge of policy development is essential in the pursuit of social justice goals, and

In June 2016, the Ontario government announced its plans to develop a provincial anti-human trafficking
coordination office and it promised to invest up to $72 million in anti-trafficking strategy (Women’s Directorate,
2016).
19

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many advocates of social transformation use social policy as a forum to promote solutions to
structural problems (Carniol, 1995; Graham, Swift, & Delaney, 2000; Mullaly, 2007). Supporting
the use of alternative social services and programs that are “counter-systems to mainstream social
agencies” help establish larger changes within communities and societies (Mullaly, 2007, p.332;
Moreau, 1979).
Different values and ideologies influence ideas about what constitutes good social policy,
and when government understandings about social issues do not align with those of front-line
workers there is a risk of developing unresponsive policy that fails to adequately address the needs
of vulnerable people who access services (Graham et al., 2000, p.1 & 107). In its most extreme
forms, social policy can even promote or create social inequalities, discrimination, and oppression.
In Canada, the federal government’s use of residential schools to assimilate First Nations people
created social detriments that continue to directly and disproportionately impact the wellbeing of
Aboriginal people in this country (Raphael, 2010). Government policies are frequently
ideologically based and, therefore, the way a problem is defined or interpreted determines
perceived ways it can be solved. At present, human trafficking is largely understood as a criminal
justice issue, and prevention and protection services are developed accordingly (Merry, 2016).
In many Western nations, the state is a direct provider of resources as well as an allocator
of goods and services. The state’s role as a provider of resources holds implications for social work
practitioners and social policy (Banks, 2012). In Canada, the provincial and federal governments
share jurisdictional responsibilities of social welfare resources, justice, education, and healthcare
services (Government of Canada, 2016). With recent shifts away from socialism and towards neoconservativism and neo-liberalism at both levels of government since the 1980s, assumptions
about the government’s role in addressing social issues, including human trafficking, have changed

36

(Payne, 2014). In general, neo-conservative and neo-liberal governments favour reduced
government intervention, individualism, market capitalism, and hold a general distrust of
transformative radical change (Mullaly, 2007). By extension, government anti-trafficking efforts
emphasize enforcing the criminal justice system rather than reshaping market systems that
perpetuate the act of trafficking (Merry, 2016).
In individually centric cultures, human trafficking victims are “more likely to be blamed
for the choices they made that led to them being trafficked” compared to cultures that primarily
value collectivism (Cottingham et al., 2013, p.56). As such, neo-conservative and neo-liberal
governments tend to prioritize the reduction of individual vulnerabilities such as age, gender, and
ethnicity. Issues of poverty and unemployment, two predictive indicators of human trafficking, are
understood as consequences of personal failings rather than structural inequalities that require
government intervention (Graham et al., 2000). When human trafficking is interpreted as an
offense against vulnerable people, the focus rests on rescue missions, individual interventions, and
conditional victim rehabilitation services. These types of services provide a tremendous amount
of good, but they are often based on restrictive criteria that limit a victim’s ability to access longterm rehabilitation supports or enhance gaps in policies (Merry, 2016). By comparison, when the
crime is understood as a byproduct of socioeconomic inequalities, preventative strategies might
include a focus on structural reorganization, poverty reduction, and gender equality (Cottingham
et al., 2013).
Can Education Change Human Trafficking Behaviours?
While education is an effective tool in raising awareness about any given social issue, there
is surprisingly little evidence to suggest that education reduces violent behaviour and there are no
data to suggest it decreases rates of human trafficking. Awareness programs arm individuals with

37

personal knowledge of how to recognize acts of trafficking; however, education itself has not been
evidenced to effectively reduce criminal behaviours. There are no known studies that look at the
impact of human trafficking awareness campaigns on behaviour; but, there is considerable research
into the effects of education prevention programs on the number of sexual assaults on college
campuses, a crime that, like human trafficking, is partially motivated by violence and gender
inequality (Cottingham et al., 2013). Studies show education and awareness programs to be
relatively ineffective in reducing rates of sexually violent behaviours (Ball et al., 2012; DeGue et
al., 2014). Two meta-analyses studies found that educational prevention programs focused on
sexual assault were moderately effective at changing attitudinal outcomes for college students but
provided no significant changes in behaviours (Brecklin & Forde, 2001; Flores & Hartlaub, 1998).
Similarly, a 2012 evaluation study of a dating violence prevention program for at-risk youth found
that while youth developed conflict resolution skills, thus improving their overall knowledge of
the issue, there was no reduction the number of violent incidents they experienced (Ball et al.,
2012). In another study, DeGue et al. (2014) found that campus sexual assault education programs
more often resulted in null effects than positive effects with regards to reductions in sexually
violent behaviour. Evidently, education-agendas can shape public narratives, but they have not
been shown to be effective means of reducing crime rates.
Social Work and Human Trafficking
Social work is a value-based profession. Written in the CASW Code of Ethics (2005) is the
protocol that social workers “promote social fairness” and “oppose prejudice and discrimination
against any person” (p.5). Given the profession’s value stance, it is surprising that social work
literature features minimal discussions on human trafficking, a crime believed to be one of the
most prevalent human rights violations in modern-day society (Alvarez & Alessi, 2012; Hodge,

38

2008). Among the limited body of literature, research accounts for the role of social workers in
victim rehabilitation and case management but fails to explore the profession’s role in antitrafficking social policy development (Nsonwu, et al., 2015; Orme & Ross-Sheriff, 2015). The
majority of literature highlights the role of law enforcement officers and the criminal justice
system, two important players in the pursuit of anti-trafficking efforts in Canada. Still, these
perspectives alone do not capture the structural lens inherent in the social work professional ethos.
Hodge (2008) encourages social workers to participate in multidisciplinary teams that bring people
together to identify victims and to provide protection services; the emphasis being on the unique
role social workers have in providing on-going intervention and supports. Similarly,
Konstantopoulos et al. (2013) focus on the psychological trauma of victims and individual
intervention models applied by professionals in social service settings. By expanding on both
Hodge’s (2008) and Konstantopoulos et al.’s (2013) approaches to social work practice,
professionals can engage in the issue of human trafficking by considering it from a structural and
critical lens, challenging narratives, and committing to the development of effective social policies.
Social work literature almost exclusively understands human trafficking as the sexual
exploitation of women and children, and such a narrow focus limits social workers’ ability to
intervene at both individual and policy levels (Alvarez & Alessi, 2012, p.143). Without a more
accurate understanding of the different types of human trafficking, including a critical lens of
existing statistics, social workers will continue to struggle to identify victims and pursue the
profession’s social justice objective. Too often, “sex trafficking is simply considered more morally
repugnant than labour trafficking” (Barnhart, 2009, p.94). Labour exploitation and organ
harvesting also fall under the umbrella of human rights violations, and it is not within the spirit of

39

social work to prioritize one form of trauma over another. Victims have equal human rights, and
social work literature should reflect the broad spectrum of trafficking activities.
Summary
The expansive body of literature on the topic of human trafficking primarily focuses on
sexual acts, limiting perceptions of the crime that are narrow in scope and leaving many aspects
of this phenomenon poorly understood. This chapter considered these limitations, as well as
existing research on victims, known trafficking processes, and government legislative responses,
all of which contribute towards the development of anti-trafficking efforts. Unreliable data affect
public understandings, awareness, and victim identification and limit the reliability of claims made
about this topic. Youth and Aboriginal people, especially those living in rural and remote areas,
are particularly vulnerable to domestic sex trafficking, whereas temporary foreign workers are
vulnerable to labour trafficking abuses. Governments’ efforts to address the issue of human
trafficking are in part informed by their understanding of the sex trade. Recently, Canada adopted
Sweden’s neo-abolitionist model intended to protect vulnerable populations from sexual
exploitation by prohibiting the purchasing of sexual services.
In this chapter, I outlined anti-trafficking efforts at both the federal and BC provincial level
and briefly discussed public discourse that influences social policy decision-making processes. I
highlighted neo-conservatism because it is a prominent ideology that exists at both the BC
provincial level and the federal level and is rooted in capitalist gain, free market economics, and
individualism – three values that tend to examine victims for their personal failings rather than
challenge social structures that make human trafficking profitable. Finally, I argued that social
work literature almost exclusively perceives human trafficking as sexual exploitation and provides
a limited and minimal discussion of human trafficking and the social work profession.

40

Chapter Three: Methodology
The following chapter discusses methodology including the advantages and limitations of
the applied qualitative research design. My research is based on fourteen semi-structured
qualitative interviews, nine interviews with front-line service providers and five interviews with
government personnel, all of which took place between June 2016 and November 2016. The
comparative approach to research considers the employment contexts of participants relative to
their observations about human trafficking in BC from 2000 to the time of each individual’s
interview. The research employed phenomenology and thematic analysis. In this chapter, I review
the philosophical underpinnings, strengths, and limitations of phenomenology, describe the
participants interviewed and data collection methods, review the thematic analysis processes,
discuss methodological quality and ethical considerations, and provide an overview of the research
limitations.
Choosing Qualitative Research
Broadly speaking, qualitative studies interpret research problems in the context of theory,
assumptions, and worldviews (Creswell, 2007). When seeking detailed information about a
complex issue such as human trafficking, qualitative research gathers in-depth data for analysis as
it takes into consideration individual environments that impact a person’s interpretations and
experiences (Westhues et al., 1999). Ultimately, it is an interpretive method of research that studies
subjective understandings and is primarily interested in describing data. Qualitative research
assumes that reality is socially constructed and therefore it applies inductive reasoning to examine
particular aspects of a phenomenon, making generalizations through patterns and commonalities
rather than by determining causality (Marlow, 2011).

41

Comparatively, quantitative research is a deductive science that seeks to understand cause
and effect as a means of predicting outcomes. It seeks to uncover a set of expected patterns.
Quantitative research assumes that certain factors, including human behaviour, can be studied
objectively whereas an interpretive approach assumes that social contexts subjectively influence
human behaviour. Since quantitative research seeks to study phenomena objectively, it draws
conclusions that can be applied to other groups rather than being specific to those in the current
research (Marlow, 2011).
My research question considers fluid observations about a topic from two different sources,
government and front-line services, and considers the contextual role of employment to an
individual’s understanding of human trafficking in BC. The literature on this topic suggests that
there are many varying definitions of ‘human trafficking;’ and qualitative research recognizes that
phenomena can change according to circumstances (Taylor & Francis, 2013). Choosing an
interpretive approach to this research considers employment contexts and experiences to examine
how people think about shifts in human trafficking narratives by giving meaning to those
observations.
Research Approach: Phenomenology
Phenomenology is a research methodology that seeks to understand how an individual
perceives and makes sense of their lived experiences (Annells, 1999; Standing, 2009). It began as
a philosophy primarily concerned with the following question: “what is the experience of these
phenomena for these people?” (Marlow, 2011, p.220). Over time, it merged into a research
methodology whose development and formalization are credited to Edmund Husserl and Martin
Heidegger. It is particularly popular in social sciences because it considers participants’ stories as

42

insights into aspects of human life. Phenomenology offers value to a person’s relationships with
things, events, and other people (Miles, Francis, Chapman & Taylor, 2013).
German philosopher Edmond Husserl first established the school of phenomenology when
he suggested that conscious thought or intention can be used to understand phenomena (Taylor &
Francis, 2013). He argued that intentional thought can be applied to any given experience to learn
its objective essence and paved the way for a research methodology that interprets and reveals
hidden meaning in phenomena (Duckham & Shreiber, 2016, p.60). Building off Husserl’s ideas,
philosopher Martin Heidegger further argued that immersion and subjectivity are key requirements
to understanding phenomena. Heidegger believed that people relate to one another through
contextual relationships and that they derive meaning accordingly (Miles, Francis, Chapman, &
Taylor, 2013, p.409). His philosophical approach states that people come to know their world
through experiences relative to other people, things, or contexts; how an individual comprehends
their lived experiences gives insight and meaning to a particular aspect of human life (Heidegger,
1962).
In my research, I consider respondents’ observations of human trafficking in the context of
their professional role and their engagement with human trafficking victims (Gill, 2014). Shifts in
human trafficking trends are understood through the subjective observations of people who are
engaged in anti-trafficking efforts because these individuals have insight into questions like ‘what
is human trafficking?’, ‘how was it understood?’, ‘how is it understood?’, ‘how do we prioritize
this issue?’, ‘what should anti-trafficking efforts look like?’ and ‘how do one group’s antitrafficking ideas compare to another’s?’ Due to the clandestine nature of the crime, the many
definitional variances, and because my research questions focus on subjective observations about

43

shifts in public narratives, phenomenology provides a logical framework from which to build the
research design.
Strengths and Limitations of Phenomenology
Like all methodologies, phenomenology has strengths and limitations. Aside from giving
research meaning to individual contexts, one of the most significant strengths of phenomenology
is that it allows researchers to adjust to new ideas and issues as they emerge in a changing society
(Tracy, 2013). Central to Heidegger’s philosophy is the notion that people exist in societies
determined by history and culture (McManus Holroyd, 2007). As society changes, individuals
ascribe new meanings to their experiences. My research is rooted in social work theory (Moreau,
1979; Mullaly, 2007), which examines social structures and their relationship to individual
experiences to improve and challenge institutional oppression. Phenomenology aligns with
Moreau’s (1979) social work theory as it too emphasizes contextual relationships between
individuals in society and social structures. Over time, individual interpretations of structural
oppressions, how they impact people, and how to dismantle imbalances of power transform and
phenomenology adjusts to these changes. Taylor and Francis (2013) write that qualitative
methodologies bring about change by raising awareness of phenomena; and similarly, critical
theories also have explicit change agendas for people, governments, and organizations.
Broad social policies often rely on empirical research to inform evidence-based decisionmaking, and government bodies are criticized for suggesting that “the only rigorous type of social
science research is replicable and generalizable across setting” (Tracey, 2013, p.34). There is a
level of credibility afforded to quantitative research that does not extend to qualitative work. As
such, academia is marked by a ‘politics of evidence’ that challenges qualitative researchers to
render their research more ‘worthy’ of quantitative research norms (Lather, 2004; Lincoln &

44

Cannella, 2004; Taylor & Francis, 2013). Within this context, research findings garnered through
phenomenology might be limited in their ability to inform social policy and front-line practice.
The highly qualitative nature of the results can make them difficult to translate into widespread
policy practices.
Another disadvantage of phenomenological studies is that the research itself includes
questions that are highly subjective to the researcher. Heidegger’s philosophical approach
questions the formal structures of questions and argues the need for a ‘knowing questioner’ who
has prior knowledge of the topic to inform their questions. In doing so, the knowing questioner
filters information they consider relevant and the risk of bias is high.
Research Sample Design and Recruitment
Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with respondents from two
categories: front-line service providers and government personnel. These respondents were chosen
in an effort to better understand observations about human trafficking in BC over a period of time.
Oftentimes, there are disconnects between how people with social policy decision-making power
understand social issues and how front-line service providers understand the same issues.
Respondents were chosen to provide a comparative lens and interesting insights into how the topic
is discussed at a government level versus how it is discussed among service providers who work
directly with survivors of trafficking crimes. Survivors of human trafficking were not included in
the research sample for ethical reasons that are discussed later on in this chapter.
All participants were recruited via email, telephone, or letter using purposive sampling
(Koerber & McMichael, 2008). Knowledge of the topic was a prerequisite to participation as the
study focuses on shifts in public discourse over a period of time. Respondents were given a copy
of the guided interview questions (Appendix A) for review before each interview allowing them

45

to self-select based on their perceived knowledge of the topic. Furthermore, in using purposive
sampling, I sought respondents who were readily available and easy to contact to accommodate
my personal timelines (Koerber & McMichael, 2008).
I recruited government personnel involved in departments that work with high-risk
populations such as youth, migrant workers, immigration, and the criminal justice system, as well
as those with known involvement in human trafficking policy development and the development
of anti-trafficking programs. The sample included respondents from both the federal and BC
provincial levels because relevant social policy is, and has been, developed, administered, and
enforced at both levels. I recruited front-line services workers from organizations that work
directly with victims of human trafficking, raise awareness about the crime, or provide direct
services to populations identified most vulnerable to the crime including sexually exploited youth
and migrant workers. Brief descriptors of the employment contexts for each respondent, as well as
their years of relevant work experience are summarized in Tables 3.1 and 3.2.

46

Table 3.1: Demographic Data – Front-line service providers
Participant
Code

Employer Descriptor

General Clientele Focus

S1

Front Line Service Provider

S2

Front Line Service Provider

S3

Front Line Service Provider

S4

Front Line Service Provider

S5

Front Line Service Provider

S6

Front Line Service Provider

S7

Front Line Service Provider

S8

Front Line Service Provider

S9

Front Line Service Provider

Canadian born clients / youth /
sex trafficking
Canadian born clients/
Immigrant and migrant clients/
labour and sex trafficking/ adults
Canadian born clients/youth and
adults/sex trafficking
Canadian born clients / youth/
sex trafficking
Canadian born clients/women
and youth/sex trafficking
Canadian born clients/youth and
adults/sex trafficking
Aboriginal youth / sex
trafficking
Immigrants and migrant
clients/adults / sex trafficking
Immigrants and migrant clients/
adults / labour trafficking

Approximate
Number of Years of
Relevant Human
Trafficking Work
Experience
21
16
9
12
1.5
7.5
10
7
16

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Table 3.2: Demographic Data – Government Personnel
Participant
Code

Employer Descriptor

Level of Government

G1

Government Personnel

Provincial

Approximate Number
of Years of Relevant
Human Trafficking
Work Experience
11

G2

Government Personnel

Provincial

15

G3

Government Personnel

Provincial

12

G4

Government Personnel

Federal

3.5

G5

Government Personnel

Federal

20

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To reduce research vulnerabilities, all participants were nineteen years or older.
Participants were not recruited based on gender, education, or socioeconomics as these variables
were not initially considered relevant to my research question; however, it is possible that there
were socio-economic and education status biases within the sample. For example, the majority of
participants were female (twelve females and two males) and it is possible, based on employment
status, that the majority of participants have post-secondary education. The only demographic
information collected was the approximate number of years’ of work experience each participant
had in the field of human trafficking as well as their area of expertise. Work environment alone
cannot provide enough information to draw conclusions from the data; future research might
consider collecting demographic information such as education, socioeconomic status, and
ideology. The possible influence of ideology on participants’ observations is explored in Chapter
Five.
Data Collection Methodology
A semi-structured interview approach was chosen for three reasons: to provide a depth of
knowledge that cannot be captured using quantitative measurement tools; to allow me as a
researcher to ask follow-up questions based on the respondent's knowledge and area of expertise;
and to provide a structure that ensures comparability between interviews. Throughout the research
process, I developed two supplementary physical folders, both of which were used during the
analysis process. I collected data chronologically and separated it by the data source. Field notes,
interviews, and relevant documents were collected and categorized as follows: (1) chronological
field notes from interviews with government personnel; and (2) chronological field notes from
interviews with front-line service providers. This organizing schema encouraged ongoing analysis

49

of the distinction between observations made by the two data sources, and allowed for additional
follow-up questions throughout the interview process (Tracy, 2013).
On the Informed Consent Form (Appendix B), each respondent stated their preferred level
of anonymity in the research findings. Respondents were given three choices including whether or
not they wish to be identified by name and institutional/organizational affiliation, by a pseudonym
and no institutional/organizational affiliation, or if they preferred to use a pseudonym but agree to
the identification of their institutional/organization affiliation. Five of the fourteen participants
requested a best effort at confidentiality and anonymity. The remaining nine wished to be identified
by both name and affiliated agency. Recruiting participants proved to be a harder task than I had
anticipated as a limited number of government personnel and front-line service providers selfresponded to my inquiry for participation. A number of individuals declined a request for
participation stating they did not believe they had enough knowledge of the topic. To best respect
the requests for anonymity, I ultimately chose to keep all participants anonymous.
Each interview was audio-recorded and later fully transcribed by myself. The transcripts
were then made available to participants if they wished to check for accuracy. Electronic files were
password protected and hard copies of the transcripts and consent forms were kept in a locked
cabinet in my home. All electronic transcripts, audio recordings, and consent forms will be stored
in my computer data for three years after publication to allow me the opportunity to continue to
work with the data and publish the results. Any hard copy materials will be destroyed by a paper
shredder upon a successful defense of this research.
Interviews with Government Personnel
I interviewed five government-employed respondents, three provincial-based workers and
two federal-based workers. One interview was conducted via telephone and the remaining four

50

were conducted in person. The interviews ranged from 35 minutes to 90 minutes in length.
Government respondents varied in their self-identified level of expertise and the number of years
spent working on issues relevant to human trafficking. One government respondent reported
having three and a half years’ experience working in a government field relevant to human
trafficking. The remaining four government respondents reported having more than ten years’
experience working in a government field relevant to human trafficking (see Table 3.2.).
Interviews with Front-Line Workers
I interviewed nine front-line service providers. Five interviews were conducted via
telephone and the remaining four were conducted in person. The interviews ranged from 45
minutes to 60 minutes in length. Front-line service respondents varied in their level of expertise
and their experience working as a social service provider. There were marked differences in the
clientele served by their affiliate agencies. Eight respondents worked primarily with victims of
sexual exploitation, or had a focused interest and expertise in the area of the sex trade. Two
respondents worked primarily with victims of international labour exploitation. Three respondents
worked exclusively with children and youth, three respondents worked with both youth and adults,
and two respondents worked solely with adults. Seven respondents worked primarily with
Canadian born clients, and three worked with immigrant or migrant clients. Five front-line
respondents self-reported having ten or more years’ experience working as a service provider in
an area related to human trafficking. Two respondents reported having seven years’ experience,
and one respondent reported having less than two years but more than one (see Table 3.1.).
Research Analysis Process: Applied Thematic Analysis
Thematic analysis is a method of “analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data”
(Braun & Clarke, 2006, p.79). My analysis was driven by my particular analytic research

51

questions: ‘what observable changes to the type of human trafficking have occurred in BC since
2000, and how do observations made by government personnel compare to those made by frontline service providers?’ My two sub-questions included ‘what are participants’ perceptions of the
number of documented victims of international human trafficking in BC have there been
observable changes in the number of international trafficking victims?’ and ‘what are participants’
perceptions of the number of documented victims of domestic human trafficking in BC?’ In
interpreting the data, I looked for patterned responses that referenced my thesis questions rather
than applying an inductive approach to analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The deductive approach
allowed for explicit analysis of data based on the specific questions outlined above. Integration
between both data sources (government personnel and front line service providers) was intended
to expand insights into a specific aspect of human trafficking. To account for the prevalence of a
specific theme across the data, each instance was tagged during coding; although that is not to say
more frequent instances identified more crucial themes. ‘Keyness’ of themes was based on the
particular analytic questions.
Description of Thematic Analysis Phases
Themes within the data set were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six phases:
familiarize yourself with the data; generate initial codes; search for themes; review themes; define
and name themes; and produce the report (p.87). This next section outlines detailed descriptions
of each of the six process steps.
1. Familiarize yourself with the data
Following each interview, I transcribed the data, reread it, and noted down my initial
thoughts and ideas in a journal. Transcriptions were done verbatim, although no non-verbal
utterances were noted in the analysis. The omission of non-verbal utterances made the transcripts

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easier to read without removing content. I compared my original transcription notes to my field
notes to further familiarize myself with the data content before commencing each new interview.
This allowed me to developed follow-up questions as needed. Once the interviews were fully
transcribed, a digital copy was sent to each research participant for review. Given my personal
time constraints, I requested that participants contact me with any questions or concerns about the
transcripts within approximately three to four weeks’ time. I noted that if I had not received
comments, I would assume they approved the transcript.
2. Generate initial codes
To ensure quality coding, I used the computer-aided software NVivo designed to assist in
sorting, querying, and retrieving data. My primary coding phase involved systematically assigning
phrases and sections of the interviews into generalized themes. Coding across the entire data set
allowed me to provide a rich description of the data rather than detailed descriptions of particular
aspects. I approached the data with specific research questions to develop intentionally broad
themes to capture a large portion of the dataset for primary analysis, a process known as theorydriven coding (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
3. Search for themes
Next, I drew a concept map and reviewed the primary coded data to begin to synthesize for
patterns. From there, I developed secondary coding themes, which served to explain and theorize
the data using interpretive concepts that were once again driven by my research questions. Unlike
my initial coding, I choose to code the data from government personnel and front-line service
providers separately, allowing opportunities to analyze the secondary coded data from a
comparative perspective. The themes that emerged included: ‘BC anti-trafficking efforts compared
to other provinces;’ ‘education as an anti-trafficking tool;’ ‘rates of human trafficking in BC

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today;’ and ‘shifts in discourse about human trafficking.’ The last theme was categorized into four
sub-themes: ‘misconceptions about human trafficking;’ ‘human trafficking discourse in the early
2000s;’ ‘human trafficking discourse today;’ and ‘reasons attributed to the shift in discourse.’
4. Review themes
Following the secondary coding phase, I conducted a thorough review of the emerging
themes by checking for accuracy and relative ‘keyness’. To do so, I developed a visual map that
categorized each theme and cross-referenced them into the following clusters: ‘government / the
early 2000s’, ‘front-line/early 2000s’, ‘government/today’ and ‘front-line / today’. Clustering the
data helped me visually compare the themes from their data source relative to the research
questions.
5. Define and name themes
Throughout both the primary and secondary coding phases, a code book was developed to
simplify and define each theme. Initial and final themes were defined and named in conjunction
with the literature and research questions.
6. Produce the report
The final process of analysis involved relating the final themes to the research analytic
questions, the literature, and then compiling those findings. The findings are described in detail in
Chapter Four.
Evaluating Methodological Quality and Ethics
Guba and Lincoln (2005) write that “no matter how real, natural, or objective they may
seem, criteria are social products” and as such, they are submit to subjectivity (p.269). Research
criteria are means by which authenticity and trustworthiness of the findings are measured (Tracy,
2013). Tracy’s (2010) eight-point conceptualization for obtaining quality in qualitative research

54

uses a “big-tent” approach to measuring authenticity in research based on the following criteria:
worthy topic, rich rigor, sincerity, credibility, resonance, significant contribution, ethical, and
meaningful coherence (Tracy, 2013, p. 231). Each concept is explained below.
Assessing Worthy Topic
A worthy topic is an area of research that is “relevant or timely”, or that includes ideas that
reveal aspects of life that have been overlooked, or topics that “provoke transformation or elicit
emotion in the reader” (Tracy, 2013, p.231). Human trafficking is a topic of tremendous global
interest, as evidenced by the large body of literature, existing international treaties, and on-going
awareness campaigns. Even still, the phenomenon remains under-studied. This project contributes
to a limited body of literature that examines human trafficking in the province of BC from a social
work perspective. The research was conducted in the context of recent changes to Canada’s
prostitution legislation, changes that are intractably tied to anti-trafficking efforts, and at a time of
tremendous political and public interest in the missing and murdered Indigenous women’s inquiry.
Both issues are considered ongoing government concerns and therefore government responses will
presumably be impacted by ideas and perceptions of the issue of domestic human trafficking in
Canada, especially as those ideas relate to the sexual exploitation of vulnerable people.
Assessing Rich Rigor
The use of ‘rich rigor’ in research refers to studies that use care and effort to ensure the
“research is carried out in an appropriate manner” (Tracy, 2013, p.231). Rigor was applied in both
the preliminary research phase of this research, as well as in the data analysis. To start, I began a
lengthy process of review of the relevant literature. I was careful to compare commonalities and
differences between information cited by academic and government sources paying particular
attention to dichotomous assumptions about the phenomenon itself.

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Time spent in the field interviewing participants significantly contributed to the study’s
rich rigor. Interested participants were given a copy of the informed consent form and information
about the project, as well as a list of guided interview questions before the interviews. This allowed
respondents to consider the questions and the intentions of the project with care before any data
were collected.
Assessing Sincerity
In designing the research project, I chose to interview front-line workers instead of victims
of human trafficking. This decision was ethically-based as I adamantly did not want to contribute
to the potential re-traumatization of survivors. As a social work researcher, I value the role of firstperson narratives as they relate to social policy outcomes and qualitative research. I recognize that
in not including the individuals impacted by this crime, my research fails to include the experiences
of people who are victims of human trafficking. There is the risk that my research further silences
victims by disallowing them academic space to contribute to discussions about the efficacy of antitrafficking measures in BC. Nevertheless, the risk to participants was too high and, in my opinion,
any potential harm accrued on behalf of the research outweighed the benefits of a first-person
narrative project.
A research journal provided me ongoing opportunities to reflect on my strengths and
shortcomings as a researcher. After each interview, I questioned my intent, methods, and the
interview itself with the objective of improving the overall process. One of the purposes of
interviewing is to “understand someone else’ life experiences form his/her point of view”
(Postmus, 2013, p.241). Reflection after each interview allowed me time to consider each
participant’s story and context, as well as my blind spots as a white, middle class female researcher.
I explored my tendencies and behaviours in interviewing that might impede the data collection

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process. As a social work practitioner, my training is to alleviate client pain and suffering. As a
researcher, there were certain moments in the interview process where exploration of the
interviewee’s feelings would have been unethical. Accordingly, my individual anxieties, concerns,
wishes, and hopes were penned in my research journal and helped me maintain critical
consciousness about the project, the interview process, and my overall intentions to conduct myself
both ethically and purposefully.
Sincerity in research was further demonstrated in the individual interactions I had with
participants. I was cognizant of establishing a welcoming non-judgmental interview environment
that valued both the role of the participants and their observations. I was punctual to each scheduled
interview and recognized participant’s time by providing a list of interview questions ahead of
time. The interviews did not run longer than the time previously agreed upon by the participant,
unless they expressed a willingness to continue the interview beyond the allotted time.
Assessing Credibility
The term credibility refers to dependability and trustworthiness (Guba & Lincoln, 2005).
Qualitative credibility was achieved by gathering data through multiple lenses and in the
diversification of participants based on their professional and relevant employment. Data from
both government personnel and front-line service providers highlight different points of view,
while drawing attention to subjectivities that vary across employment environments and policymaking roles (Tracy, 2013).
Participants were emailed a digital copy of the transcribed interview for review before
coding to ensure credible representation of their ideas and observations described during the data
collection process. Of the fourteen participants, four commented on the transcripts and one
provided additional comments and reflections.

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Assessing Resonance
Ensuring resonance can be challenging. Tracy (2013) describes this marker as a feature in
the text that “meaningfully reverberates and impacts an audience” (p.238). I feel passionate about
ending human trafficking, the protection of human rights, and the pursuit of social justice; but I
am equally humbled by my limited experiences and inherent social privileges. I believe my passion
is echoed throughout this report, as it was throughout the entirety of the research process itself. To
further create resonance, I applied clarity and organization to the literature review and research
findings.
Assessing Significant Contribution
Human trafficking has become a prominent political issue and, like many social issues, it
is met with a collective belief that to eradicate the crime nation-states must work globally and
locally to enact effective anti-trafficking measures. At this time, there are limited means of
measuring the efficacy of government responses. The measurement tools used to study whether or
not human trafficking in Canada is increasing, changing, or decreasing are subjective themselves
and limited (for reasons outlined in Chapter Two). Weitzer (2015) argues that it is possible
legislation has outpaced social science research especially given that stereotypes knowingly cloud
public understandings of the crime. Much like contentious practice around prostitution legislation,
measuring both the desired outcomes and the unintended outcomes of social policy are essential
in evaluating a particular piece of legislation and in garnering public support for the law. The ethos
of early anti-trafficking legislation was done in the interest of state security, to prevent irregular
migration for the purpose of sexual exploitation in Canada, and as a means of ensuring global
accountability for the protection of human rights. Since 2000, there has been a notable shift
towards a domestic narrative that better considers incidents of Canadian perpetrators trafficking

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Canadian victims. The shift itself and the efficacy of legislation about the narrative shift are two
areas without precedential research.
Assessing Ethics
Throughout the entirety of this research project, two primary ethical concerns stood out for
careful consideration: first, the protection of anonymity for participants whose participation might
pose a threat to their employment or their professional standing; and second, concerns about
traumatization of participants given the content matter. To protect anonymity, each participant was
asked to indicate in writing on the Informed Consent Form (Appendix B) their preferred level of
anonymity in the research results. The approach was chosen to give participants control over the
release of identifiable information. As mentioned, I ultimately chose to remove all identifying
information for all participants to better allow for anonymity after discovering that the pool of
participants was smaller than I had expected. Future research would consider removing the choice
for anonymity given to participants, and instead, informing participants prior to their signed
consent that their participation in the research project will remain anonymous.
To address the potential concern that repsondents might experience distress upon
discussing the topic, a list of relevant support services including a 24-hour crisis line was drafted
and made available to all participants. The lists were developed using local supports and
participants were reminded that they could request a copy of the list before the interview; however,
none requested a copy.
Assessing Meaningful Coherence
Meaningful coherence is measured by four criteria arguing that all qualitative research
should: achieve its stated purpose; accomplish what it espoused to do; use methods and that align
with espoused theories and paradigms; and interconnect literature with the research foci, methods,

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and findings (Tracy, 2010, p.848). This research was based on a structural social work framework
and, accordingly, the project examines social policy as an anti-trafficking measure, rather than
individual interventions and practices. The interview questions, data analysis and findings were
conducted in conjunction with existing literature.
Limitations to the Research Approach
Size and design limited the inductive sample, especially as I favoured participants who
were readily available and easy to access. I did not screen for knowledge or require participants to
demonstrate their experience working in the field of human trafficking. It is possible that the
sample included individuals with non-generalizable observations or understandings about this
phenomenon. For this reason, the research does not claim any conclusive results. Instead, it
suggests future areas of research and raises questions about human trafficking in BC.
The total number of interviews did not account for variance across government bodies or
front line service providers, including gender, age, ethnicity, or political orientation. For reasons
explored in Chapter Five, an individual’s beliefs about controversial questions in policies are often
closely linked to their ideological preferences, and people demonstrate a bias towards information
that confirms their preconceived ideas (Nyhan & Reifler, 2010). The research is limited as it did
not take into account participants’ ideological beliefs, which cannot be inferred by employment,
nor did it account for geographical differences that might impact observations made by service
providers. For example, it is possible that service providers in the northeast of BC might relay
different observations about trafficking victims than service providers in the “lower mainland” due
to geography, access to the borders, and region specific resource industries. Similarly, the data
sample and findings reflect an understanding of human trafficking that is influenced by BC’s

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geography and its proximity to the Asia-Pacific region. Perceptions of human trafficking might
differ elsewhere in the country.
The sample included front-line service providers who provide support services to victims
of human trafficking, labour exploitation, and sexual exploitation, or who raise awareness about
the issue. It is likely that victims of human trafficking access alternative support services not
included in this research. Victims might access alternative services for reasons such as their
relative awareness of existing supports, stigma towards human trafficking victims, or the
availability of supports. Alternatively, victims might not access services for reasons such as
accessibility, and residency status. It is probable that observations of trafficking as it relates to
international victims, especially those who are in the country illegally, are not adequately
represented in the sample as this population might be less likely to access support services due to
language barriers, fear of deportation, and lack of knowledge of their rights while in Canada
(Ministry of Justice, 2013; RCMP 2010). Respondent criterion was chosen because the literature
suggests there are real challenges in identifying and defining human trafficking. Organizations that
provide services specific to this crime are more likely to be well-versed in the legal definitions and
better trained in victim identification.
The data collected were not cross-referenced with a secondary collection method to
enhance validity. For this reason, the research focuses solely on general observations and discounts
any numerical estimates provided by participants. The findings are assumed to be impacted by
participant biases and constructive interpretations (Creswell, 2003). This limitation exists as
participants were asked to describe their observations about human trafficking from the early
2000s which were likely influenced by hindsight.

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As noted in Chapter One, understandings about what constitutes as human trafficking vary
widely across data sources. Different government agents expressed diverse interpretations of the
crime and the diversity of perspectives was even greater at the front-line service level. Comparing
observations made from government personnel and front-line service providers does not
adequately capture the many varying perspectives, as each source is more complex and varied in
and of itself. As exploratory research, this project raises questions about tensions that exist between
two sources and how these tensions expose further questions about the efficacy of legislation and
the relationship between international and domestic trafficking. The research findings do not
propose to capture any conclusive findings of how government bodies or front-line service
providers interpret this crime. Future research might consider a comparable case study between
one government ministry and one front-line agency to develop more conclusive findings specific
to that case study.
Summary
The methodology applied to the research design includes phenomenology, which considers
respondents’ observations of human trafficking in the context of their professional role, their
engagement with human trafficking victims, and their policy-making decision power. Braun and
Clarke’s (2006) six phases of thematic analysis were used to interpret, synthesize, and study the
data collected from two sources: government personnel and front-line service providers. The
emergent themes were developed based on their ‘keyness’ and in conjunction with the literature
and research questions. Finally, Tracy’s (2010) eight-point conceptualization for obtaining quality
in qualitative research was applied and includes the following criteria: worthy topic, rich rigor,
sincerity, credibility, resonance, significant contribution, ethical, and meaningful coherence.

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Chapter Four: Research Findings
The interviews I conducted with both government personnel and front-line service
providers revealed a number of interesting findings relevant to shifts in human trafficking
discourse in BC from 2000 to today. In this chapter, I summarize the findings of my research under
the following themes: shifts in human trafficking; reasons attributed to the shift in discourse,
human trafficking narrative from the early 2000s; human trafficking narrative today; rates of
human trafficking in BC today; BC anti-trafficking efforts compared to other provinces; and
education as an effective anti-trafficking tool. As noted, this project compares findings from two
different sources, government personnel and front-line service providers, and considers each theme
from a comparative approach.
Shifts in Human Trafficking Discourse
All fourteen participants described a noticeable shift in human trafficking discourse from
2000 to today. The shift was described as having gone from a predominantly international narrative
in the early 2000s to a domestic narrative today, and from human trafficking being a relatively
unknown crime to one with more commonplace political and public interest. One consistent idea
that began in the early 2000s and continues today is that human trafficking discourse is fixated on
sexual acts. As one participant noted,
I think media gets attracted to anything that has a sexuality attached to it. And businesses
tend to go underground in this activity and the sex trade workers is out there and the media
can exploit the issue. They’re not all that interested in Roma working in the construction
industry for instance or other problems. I think it has to do with what attracts a headline,
and that tends to be sex trade workers (G420).

20

Participant Codes can be found in Table 3.1 and Table 3.2.

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Another said, “if you just ask people ‘what’s human trafficking’ they usually go to sex trade right
away” (S7). Another stated:
If you have two stories to talk about human trafficking and one is a farm worker picking
cherries on a farm in Abbotsford or you have a woman who’s lured on a plane and thinks
she coming here for a modeling contract, like that story for the general public is just so
much more interesting and sensational. And also, with labour trafficking, not that it’s more
complicated, but in some ways it can be more complicated and complex for the general
population to understand whereas sex work, people have very strong views on that, either
it’s violence against all women and should be eradicated or – like I just think having a
superficial understanding of both issues, sex trafficking and labour trafficking, it’s easier
to jump on the sex trafficking bandwagon and for general society to put forward their
support, either donations or participating in campaigns behind that. You don’t need to know
as much and you can jump on board. And also because it’s just sexier (S8).
Participants from both sources cited definitional inconsistencies as ongoing barriers
towards victim identification. One participant described this barrier as a “grey area” (S7) that limits
service providers’ abilities to access victims; “... the grey areas that I find get really frustrating”
(S7). The sense of frustration over inconsistent interpretations of human trafficking was present
in my interviews with both sources. Varying understandings of ‘sexual exploitation’ exemplified
how participants’ definitions were far from unanimous, and how different interpretations lend
themselves towards diverse anti-trafficking approaches. Front-line service providers who worked
primarily with domestic youth were more apt to relate human trafficking to prostitution and,
accordingly, they expressed support for Canada’s new prostitution legislation that prohibits the
purchasing of sexual services.
I do believe there are women who are stuck in that cycle, and they call themselves sex trade
workers but that’s not what they intended to do with their lives, they were victimized at
some point and pulling them out is not easy (S6).
What it’s going to mean is now you have brothels, and violent pimps who now are going
to have to beat the crap out of women to fill the positions. They’ll be just as beaten,
traumatized, or threatened whether it’s legal or not. They can open up a brothel with ten
rooms, they can open one up with fifteen rooms. They’re not going to have ten or fifteen

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women running in to fill those jobs. So that’s my big thing. Legalized prostitution does
nothing but give a legal way to force women into this (S3).
What’s happening in other countries is just mind-blowing. And I think because the
prostitution law got, that kind of, you know a lot of my time and energy has been…prior
to the Bedford case21 we were looking at the Sweden model of law and we were educating
people around the Nordic Model. Again, looking at Germany and saying we don’t want
what Germany has. We prefer Sweden (S4).
Comparatively, no government personnel described modern day prostitution as a form of human
trafficking and instead applied broad descriptors to encompass both labour and sexual trafficking
acts. As one government personnel stated:
…there’s no one real standard of what is a trafficked person or not. People sometimes use
the Criminal Code definition, we tend to take a broader approach and use the Protocol, and
so a broader list of indicators that to us would indicate a potentially trafficked person. And
then because of the difficulty people have in telling their story fully and all of those barriers,
if there’s some indicators then we tend to err on the side that this may be a trafficked person
(G3).
Another said:
…the trafficking provisions cover a broader range of cases than the prostitution provisions.
And we have to keep in mind that although the prostitution provisions can be very useful,
and have been very useful, in sexual exploitation cases that there’s a whole different set of
cases that involves labour exploitation and they need to use the trafficking provisions in
the same way as they may use the trafficking in persons provisions for human trafficking
for sexual exploitation (G5).
Front-line service providers who worked with victims of human sex trafficking more frequently
used the terms ‘sexual exploitation’ and ‘human trafficking’ interchangeably.
Especially for local stats there is really nothing and just for human trafficking and sexual
exploitation – sorry I don’t divide the two too much – trying to find local BC information
is really outdated and there’s not much (S7).
At lot of times youth don’t even see themselves as sexually exploited even though they are
being, or don’t identify as being human trafficked so putting those labels on them a lot of
times closes doors so um, what we do is we keep track of the number of contacts we have
In 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down Canada’s prostitution laws as unconstitutional. The federal
government was given a year to pass new laws, which it did under Bill C-36 in 2014. (Sampson, 2014; Supreme
Court of Canada, 2013).
21

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and the requests and we rate them as ‘entry’, ‘middle’, and ‘exiting’. So we know how
many of the individuals we worked on in the different levels and their time that they’ve
reached out to us (S1).
First off talking about human trafficking and sexual exploitation and what that means
because still there’s – it’s not just youth, communities too still think of it in this
international context of the movies that are out there like Taken. It’s only human trafficking
if they cross a border and stuff like that. We did this project with these youth and we taught
them about human trafficking but really scoped it down. Talked about the big picture and
grooming and all that, and we altered it many times just because of the discussion with our
youth, also about why aboriginal girls and boys are targeted more often, the vulnerabilities
that are there (S6).
Interestingly, Government personnel were more likely than front-line service providers to
address issues of both sexual exploitation and labour exploitation in their individual assessments
of the issue:
Well I think generally, I’ll speak generally not just Canada but in other countries as well,
it may be easier to see the sexual exploitation side than the forced labour side, especially
in regimes that have issues with prostitution generally or where you have law enforcement
already looking at prostitution and then they need to just add that extra element of not nonconsensual but let’s say abusive situation, or vulnerability, or abuse of power in some way
(G5).
In contrast, front-line service providers most commonly referred to either the issue of labour
exploitation or that of sexual exploitation within BC when answering questions. The focus on one
issue over another could be due to the fact that front-line service providers were more likely to
have expertise working with victims of one criminal activity, whereas government personnel, for
the most part, expressed limited experiences working directly with victims and instead studied the
issue as a whole.
Overall, participants from both sources favourably described the shift in human trafficking
discourse in BC. Government personnel and front-line service providers alike stated:
Huge change though in the last twenty-one years in a positive way. You know just this
morning I came in and there’s a voice message from missing persons and they want to send
me a picture of a young girl who has been missing. They’re very concerned about her. That
wouldn’t have happened back then (S1).

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So I’d say we’ve come quite a long way over the past sixteen years, and it was in the
nineties that really awareness started, I think. People started going ‘hmm, what is this that’s
going on, people are providing labour and services under conditions that are really more
consistent with a slavery-type relationship, they’re not exercising true free will’ (G5).
Today’s discourse about the crime of human trafficking was characterized as a narrative where
“there is an acceptance and acknowledgement that it’s something that’s happening here in BC”
(G1). Another participant stated:
I think that first of all people are, they’re willing to talk about it and that in itself is
something. Even at schools it wasn’t something that you could talk about at school easily
in the past and we’ve been really lucky this was the first year we were been able to get
human trafficking education at the high schools (S5).
Reasons Attributed to Shifts in Discourse
All fourteen participants expressed some difficulty in attributing specific reasons for the
shift in discourse. There was no notable difference between government personnel responses and
front-line service provider responses; both stated it was hard to pinpoint any one particular catalyst
for the change in public discourse. As one government personnel noted:
Well, I mean it’s sort of a chicken and egg scenario. There’s just a whole bunch of things
that went on. As I said, I think on the ground people were talking about this issue in the
nineties. And then that spurred an international, global commitment to actually define what
it was that everybody was talking about in a convention that was a protocol to the
transnational crime convention, but there was a big movement to define it. That in and of
itself is an awareness raising activity. Canada participated in that activity. It was integral
in terms of globally raising the bar and raising awareness. And then that also spurred
movement within Canada. The international civil society as well as domestic civil society
dealing with victims and they have a voice that is heard by governments, by different levels
of government, heard by the Canada people saying this is a problem. These people need
helping, they’re coming to us and this is not good. What’s happening to them is tantamount
to slavery and we need to do something about it. And all at the same time the international
voice is speaking and people within government are looking at it and developing laws etc.
So I’m loath to say that I saw one factor above all others that stood out. I saw a whole
bunch of different sectors, sometimes working together, sometimes speaking, well they’re
all speaking with a similar voice (G5).

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The above comment suggests that while it was difficult for the participant to determine an exact
cause for why things changed, there is an acceptance that there was a change. Most participants
attributed the shift in discourse to generalizable factors such as community engagement, public
awareness efforts, and social media. Both sources agreed that general knowledge of the crime
improved when government and social service providers began meeting with community members
and discovered that the issue occurred domestically as well as internationally.
Everybody did regional sessions in the provinces except for Quebec, they didn’t take part
for – I don’t know what reason. From that, we learned a lot from community. At that point
I only had what the north was saying and it was enough to know that it was a huge issue.
We have a huge issue (S6).
…we started to look at the definition of protocol, and talked to community members, we
realized that the domestic trafficking of Canadians, including our Aboriginal population,
was an issue that definitely needed our attention (G3).
They started recognizing the Highway of Tears22 and the aspect of the Aboriginal woman
being very much….and also we realized there was a lot of movement across the provinces,
not even Aboriginal, but young people moved to other provinces where they didn’t know
people. So they noticed that type of thing and realized it is not only international and maybe
there was more of an emphasis. The Salvation Army got housing, we had people with
domestic. They all started realizing there was a lot more trafficking for labour (S2).
Interestingly, nine participants (three government personnel and six front-line service
providers) dated the narrative shift to the years 2006 and 2007. The most common reason given
by both sources for citing 2006 and 2007 was Vancouver’s successful bid for the 2010 Winter
Olympic Games.
We won the bid in 2004, and I think that after every Olympics Games there’s a lesson
learned by the host jurisdiction. And I think this was one of the big issues that was identified
as an Olympic issue - that there would be human trafficking, that prostitutes would be
brought into Vancouver from around the world in order to you know, the massive profits
associated to the Games. I think that was one of the triggers. I think there was also the

The Highway of Tears is a stretch of highway located in the northwest region of the province between Prince
George to Prince Rupert, where a number of women have gone missing or been found murdered (Oppal, 2012).
22

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initiatives taken by the RCMP and VPD.23 I don’t know if you’ve talked to someone from
either of those agencies or if they’d even be around but I think that both organizations were
seeing the sexual exploitation as an issue of trafficking, and had been raising that. But I
think the real trigger was this is something we’re going to have to address during the Games
(G1).
Any big sporting event, any mass sporting event they look at trafficking because it’s
bringing people here. Both bringing the clients and the victims, it’s much easier to bring
victims in too. You hear it repeated always during the big soccer events and then it
sometimes peters out and then they start arguing whether it petered out because there was
so much publicity that stopped it or whether it really isn’t what they think it is. And I don’t
know if they’ve ever really come to a decision. [ ] …. they only talked about it in relation
to the Olympics (S2).
While the 2010 Olympics was regarded as one catalyst for the province’s shifting understanding
of the crime, the post-Olympics era was seen more critically by some front-line service providers
as a time of shortcomings and failures in BC compared to government personnel. One front-line
service provider stated that government decreased public funding towards anti-trafficking efforts
following the Olympics because the city of Vancouver saw less human trafficking activity than
expected. Another participant said that BC had been a model province in Canada, but following
the Olympics “we sort of fell apart. Some of the other provinces got much more involved. I know
people involved in Ottawa and they’re much more unified. There seems to be ups and downs in
all provinces” (S2).
Human Trafficking Narrative from the Early 2000s
Discussions of human trafficking from the early 2000s were described as being almost nonexistent; “it wasn’t really on the radar” (S2). Concepts of human trafficking at that time referred
to it as something that happens elsewhere to other people. Participants from both sources portrayed
a general naiveté among the general public in the early 2000s to the notion that Canadians could

23

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Vancouver Police Department.

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be victimizing natural-born Canadians; “we were at a fairly low state of awareness at that stage”
(G5). Human trafficking was seen as a crime perpetrated by organized criminal networks; one that
occurred in countries and regions of extreme poverty. Front-line service providers said:
I think Jessie’s 24disappearance and connection to human trafficking wouldn’t have even
had the exposure it did if it didn’t happen at what was the right time. It happened at a time
where nobody was talking about it. Nobody knew anyone that it had happened to. And
because I was willing to talk about it was welcomed. People wanted to hear it. Now there
are so many more people that talk, thank goodness. Now we have victims that talk and
form their own organizations like Sex Trade 101 and such that’s where a lot of people are
really learning (S3).
In 2004, the CCR25 decided to get more involved with refugees because so many fell
victims to trafficking – there was an overlap. We organized a workshop here for refugee
providers, government sources also came, and there was a big turnout. And out of that, the
police and RCMP did their own organizing of one at the Hotel Vancouver. They were
looking mainly at the police response. At that point, like I said there was a change over
time in the image of what trafficking was. At that point, it was quite restricted to
international (S2).
Similarly government personnel stated:
I think up until that point, we had always referred to human trafficking, I’m not even sure
we called it human trafficking really but it had always been referred to as something that
happened internationally (G1).
I think it’s fair to say though that when we started we had a bit of a perception that there
might be more internationally trafficked persons than have actually been brought to our
attention, that’s not to say that they’re not out there but certainly the issue of domestic
trafficking, especially Aboriginal girls and women in BC really emerged as a priority and
they have unique vulnerabilities due to colonization, racism, residential schools, poverty
and that kind of thing. But I think that’s one area that we definitely have given a bit more
priority to over the years because of the large and rapidly growing Aboriginal youth
population and some of the really hidden nature of that exploitation. But when we go to
communities, we definitely hear about those issues (G3).
…and there were a lot of people who didn’t appreciate that trafficking was something that
happened in Canada, as well as in other countries. It was viewed, I think back then, as
something that happened elsewhere, not in more developed locations (G5).

24

Identifying information has been blacked out.

25

Canadian Council for Refugees.

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Human Trafficking Narrative Today
Participants described today’s understandings of human trafficking as more complex
compared to those of the early 2000s.
We noticed that earlier on, whoever did a public awareness campaign would use chains
and women who were beaten down or with black eyes, or that sort of imagery. Now we
don’t see that anymore. There is an understanding that a trafficked person if not necessarily
chained in a basement. That it happens different than the iconography, you know the pop
culture iconography reflects. So I think that there is a change, it’s not just government it’s
society at large. There is a more, let’s say less rudimental understanding of what human
trafficking is (G2).
The notion that the originally rudimentary understandings of this crime have improved was a
concept repeated throughout the interviews with both government personnel and front-line service
providers alike. Even still, most participants agreed that while there is more awareness about the
crime, the general public remains somewhat misinformed of the realities of the phenomenon.
I think we still think about human trafficking as something that happens internationally,
and not necessarily something that happens domestically. And I think when we refer to the
sexual exploitation of youth, so youth being trafficked from small communities to larger
ones or across the country, I think that still people don’t necessarily think of that as human
trafficking. They think of that as prostitution maybe (G1).
Because it’s unthinkable that a Canadian will exploit a Canadian. That is prevalent in the
community right, ‘oh trafficking, Canadian people trafficked or exploited?’ So I think we
were are also under that understanding of human trafficking (G2).
You know, because I know we had a big case in Hamilton Ontario on labour trafficking
and there have been some international cases, particularly in the Toronto area. But I think
that if you’re working in this area at all, you become so aware of other countries trafficking
that our international trafficking seems very small (S4).
Significant differences between government personnel observations about human
trafficking discourse and those of front-line service providers were noted in their observations
about who is victimized and rates of victimization. Government personnel were, in general, more
critical of the ‘single narrative story’ and were apprehensive to make claims about victim rates:

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…domestic human trafficking for sexual exploitation cases. Those are the majority of cases
we see before the courts. So there’s a difference, there could be a difference between what
comes before the courts and what is actually happening on the ground, but that’s what
we’re seeing from a Criminal Justice perspective (G5).
…we tend to take a broader approach and use the Protocol - and so a broader list of
indicators that to us would indicate a potentially trafficked person…(G3).
It doesn’t help us or our work to identify where, which one is, we take human trafficking
as one crime that shows a variety of forms of exploitation (G2).
They were also apprehensive about stating which crime was more common, labour or sex
trafficking. Instead, government personnel focused on ‘vulnerable populations’:
I would say, dealing with the most vulnerable first, I understand. So if we have to set some
priorities, obviously, working off the UN Convention Rights of the Child and on the sale
of child for prostitution or pornography, that becomes – for me- a number one concern. A
number two concern would be women who are generally more oppressed than men in our
society, and that is often in the sex trade but not only, and then from there I would so we
move from that to other areas. So it’s not all bad that all the attention is on the sexual thing
because that is often women and children. So I get that. However, that does not mean we
shouldn’t be very vigilant around men who are employed in the sex trade, or men who are
employed in the farming harvesting operation, or in a construction operation where there’s
health and safety things that may not be followed, where basic employment standards are
not being met – we don’t have a record of these people. They’re brought in to do work, we
don’t even know they exist. And how we do that? I don’t know (G4).
… we have identified three what we call ‘priority populations’: youth in general for the
purpose of sexual exploitation, Aboriginal youth and women also for the purpose of sexual
exploitation, and what we call vulnerable workers and these are all the workers that are in
Canada legally participating in the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, Seasonal
Agricultural Workers Program, what used to be the Live-In Caregivers Program, and those
who are working but lack full-status – students, people who overstayed their visas – people
with no status in Canada. These three populations are very vulnerable and our priority focus
(G2).
Comparatively, front-line service providers had a tendency to focus on either sex trafficking or
labour trafficking depending on their area of expertise;
I keep focusing on the sex trade (S7).
I just want to clarify that the place where I’m coming from in answering all these questions
is about sex trafficking, I know very little about labour trafficking and service providers
who offer services to people who have been trafficked due to labour exploitation (S8).

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Furthermore, front-line service providers described human trafficking victim rates differently by
focusing on victims of either sexual or labour acts depending on their experience in either labour
or sex trafficking sectors. For example, front-line service providers who worked primarily with
labour victims stated that international labour trafficking was the most common form of human
trafficking.
They’re increasing now. Especially in the labour market. They have, compared to before?
I would say a hundred percent more (S9).
I personally believe there’s more labour than there is prostitution. There is still a heavy
emphasis because of the moral. I mean, I’m quite aware of it but some of the religious
groups formed as adjuncts and are very heavy on prostitution. There is more or less a
complete concentration on prostitution and using the religion thing as moral basis. I
personally, I’m not for prostitution or anything like that, but they are using this to ignore
the labour aspect (S2).
Those who worked primarily with sexually exploited domestic youth more readily described
today’s victims as being predominantly domestic;
The statistics I’ve seen in Canada is that ninety-three percent of human trafficking is
domestic. When we’re talking about youth. There’s a difference always be careful I can’t
talk about adults – bringing adults into the country could look very different. But I’m
talking about youth and ninety-three percent of the youth are Canadian girls. And it is
mostly girls but it does happen with the boys – Canadian girls being bought and sold by
Canadian men (S1).
Well guess what? In Canada we have very little international human trafficking, but people
dismissed it I think because of the crossing the borders, and I think what happens because
of our court situations, oh, because of the courts plus Canada added a clause to the Palermo
Agreement. Canada added that safety clause. So I think it’s more difficult to get a human
trafficking conviction in Canada so they go to a lesser conviction. Because the police want
to get a conviction right (S4).
I will say this, so anybody who is talking about human trafficking right now understands
that this is a new legislative act, 2002. And really, that only happened because of the UN,
and people still don’t understand it. Our government doesn’t completely understand it, and
that set them off to pay attention to the issue a little bit. We know that sexual exploitation
of our girls is ramped. Any study, the last one done in Vancouver in 2002 showed that sixty
percent of the sexually exploited youth in Vancouver were Aboriginal. It’s not a new thing,
but I think at the time it became prevalent for us because they were talking about the
legalization of prostitution. That was one of the things. As we started talking about

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prostitution, are we really talking about prostitution or are we talking about human
trafficking and sexual exploitation? (S6).
Participants’ observations about who is trafficked in Canada appeared to diverge based on their
area of expertise and experience working with victims. As noted, government personnel took a
broad approach to understanding victims and victim rates; and no government personnel made a
claim that there was either more labour or sex trafficking in Canada. Comparatively, front-line
service providers were more apt to claim that one form of trafficking was more common than the
other, and as noted, their observations correlated to their work experience with either victims of
sexual exploitation or labour crimes.
Rates of human trafficking in BC today
Participants had mixed ideas about the prevalence of human trafficking in BC. Overall,
there was a perception that the crime is more commonplace than existing data suggest. However,
most participants (both government personnel and front-line service providers alike) did not
consider the number of victims to be growing. Instead, they acknowledge that while the data
suggest there are more victims impacted by human trafficking today than in the past, this rise in
victim rates is attributed to increased awareness and victim disclosures. One front-line service
provider attributed the suggested growth in victim rates to an expanding definition of the crime
that encompasses more criminal acts. A few front-line service providers stated they believed that
social media made access to victims much easier and, accordingly, there might be an increase in
the number of domestic victims who are sex trafficked. All four government personnel and five
front-line service providers were cautious about making claims that rates of human trafficking are
increasing.
I cannot say that there is an increase. What there is, is an increase of identified or reported
cases (G2).
We don’t have the information from before to assess whether it’s actually increasing (G1).

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I wouldn’t say there’s an increase in the rates of trafficking I would say that there’s just
more of a recognition of the fact that human trafficking is taking place. So there’s more
victims coming forward, whether or not they recognize themselves as a victim of
trafficking, I think people are just speaking up about their experiences, particularly when
you’re looking at people who are working in the sex trade (S5).
I would have to say it seems to be hard, I looked into this because I knew you were going
to ask this, and it’s one of those areas that it’s hard to collect data on. Any activity that is
contraband or illegal is harder to collect data. I did see that the International Labour
Organization has estimated that there’s one and a half million people in North America and
Europe in 2012, which is an increase from 2005 where they said there was 350,000. So the
one statistic I could find was a North America and Europe statistic and it has gone up fourfold in-between 2005 and 2012. So that tells me yes. Anecdotally, I have certainly seen
some stories of people in the construction industry, in the so-called adult entertainment
industry, or care-givers and home care-givers – nannies etc. – where there’s been
exploitation. And so, I don’t know if it’s more or less but my instinct is it’s higher (G4).
One government personnel questioned the premise of determining the rates of human trafficking;
A victim of crime that needs help should be helped and it doesn’t matter at the end of the
day if their victimization is human trafficking, or through abuse, or if it’s an extreme
violation of employment standards, they have been harmed (G2).
By comparison, four front-line service providers claimed that rates of human trafficking victims
have increased since 2000. Among the four, two worked exclusively with Canadian youth and
attributed the rise to online activity;
I don’t think that there are more predators around, but I do think there are more
opportunities around. Youth in 1995 that were at risk were being connected at street level
and we saw a lot of street level activity going on – we actually had a ‘kiddy stroll’ in
Vancouver. That doesn’t exist anymore. You used to see the customer driving up and
picking up the youth on the street level, it still happens but the majority of it is online.
Youth are recruited online, they’re groomed online, they’re advertised online, they meet
their clientele online, and they’re bought and sold online. So it’s very much online activity
now. So it has changed and because it’s changed in that direction, it’s also increased (S1).
A John can contact a girl being exploited just via text message. That’s the biggest change
that has increased human trafficking because it’s so much easier to do without being
caught, and it’s also why most people don’t think it happens, because it’s become so
secretive (S6).

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The other two participants who said they believed the number of trafficking victims to be
increasing due to the expansion of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and
Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).
The Canadians, [they’re] the ones taking advantage of the system, they’re the ones abusing
the system, they’re the ones working around it. They’re the ones that know how to break
these rules, and that’s how they’re working now. Employers, right here now, taking
advantage of the system. Yes, immigration, CIC 26, they’re accepting immigrants now, but
they have the changed the system now so they have to go through the PNP 27 (S9).
…most of the people that are victims of trafficking of labour are temporary residents of
some form or another, whether or not they’re students or part of the Temporary Residency
Program they’re not really coming forward any more so, just simply because they don’t
want to lose their residency status (S5).
BC Anti-Trafficking Efforts Compared to Other Provinces
As a group, government personnel spoke favourably of BC’s anti-trafficking efforts. They
pointed towards the Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons (OCTIP) as demonstrative of the
province’s commitment to institutionalizing awareness of the issue and combating trafficking of
people.
I think that we’re out in front of other provinces, I think that we have been for a long time.
Now there may be some who are close. I know that the staff in the office were called upon
to train other people, other provinces, to present at lots of provinces on what we were doing
in British Columbia, so my assessment is that we’re ahead of the curve. That doesn’t mean
that people aren’t close or catching up, but we’ve not only got a well-developed program
and we are well on our way to making sure there’s the institutional knowledge as well (G1).
Comparatively, front-line service providers were more critical of BC’s anti-trafficking efforts.
Here in BC we’re really lucky because we have the Office to Combat Trafficking in
Persons and then we also have an RCMP member who is the human trafficking coordinator
for the Pacific Northwest. So I think in that sense I think we’re really lucky. As far as funds
are concerned, there needs to be some more long-term funding that has to take place in
order for services to really be viable, simply because we all work for not-for profits
especially in social service agencies (S5).
26

Citizenship and Immigration Canada, a federal ministry.

27

Provincial Nominee Program.

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I know that a lot of people will say that we have the Office to Combat Human Trafficking.
And you know, that’s great. They’ve done a lot of education and they have given out grants.
I know they gave out a big grant to Surrey Memorial Hospital to establish and educate, and
that’s great because Surrey has a high high percentage of... So I believe that they have done
some great work but there’s a lack of identifying and maybe how we identify young girls
quickly (S4).
I think the fact that we have the Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons is a significant
leap forward, I’m finding provinces all over are starting to have their own agencies that
deal with trafficking. I think OCTIP has really brought a lot of awareness; however, there’s
a lot of work to do (S6).
Specifically, front-line service providers’ criticized BC’s lack of long-term initiatives and
highlighted the need for better collaboration between resources. One participant stated “I think that
in British Columbia here I think we’re way behind” (S4), and another said “it feels like BC is just
not wanting to get with the program” (S3). Another participant stated that while OCTIP is a
“significant leap forward” there is a still “a lot of work to do”, arguing that “we have a tendency
in this province to always be reactive” (S6). The message that “there needs to be a better connection
between health services and social services” (S5) resonated throughout all nine interviews with
front-line service providers.
There was a shared concern among both sources that human trafficking is not prioritized
as a political issue and that this hinders anti-trafficking efforts. Government personnel attributed
the lack of prioritization of the issue in the political sphere to public attitudes and values.
I think governments – one of our problems in public policy is that generally speaking the
way our political system works is that we have a bias towards helping the people who are
most likely to elect us. And so we have a bias towards helping those who are going to
impact at elections, or that have an impact in our success, or that have an impact in all kinds
of ways. And so those people who are never going to vote for anybody because they’re not
citizens they’re never going to be involved. It’s hard to get people to care for people who
aren’t part of their community (G4).
I think that society needs to reconsider a number of things. How we treat each other, our
consumption patterns and habits, and the value of human life and freedom. That’s the larger
picture (G2).

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Front-line service providers focused on clogged systems, poor victim identification, and low
conviction rates as barriers to more effective anti-trafficking efforts in BC. There was consensus
from both data sources that while the issue is not prioritized, it should be. Only one front-line
service provider was critical of prioritizing the issue, arguing that there is little reliable evidence
to suggest domestic sex trafficking is a pervasive issue.
In the city of Vancouver, we had a sex work task force for two years, I think it was around
2012 to 2013. On that task force you had police, you had health authority, you had support
organizations and just a broad cloth of service providers and organizations. And not once
in those two years did human trafficking come up or sex trafficking come up. You would
think, in the city of Vancouver, if there was that much trafficking, if there was that much
of a need for services for sex trafficking in the task force surely it would have been tabled
at some point (S8).
Education: An Effective Anti-Trafficking Tool
Government personnel and front-line service providers overwhelmingly identified
education as an essential anti-trafficking tool. One participant stated that “by increasing our
awareness, I think our ability to address it has improved” (G1). Education, defined as raising
awareness and training programs, was cited as an anti-trafficking tool because it was perceived as
an effective means of reshaping the public narrative. Participants from both sources believed that
the general public is either misinformed about the reality of human trafficking, or there is a need
to educate the public on risk factors and indicators of human trafficking. One government
personnel said:
…when service providers are aware of what human trafficking is then they are able to see
the indicators. I don’t know if you research international campaigns or awareness
campaigns, but they all have to do with ones called ‘Look beyond the surface’ another is
the ‘Blue Blindfold’ campaign, so all are somehow linked to this idea of seeing what’s in
front of you and what you couldn’t see before. And that’s what happened with service
providers that either took our training or participated in the ‘Train the Trainers’ or who
somehow got connected and educated… (G2).

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Another said:
So what needs to change? We need to do public education. We need to embed this in
courses. It needs to part of the training for a social worker. It needs to form part of our –
we need to build that kind of awareness so that people are talking about it, they identify it,
and in doing that I think we have the chance of addressing it (G1).
A front-line service provider explained the benefits of educating the general public of human
trafficking in the following manner:
… it’s not always the big cases, it could be really small. And telling stories and bringing it
back to reality, like the idea of the one case out of Vancouver with the labour trafficking
victim where it was a cleaning lady that met the person at a bus stop and developed a
relationship with her. Talking to them in that way, or talking to them about how a teenager
who is posting photos on Snapchat28 could be easily trafficked because they have their
geolocation on. Things like that. When you talk to them in those parameters, I think people
become a lot more aware because people are like ‘oh it could be anybody’ (S5).
Another noted a need for educating law enforcement:
I think education awareness at the RCMP level is going to be integral. I know that at the
time the RCMP officer who came to my community meeting, she was telling me that her
supervisor did not believe that human trafficking occurred in Canada. She did, but when
your superiors don’t understand the laws and how that applies at the community level its’
going to be really hard to spot and combat (S6).
A government personnel viewed education as a way to inform individuals’ of the impacts of their
actions:
...sometimes you have to teach people that their lives will be hurt in the long run because
someone else is being exploited (G4).
Similarly, one front-line service personnel pointed towards educating the general public on the
connections between everyday practices and labour trafficking stating;
…when you have an issue like labour trafficking it forces you to – if you want to truly
work on that issue, you might have to make changes in your life. For example, the food
that you’re buying or the clothes that you’re buying because some of that might have been
made in a sweat shop or by trafficked people, right? (S8).

28

Snapchat is a social media program.

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In general, ideas about education focused on educating communities and at-risk
populations, such as youth, to better identify and navigate potentially exploitative situations. As
one participant stated, “Every youth has to have the opportunity to learn the warning signs around
human trafficking to keep themselves safe” (S3).
Interestingly, participants’ from both sources likened human trafficking education to that
of domestic violence.
It’s not just unique to human trafficking there’s all sorts of situations where if you know
something exists you can find it, but if you’re not aware or you blame yourself for what
happened you’ll never find the resources. You’ll never look for them. So that comes full
circle to talking about it. There’s very few people who are involved in domestic violence
who don’t know that there’s services (G1).
I think people now are beginning to recognize the connection between incest, child abuse,
domestic abuse, pornography, human trafficking. I began to see, obviously when I came
here, I saw that most of our youth were victims of domestic violence for sure (S4).
I would like to see, the fact that service provider, social workers, police officers would be
able to identify a young person whose been trafficked or sexually exploited and be able to
make recommendations or charges to crown without having the young person give a
statement. Very similar to what we’ve done with domestic violence (S1).
Human trafficking is fairly new if you will, compared to even domestic violence. It’s
something that’s just come up, been more recognizable in the last ten or so years and it
takes a long time for government to get on board with stuff like that (S5).
In addition to advocating for the use of education as an effective anti-trafficking tool,
respondents highlighted policy tools. For example, front-line service providers were critical of the
judicial systems and its ability to support victims. Specifically those who work with victims of
domestic sex trafficking stated that there is a need for policy clarification to allow the judicial
system to better support victims in situations where offenders present as ‘boyfriends’ to their
victims. They pointed towards the reasonable person clause to highlight arguments that the
dynamics of abuse are not adequately considered during court processes.

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…the laws of human trafficking specifically make it even more difficult because this idea
that they have to be in fear doesn’t make any sense. Like that’s why I said even for the
labour side of it, people that I knew from Africa that were working tree planting – for this
one specific group anyways – I mean they did have some freedom but they’re not treated
fairly. They didn’t get all kind of things that should have been in place for them either. Of
course, these grey areas, like they weren’t scared. They felt like they had everything
because it was better than where they were coming from but it was still, they were going
against a lot of work labour laws. So those are the grey areas that I find get really
frustrating. Why somebody has to be in fear? Like it somebody can see this person has
been transported from point A to point B, and they’re not being treated fairly, whatever our
laws here, whether it’s for work, if it’s sexual stuff that just becomes a whole other thing,
but it should be really easy to just say ‘no this is a form of human trafficking against this
labour law and we should be able to do something about it’. But that doesn’t seem to be
the case (S7).
I think that’s really tricky particularly if you’re looking at human trafficking Criminal Code
because there has to be that element of fear involved in order to convict somebody of
human trafficking. And everybody’s interpretation, like my interpretation of fear for my
life and fear for the life of my family members for example might be completely different
from yours (S5).
In addition to requests for clarification around the reasonable person clause, three front-line
service providers and one government personnel expressed concern about the Temporary Foreign
Worker Program (TFWP) in that it creates conditions for exploitation; arguing for policy change.
Once he gets the PNP29 nomination then he can apply for the federal program which is the
permanent residency program and once he get the permanency residency than he and she
is free to go anywhere within Canada, you know they can settle anywhere. But then this is
where, lots of employers even locally here, and in the outside areas, the smaller businesses,
specifically fast-food restaurants right, that are taking advantage of them. This is where I
see these human rights being totally violated and being taken advantage of. The contracts
are being made, you know with these…with these workers. I don’t know if they would
come under the human trafficking because they have come, some of them have come as
students where they have taken their education though. They do their two year, two year
diploma and then after that they get the work permit and then they’re hired by employers.
But I would consider it as human trafficking too. And then that’s how contracts are made
with them, you know that you pay me this much, even though the person is hired on the
job, then they, they have to pay lump sum, okay. Yet, with that lump sum they’re not even
being paid fully for what they’re hired for. They’re underpaid for that (S9).

29

Provincial Nominee Program.

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There’s just been an increase in the number of temporary residents - temporary foreign
workers that are here. And so there’s been more opportunity for people to be trafficked or
exploited at least within their role (S5).
One government personnel suggested another policy change arguing for a counter-trafficking lens
to be applied to all government policies to ensure government-based programs are not
inadvertently creating conditions for human trafficking. The same participant said:
We need targeted approaches as opposed to broad policy approaches, because I don’t think
a broad policy approach is ever going to really effectively deal with the situation. I would
add into that issues of children and marriage. That’s going both ways across the border
now – there are children from Canada being forced into marriage in other countries, being
sent over for school and they just disappear and that is a problem. And then there are
marriages of people coming to Canada. Forced marriage is not employment, it’s not labour,
but it is another form of trafficking. You’ve got migrant workers in construction who are
being exploited or nannies, or caregivers who are being exploited. Or people who are
coming in as a nanny and finding out they are actually expected to be a sex worker. Each
of them means that when we approach a policy, say on temporary foreign workers, we need
to have a lens on it in terms of human trafficking (G4).
Summary
In this chapter, I discussed the findings from my thematic analysis, which revealed noted
shifts in perceptions of human trafficking discourse from 2000 to today. Both government
personnel and front-line service providers alike described a shift from an exclusively international
narrative towards a more complex and domestic one. The two sources attributed this shift to overall
public awareness, interactions with communities, and some participants suggested that the
province’s bid for the 2010 Olympic Games propelled BC’s anti-trafficking agenda. Differences
in observations between the two sources arose in discussions of rates of human trafficking in BC
and Canada at-large. Government personnel were apprehensive about the public belief that human
trafficking is a ‘growing’ crime and used broad victim descriptors that included people impacted
by both labour and sex trafficking. By comparison, front-line workers were divided on their
impressions of victim rates depending on their area of expertise. Those who work with sexually
exploited youth described the number of victims as increasing. Those who worked primarily with

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domestic victims were apt to describe domestic human sex trafficking as more common than other
forms of exploitation. Those who worked with international victims were more apt to describe
international human labour trafficking as more common than other forms of exploitation. The
findings suggest that observations about rates of human trafficking and the accuracy of perceptions
of public discourse are partly influenced by an individual’s employment experiences and area of
expertise; a suggestion that will be discussed further in Chapter Five. Finally, government
personnel described the province of BC’s anti-trafficking efforts in more favourable terms than
front-line service providers, and both sources noted the importance of education as an effective
anti-trafficking tool, along with suggested policy changes.

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Chapter Five: Discussion, Implications, and Recommendations
The purpose of this research is to study observable shifts to human trafficking discourse
and to compare those observations from two different employment contexts: government
personnel and front-line service providers. Government personnel were chosen because of their
role in developing social policies and programs, and front-line service providers were chosen
because of their experiences working directly with human trafficking victims and raising
awareness of the issue. The research compares observations about human trafficking over a period
of time to shed light on BC’s anti-trafficking efforts, including its successes and shortcomings. As
such, the research was based on one primary question and two sub-questions:
1. What observable changes to the type of human trafficking have occurred in BC since
2000, and how do observations made by government personnel compare to those made
by front-line service providers?
a. What are participants’ perceptions of the number of documented victims of
international human trafficking in BC?
b. What are participants’ perceptions of the number of documented victims of
domestic trafficking in BC?
Participants provided detailed descriptions of their understandings of human trafficking
narratives through insightful observations. In general, participants expressed optimism over recent
changes to the public discourse on human trafficking in BC and Canada. The findings suggest that
there has been a notable shift from a primarily international narrative in the early 2000s towards a
more complex narrative today that considers both international and domestic criminal acts.
Educational programs were described as effective anti-trafficking tools by government personnel
and front-line service providers alike. Two significant differences that arose from participants’
observations were their interpretations of victims and victim rates. Front-line service providers
focused on victim demographics in divided terms based on their experiences working with victims

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of either sexual or labour trafficking crimes. Comparatively, government personnel with selfidentified limited direct experiences with victims were more likely to describe victim
demographics in broad terms, applying definitions that included both sexual and labour criminal
acts. Front-line service providers were at odds with one another about whether or not human
trafficking is a growing crime, whereas government personnel uniformly disagreed or questioned
this claim. This chapter outlines the significance of these findings, compares the research findings
to the literature, and concludes with suggested areas of future research.
Important Differences in Observations between Sources
What stood out in the findings were differences in who participants observed to be most
at-risk of being victimized, as well as their understanding of whether or not human trafficking is a
growing crime: two observations that appeared to correlate with employment context. Front-line
service providers who worked with victims of labour trafficking overwhelmingly said they
believed labour exploitation of international victims was the most common form of human
trafficking in the province of BC. Those who worked with domestic youth said they believed
domestic sexual exploitation was the most common form of human trafficking in the province. By
comparison, government personnel were more likely to describe both labour and sexual
exploitation as equally prevalent crimes. Front-line workers’ observations about victims were
generally focused on a specific form of exploitation based on their work experiences. All nine of
the front-line service providers interviewed worked with either domestic sex trafficking victims or
international labour trafficking victims and of the nine, two self-identified as having significant
knowledge of both topics. Comparatively, all five of the government personnel interviewed stated
they had limited one-on-one experience with victims or worked with a wide demographic of
victims and had knowledge of both labour and sexual trafficking in persons.

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The differences between observations made by each data source hold certain suggested
implications. First, government personnel and front-line service providers’ definitions of human
trafficking are varied. Also, front-line service providers who work primarily with sexually
exploited domestic youth and those who work with international labour trafficking victims
disagree in their opinions about whether or not human trafficking is a growing crime. Individual
assumptions, ideas, and observations about human trafficking are seemingly influenced by their
experiences working directly with victims. For front-line workers, their involvements with victims
appeared to shape their perceptions about who is most at-risk for trafficking in the province and
their impressions about what is needed to combat the issue. Some respondents said there is a need
for increased awareness about how human trafficking targets Canadian girls; and others said there
is a need for greater protections for temporary foreign workers who are victimized by Canadian
employers. Comparatively, government personnel applied less variance and more unanimity in
their understandings of victims and victim rates. One explanation for this noted difference is, as
Chuang (2014) writes, that the term trafficking is “very much in the eye of the beholder” (p. 610).
Of the fifteen individuals interviewed for this research, each expressed differences in how they
interpret the crime, though government personnel applied less definitional discrepancies than
front-line service providers.
Is Human Trafficking a Growing Issue?
As noted, the majority of participants from both sources were critical of the claim that
human trafficking is a ‘growing crime’ with the exception of front-line service providers who work
directly with sexually exploited domestic youth and who stated they believed victim rates were
increasing. Chuang (2014) suggests that human trafficking is perceived as a growing crime
because the definition itself is expanding. In 2000, the term ‘human trafficking’ was internationally

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defined in the Palermo Protocol using broad descriptors. In 2005, Canada legally defined ‘human
trafficking’ through amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada (CCC) using more narrow
descriptors. In this research, front-line service providers applied varying descriptors to human
trafficking crimes. Some equated prostitution with human trafficking, others interchangeably used
the terms ‘sexual exploitation’ and ‘human trafficking,’ and others stated they were unsure what
constituted as human trafficking. Evidently, the term appears to mean different things to different
people. For example, one participant described her interpretation of ‘human trafficking’ as
growing, stating:
And the drug trade has some of the same elements of exploitation. If you take the Palermo
agreement30, which is the act, the means, and the purpose, the drug trafficking, they’re
lured into it, deceived into it that they’re going to make money and then they’re totally
controlled. And as Laura Murphy 31 really says, one of the elements is can they get out?
And we’ve experienced, a lot of our boys, being violently harmed, physically,
psychologically in the drug trafficking. I don’t think we’ve done enough to recognize that
the male population who are involved in drug trafficking, it is trafficking (S4).
Expanding the descriptors of what is, and is not, human trafficking is not necessarily
incorrect or misguided. And yet, definitional discrepancies are believed to create barriers to
education, training, and peoples’ perceptions about the successes of current legislation. Critics
argue that the expansion of the trafficking agenda in the past two decades is rife with inaccuracies
and moral campaigning leaving many asking: “what exactly is everyone trying to fight?” (Chuang,
2014, p.609). The field of anti-trafficking inconsistently defines the crime’s parameters, and
organizations and governments are often not held accountable for reporting inaccurate or nonevidence based statistics (Chuang, 2014; Weitzer, 2015). This research found that front-line
service providers who work directly with sexually exploited domestic youth apply more broad

30

The ‘Palermo agreement’ refers to the Palermo Protocol.

31

Identifying information has been blacked out.

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definitions of the crime compared to those working with labour trafficking victims and government
personnel. As such, descriptors by government personnel do not always align with those used by
front-line service providers; and observations of the same phenomenon varied broadly based on
employment experiences.
Perceiving the Narrative Shift Favourably
Participants from both sources described early discussions of the issue as being singularly
focused on international sex trafficking. Today, the discourse of human trafficking is described as
being more complex and encompassing of a variety of international and domestic criminal acts.
Participants also characterized today’s discourse as being more knowledgeable of multiple forms
of trafficking acts compared to previous years. These findings were not altogether surprising as
the literature indicates that discourse on this topic has become more commonplace in recent years
(Gozdziak & Bump, 2008; Weitzer, 2015). What was surprising was how participants
characterized the shift in discourse, including when and why it occurred. The literature denotes
shifts in dialogue starting in the mid-2000s. These dates align with Canada’s amendments of the
Criminal Code of Canada (CCC) in 2005 to include human trafficking as a criminal offense
(Justice Laws, Criminal Code of Canada, 2017, sec. 279). Nine of the fifteen participants cited the
years 2006 and 2007 as narrative turning points; however, the CCC amendment was not cited as a
catalyst for the discourse shift by any of the respondents. Instead, seven participants (five frontline service providers and two government personnel) attributed the change to community
engagement, and three participants (two front-line service providers and one government
personnel) attributed the shift to the province’s successful bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
While these findings are not conclusive, they suggest that 2006 and 2007 were a time of significant
change in the province’s perceptions of this crime.

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Attributing BC’s early Anti-trafficking Efforts to the Olympics
In a 2015 report by Millar and O’Doherty, they state that in the year preceding the
Olympics several individuals and organizations claimed that upwards of 80,000 women and
children would be trafficked into Canada as a consequence of hosting an international sports
competition (p.10). These claims were, according to Miller and O’Doherty (2015), made and
publicized despite a lack of evidence to support the existence of an upsurge in human trafficking
relating to large sporting events. The dialogue around human trafficking pre-dating the Olympics
was reminiscent of discourse from the early 2000s in that it was focused on supposed threats and
assumptions rather than statistics. Concerns about a potential increase in human trafficking in
Vancouver are said to have led to increased provincial funding and resource allocation, and
participants stated that they wondered whether or not the province of BC was pushed to the
forefront of provincial anti-trafficking efforts accordingly (Miller & O’Doherty, 2015). Following
the 2010 Olympic Games, it is believed that government bodies, law enforcement, and public
organizations reflected on the lack of international sex trafficking that occurred, and discussions
arose that focused more on the domestic nature of the crime (Miller & O’Doherty, 2015;
GAATWC, 2013).
It is possible that the lack of data itself created the conditions for a dramatic shift in
perceptions about this social issue. The absence of evidence of international human trafficking
during the 2010 Winter Games may have undercut preconceived ideas about the frequency of this
crime in the province and led organizations to look towards domestic trafficking instead. Research
shows that “political beliefs about controversial factual questions in polices are often closely linked
with one’s ideological preferences or partisan beliefs” (Nyhan & Reifler, 2010, p.307). People
demonstrate a confirmation bias towards information that supports their preconceptions as well as

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avoiding evidence that undercuts their beliefs. Nyhan and Reifler (2010) write that corrective
evidence, defined as evidence that demonstrates a belief to be false, rarely reduces misconceptions
held by ideological groups. Ideology cannot be determined by employment and as noted, future
research might consider questioning participants’ ideological beliefs to explore whether or not
perceptions about human trafficking, and perceptions of change to human trafficking, correlate
with an individual’s political leaning. When there are no large data sets to substantiate or discredit
individual observations, it is possible that public narratives might be more permeable to shifts such
as the one observed in the province of BC following the 2010 Winter Games.
Regarding Education as an Effective Anti-Trafficking Tool
Both government personnel and front-line service providers described educational
programs as effective anti-trafficking tools. In fact, the need for ongoing education, more so than
any suggested social policy change, was described as an efficient means to combat human
trafficking in BC. In particular, participants stated that prevention and protection efforts are
enhanced through programs such as training and campaigns that raise awareness among youth, the
general public, and the judicial system.
Participants’ positive assessment of educational programs suggests that participants
believe anti-trafficking efforts to date have been relatively effective given that they have been
predominantly education-based. Second, it supposes that participants consider the need for
increased awareness as fundamental in the pursuit to better identify and support victims. While
educational programs were regarded collectively by both sources as good strategies to combat
human trafficking, participants expressed varying observations about who is victimized by this
crime and the rates at which certain populations are victimized. It is reasonable to assume that
those who apply more broad descriptors to identify human trafficking victims might encourage an

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education agenda that looks different than those who apply more narrow descriptors. Similarly,
those who consider the claim that human trafficking is a ‘growing crime’ might design an
educational program that varies from those who challenge the argument that victim rates are
increasing. The dichotomy between peoples’ understanding of this crime coupled with an almost
unanimous desire for ongoing awareness embodies an ongoing challenge cited throughout the
literature and previously noted in this thesis: how to combat a crime when stakeholders cannot
agree on its definitional parameters?
Some participants focused on early education as a means of decreasing risk factors for
vulnerable populations. The preventative approach assumes that when individuals are made aware
of certain risks they are more likely to seek support. One front line service worker who promoted
early education as an anti-trafficking tool described how awareness could reduce risks in the
following manner:
You don’t want to make it so you’re scaring them. Even though drunk driving is a very
scary thing you don’t want to make it so they never drive, you just don’t want them to drink
and drive. And that’s the same thing. We want to educate without scaring. We want people
to think if someone tries to lure you, you can think ‘is this what they were talking about?’
You’re not going to be thrown in the back of a van thinking ’this is what they were talking
about’, you’re going to be running away safe knowing you had a chance. (S3)
Education as a preventative tool was cited by three front-line service providers who pointed
towards low human trafficking conviction rates as evidence that judges are poorly educated about
the dynamics of the crime. They stated that enhanced training would lead to a reduction of human
trafficking activities because this approach is believed to result in higher conviction rates. The
perception that judges are not adequately trained on the psychological impacts of domestic sex
trafficking suggests that charges are going before the courts but convictions are not being secured.
Between 2005/2006 and 2013/2014, there were 53 completed adult criminal court cases involving
human trafficking (Karam, 2016, p.3). Among the 53, 58% resulted in findings of stayed or

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withdrawn, and 30% resulted in guilty findings (Karam, 2016, p.4). While these numbers are low,
it is notable that they have increased from 2000 to today (Karam, 2016). Improvements are needed
to better understand possible prejudice towards victims inherent the judicial system; however,
human trafficking legislation is young and there is some case law to suggest the judicial system is
responsive to the unique needs of human trafficking victims.
In 2011, a large human trafficking operation was uncovered in Ontario involving the labour
exploitation of over twenty Hungarian immigrants. The Domotor case was the largest uncovered
trafficking operation in Canada. During the pre-trial detention review, Justice Cavarzan ruled there
was just cause for the detention of the accused: an unprecedented decision usually confined to
cases involving murder, firearms, and drug trafficking. In his evaluation of the application for pretrial detention, Justice Cavarzan stated that human trafficking is a “very grave offence” and
described the criminal activities of the accused as a “systematic and cynical attack on Canada’s
social safety network” (Hastie & Yule, 2014, p.87). More recently, during the court order of Reza
Moazami, convicted on two counts of human trafficking, BC Supreme Court Justice Bruce cited
the psychological and emotional aspects of the crime during sentencing (Supreme Court of British
Columbia, 2014, para. 511). While ongoing training of court judges is necessary, an alternative
analysis of low conviction rates might be to consider the success of the efforts to train judges on
the dynamics of the crime given the relatively short lifespan of the human trafficking legislation.
As one government personnel stated:
One judge even said that ‘actually if the victim – or the complainant in that case – had
given absolutely consistent air-tight water-tight testimony, I would have been concerned
because what she’s been through is so traumatic, and it’s not only understandable but to be
expected that she might not recall the events in a linear fashion.’ Good we’re getting this
out there but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t people out there who don’t understand the
dynamics. It just means that times are changing and it takes time for it to affect change
(G5).

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Critics of anti-trafficking educational efforts argue that widespread awareness campaigns
and practice tools create unintended consequences for people who voluntarily engage in sex work.
One front-line service provider said:
I’m very very very critical of human trafficking toolkits, indicators, red flags, they also cause
a lot of negative impacts for the women we support. As a social worker I used to be able to
help the women we support in coming to appointments, and I just used to be the social worker
and she’d just be the patient, but I have now been pulled aside and asked if I’m a madam, if
I’m speaking for her. So it’s clouded the ability to provide services to the community we
support without assuming they’re being trafficked or that we’re traffickers. And that is just
completely ridiculous. My critique of those trafficking toolkits is that they use the most
ridiculous examples, such as a woman is checking her cellphone in a reception area ‘oh that’s
the trafficker controlled her’ without saying there could be a hundred reasons why a woman is
checking her cell phone, or a woman visits a healthcare provider and someone is translating
for her and speaking for her. Yes it could be a trafficker or it could be someone new to Canada
who’s helping them navigate through the healthcare system and supporting them. That’s why,
like, if you went to the doctor with a headache and the doctor immediately jumped to the
conclusion that you have brain cancer, without saying ‘well it could be brain cancer or it
migraines, or it could be B, C, D, and E’. That’s why I’m so critical of those trafficking toolkits
because they are a major part of increasing the perception that human trafficking is an epidemic
in Canada, it’s everywhere, it’s in your backyard, it’s your neighbour and you need to be
watching out for it all the time, and they really irresponsibly promote that discourse in an
uninformed way (S8).
There is limited literature on the negative effects of human trafficking tools in BC on voluntary
sex workers or migrant workers. An examination of any negative impacts of identification tools is
needed to ensure anti-trafficking efforts are administered responsibly: most especially when
discussing social issues in which there are no substantial data that would otherwise allow
researchers to measure policy outcomes.
Missing from a majority of participants’ proposed anti-trafficking solutions and tools were
structurally based ideas that consider systemic factors that perpetuate human trafficking, although
it is possible that participants focused on individual and policy-based tools due to the questions
asked during the interviews (Appendix A). Future research might consider asking more pointed

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questions about structural-based causes, ideas, and solutions. One government personnel pointed
towards social values and norms as perpetuators of criminal activities.
In my view, if profit is the most important thing then value of human life and freedom is
irrelevant. So it’s okay to exploit because you increase your profit. That’s the bottom line.
Gender, equality, reduction of poverty, those are the foundation[s] of human trafficking:
gender, inequality and poverty. Those allow or create the conditions for exploitation (G2).
In general, ideas proposed by participants suggest a focus on individual interventions to reduce
crimes rates rather than broad social change, the latter being an approach that best aligns with
structural social work theory (Mullaly, 2007). The research outlined in Chapter Two discusses how
poverty, racism, and sexism render certain populations at-risk for victimization and incentivize
traffickers. For example, women and girls are believed to be at higher risk of being trafficked
(Cottingham et al., 2013; Perrin, 2010, Rutchi, 2013). One solution-based approach would be to
educate women and girls concerning their risks and assist them in changing their behaviours,
including unsafe online practices. Another approach would be to challenge patriarchal ideas that
devalue females in society and give traffickers social, not legal, license to assault women and girls.
Similarly, Ferraro (2009) writes that globalization has created employment opportunities that leave
low-skilled low-income migrants vulnerable to exploitation. One solution might be to train border
security agents to better identify at-risk populations to prevent traffickers and victims from
entering the country. Another solution might be to challenge conditions of poverty inherent in
capitalist societies that incite people to seek exploitative work opportunities. Structural-based
solutions take responsibility for reducing risks away from victims and place it on society at-large
by challenging institutions and systems that inadvertently condone acts of human trafficking
(Cottingham et al., 2013).

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Do Canadians Lack Empathy for Others?
An important sub-theme that emerged from participants’ observations about recent shifts
in human trafficking discourse was the concept of ‘other’ when discussing the needs of
international trafficking victims. Concepts of ‘other’ in Canadian society are highly subjective but
still, participants from both sources stated a shared concern that labour exploitation of international
people in Canada is not considered a priority issue. As one government personnel noted: “It's hard
to get people to care for people who aren’t part of their community” (G4). A front-line service
provider who works primarily with international migrants said: “The government and tax payers
they don’t want their money to be going in the direction where someone who is not part of our
system” (S9). The service provider went on to say:
…unless it’s dealt with on a bigger level, on a smaller scale if I’m affected I might give
my support to that person, but otherwise if we’re just all so and such and such, we’re just
‘oh too bad, you know, oh my gawd, you know, so sorry to hear that. Oh my gawd that’s
bad’ but that’s all we have. You know, we show a bit of sympathy and move on (S9).
Assessing the relationship between public interest and anti-trafficking efforts when the crime is
perceived as victimizing ‘others’ compared to anti-trafficking efforts when the crime is perceived
as victimizing Canadians is an area for future research. Hierarchies of victimhood based on
perceptions of ‘otherness’ and privilege in society echo ideas described in the literature on early
anti-trafficking efforts that sought to abolish white slavery discussed earlier. In the nineteenth
century, there was a clear conceptual difference between white women forced into prostitution and
women of colour and early anti-trafficking efforts were undoubtedly racially motivated. ‘White
slavery’ terminology shifted to sex trafficking in the early 1920s and allowed for more inclusive
discourse that considered the experiences of women of colour in international settings. From there
began the association of human trafficking with ‘other’ and the stereotypical image of a woman or
child from a poverty-stricken country forced into sexual servitude (Boris & Berg, 2014).

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How the Findings Relate to the Literature
The research findings held a few predictable outcomes relevant to the literature. There is a
more concentrated focus on sexual acts rather than labour acts, there is a lack of emphasis on the
opinions of voluntary sex workers, and debates about human trafficking and anti-trafficking efforts
are intertwined with ideas and opinions about legal sex work and prostitution legislation (Chuang,
2010; Levy & Jakobsson, 2013; Weitzer, 2015). The concentrated focus on sexual acts rather than
labour acts appears to limit awareness about labour exploitation in the province of BC. There is an
incomplete discussion about the experiences of labour trafficking victims, provincial and federal
programs that might create the conditions for these types of crimes, as well as the socio-economic
systems and social attitudes that perpetuate labour exploitation. When the discussion remains
focused on sexual acts, it also becomes a debate based on ideas of morality and personal
interpretations of the sex trade (Chuang, 2010; Levy & Jakobsson, 2013). There is also a perception
that the general public lacks the knowledge of how their actions or inactions drive labour
exploitation in Canada. Participants from both sources mentioned the implications of poor
knowledge of labour exploitation:
...when you have an issue like labour trafficking it forces you to – if you want to truly
work on that issue, you might have to make changes in your life. For example, the food
that you’re buying or the clothes that you’re buying because some of that might have
been made in a sweat shop or by trafficked people, right? (S8).
Certain participants who opposed prostitution had strong opinions about utilizing
abolitionist prostitution legislation as a means of combating trafficking. Others, including one
government personnel and one front-line service provider, noted the limitations of anti-trafficking
legislation on the rights of sex workers:
…we will have differences of opinions particularly on human trafficking for sexual
exploitation because it overlaps with the prostitution issue, and we have people taking
radically different views on whether or not a person is truly expressing free will when she
–mostly she but sometimes he – decides to sell sexual services. There are people who will

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equate, or don’t see much of a difference between prostitution and human trafficking for
sexual exploitation and then there are others who see a very very big difference. You’re
going to have differences of opinion there as well (G5).
The polarizing debate between human trafficking and prostitution, and specifically whether or not
governments should apply prostitution legislation to combat the sexual exploitation, was noted in
participants’ responses and the literature alike (Barrett & Shaw, 2013; Barrett, 2013).
Distinguishing between voluntary sex workers and those who are exploited through coercion,
threat, or force becomes debatable when individual ideas about systemic forces inherent in the sex
trade make it difficult for people to identify human sex trafficking collectively.
BC’s Anti-Trafficking Efforts Moving Forward
The findings suggest that both data sources regard BC’s anti-trafficking efforts somewhat
favourably, although front-line service providers were more likely to call attention to areas for
further development. Government personnel stated clear optimism for the province’s ongoing
success in combating this crime. They cited awareness campaigns and the role of the Office to
Combat Trafficking in Persons (OCTIP) as evidence of the province’s successes to date. Frontline service providers were much more critical of the province’s efforts claiming concerns about
the lack of long-term services for victims and challenges with collaboration.
Both sources indicated that while progress has been made, there is work still to be done.
As previously noted, education and ongoing awareness efforts were regarded as being the most
effective anti-trafficking tools. Still, the topic of human trafficking is fraught with polarizing ideas
about the sex trade, mixed understandings of whether or not the crime is ‘growing’, and siloed
front-line services and programs that focus on certain aspects of the crime individually rather than
collectively. Individuals educate themselves on aspects of the crime based on their experiences
and in general, people project their understandings to be representative of the phenomenon as a

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whole despite a lack of evidence that either supports or challenges their perceptions. There is an
ongoing risk that the variances between definitions of human trafficking victims will continue to
challenge anti-trafficking efforts.
Recommendations for Future Research
As a research topic, human trafficking is an interesting and important area of study. Many
aspects of this crime remain poorly understood. My research findings indicate that further studies
might consider examining the concept of ‘other’ and how it impacts public sympathies. Do people
prioritize social issues based on how they relate to victims? Future research might also consider
why there continues to be limited literature and public discourse on labour trafficking crimes in
BC. Do people care less about labour exploitation than sexual exploitation? If so, why? If not,
what impedes the identification of labour trafficking crimes? One participant argued that people
have ideas about sex work that are more developed, separatist, and divisive compared to their ideas
about labour trafficking. She stated:
Because everybody – well most people – have sex and they have their beliefs and value
system about who should not be having sex. For example, some people think sex should
only happen within a marriage between a man or a woman, or they are opposed to
homosexual sex, so it’s something most people participate in and they have their own
values and belief system and what happens is they impose that value and belief system onto
sex workers. That’s why that issue can evoke such strong emotions from people…(S8).
A different participant pointed towards law enforcement regimes that are perhaps better equipped
to identify illegal sexual activities than labour exploitation:
…it may be easier to see the sexual exploitation side than the forced labour side, especially
in regimes that have issues with prostitution generally or where you have law enforcement
already looking at prostitution and then they need to just add that extra element of not nonconsensual but let’s say abusive situation, or vulnerability, or abuse of power in some way.
It can be very hard to tell the difference between what they would call a classic ‘pimp’ and
a ‘trafficker’ and in many cases there is no difference. The ‘classic pimp’ may do many
different things to control the victim, anything from outright force, abuse, etc., to
encouraging the development of emotional dependence of the victim on him (G5).

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Future research might consider how people form opinions about sex work and how these opinions
influence their ideas about human trafficking victims. This might include an examination of the
relationship between the lack of evidential data in the field of human trafficking and individual
perceptions of sex trafficking crimes.
Another area of needed research is the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and
its relationship to labour exploitation. The Canadian Council for Refugees released a report in
March 2016 stating “the vulnerability of migrant workers, and therefore their propensity to
experience abuse is built into Canada’s temporary migration model” (p.11). Yet, there is limited
research on the experiences of labour trafficking victims in BC under the TFW program. As the
work program continues to expand, it is important to consider the program policies through a
human trafficking perspective to examine potential vulnerabilities.
Summary
This chapter outlined the significance of the research findings including their implications;
it compares the research findings to the literature, and concludes with suggested areas of future
research. As awareness increases, community members, government bodies, law enforcement, and
victim services are more likely to prevent, protect, and prosecute acts of human trafficking from
occurring. Still, it bears remembering that despite a literary focus on human sex trafficking, acts
of labour exploitation are criminal violations of basic human rights.
The findings from this research describe a notable shift in human trafficking discourse from
2000 to today perceived by both government personnel and front-line service providers. For the
most part, participants expressed optimism over changes to the public discourse from a primarily
international narrative in 2000 towards a more complex narrative. The shift was pinpointed to the
years 2006 and 2007 by nine participants, most of whom attributed the shift to community
engagement and the province’s successful bid for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Participants

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stated that the 2010 Olympics Games likely provoked early discussions of human trafficking in
the province due to perceived ideas that major sporting events lead to increased rates of sexual
exploitation. While the correlation between sporting events and human trafficking is
unsubstantiated, early discussions of the issue centered on the 2010 Winter Games might have
served as a catalyst for the narrative shift in BC.
Education was described as one of the most effective anti-trafficking tools by both
government personnel and front-line service providers alike, although varying definitions of
human trafficking among participants suggest that increased awareness and collaboration between
service providers is needed. Participants also pointed towards policy tools to combat human
trafficking such as applying a human trafficking lens to policies to measure the potential impact,
or changes to the temporary foreign worker program to reduce risks of exploitation.
Missing from the majority of participants cited suggestions on how to combat the issue
were structurally based approaches to reducing systemic causes of the crime including poverty,
racism, and gender inequality. It is possible respondents did not identify these factors based on the
research questions asked during the interviews (Appendix A). Still, anti-trafficking efforts
continue to look towards enhancing individual vulnerabilities and community awareness to better
identify victims and possible examples of human exploitation.
Finally, the research findings suggest that employment experiences influence individual
ideas and perceptions about human trafficking victims and victim rates. An implication of this is
that people interpret acts of human trafficking in BC differently. Without more cohesion and
collaboration among service providers and government personnel, it is possible, and perhaps
likely, that efforts to combat this phenomenon will continue to be plagued by definitional variances

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that ultimately impede society’s best efforts to eradicate this heinous crime. Finally, and perhaps
most importantly, the structural roots of human trafficking remain hidden and unaddressed.

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Newsroom: Ontario. Retrieved from https://news.ontario.ca/owd/en/2016/06/ontariotaking-steps-to-end-human-trafficking.html.
Zhang, S.X. (2009). Beyond the ‘Natasha’ story - a review and critique of current research on
sex trafficking, Global Crime, 10(3), 178-195.

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Appendix A

Guide to Interview Questions
Preamble
Human trafficking is a term used to describe a variety of human rights violations and illegal
activities. For the purpose of this research, I use the United Nations Trafficking Protocol
definition:
“the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat
or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of
power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments of benefits to
achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of
exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of
others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices
similar to slavery, servitude of the removal of organs” (OHCHR, 2000, Article 3).
In cases that involve youth and children under the age of 18, the coercive means mention in the
definition – threat, force, and deception - need not be involved. If a youth or child under the age
of 18 is recruited for the purpose of exploitation, they are regarded as a victim of human
trafficking.
Selective Anti-Trafficking Legislation
Section 118 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) amended in 2002 states:
[1] No person shall knowingly organize the coming into Canada of one or more persons by
means of abduction, fraud, deception or use or threat of force or coercion, and
[2] For the purpose of subsections (1), “organize”, with respect to persons, includes their
recruitment or transportation and, after their entry into Canada, the receipt or harbouring of those
persons. (Justice Laws, Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, 2016)
Section 279 of the Criminal Code of Canada amended in 2005 states:
279.01 (1) Every person who recruits, transports, transfers, receives, holds, conceals, or harbours
a person, or exercises control, direction or influence over the movements of a person, for the
purpose of exploiting them or facilitating their exploitation is guilty of an indictable offence and
liable:
[a] to imprisonment for life if they kidnap, commit an aggravated assault or aggravated
sexual assault against, or cause death to, the victim during the commission of the offense; or
[b] to imprisonment for a term of not more than fourteen years in any other case.

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(2) No consent to the activity that forms the subject matter of a charge under subsection [1] is
valid.
279.011 (1) Every person who recruits, transports, transfers, receives, holds, conceals, or
harbours a person under the age of eighteen years, or exercises control, direction or influence
over the movements of a person under the age of eighteen years, for the purpose of exploiting
them or facilitating their exploitation is guilty of an indictable offence and liable:
[a] to imprisonment for life and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a term of six
years if they kidnap, commit an aggravated assault or aggravated sexual assault against, or
cause death to, the victim during the commission of the offence; or
[b] to imprisonment for a term of not more than fourteen years and to a minimum punishment
of imprisonment for a term of five years, in any other case.
(2) No consent to the activity that forms the subject matter of a charge under subsection
[1] is valid.
279.02 Every person who receives a financial or other material benefit, knowing that it results
from the commission of an offence under subsection 279.01(1) or 2790.011(1) is guilty of an
indictable offense and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than ten years.
279.03 Every person who, for the purpose of committing or facilitating an offence under
subsection 279.01(1) or 279.011(1), conceals, removes, withholds or destroys any travel
document that belongs to another person or any document that establishes or purports to establish
another person’s identity or immigration status is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to
imprisonment for a term of not more than five years, whether or not the document is of Canadian
origin or is authentic.
279.04 (1) For the purposes of sections 279.01 to 279.03, a person exploits another person if they
cause them to provide, or offer to provide, labour or a service by engaging in conduct that, in all
the circumstances, could reasonably be expected to cause the other person to believe that their
safety or the safety of a person known to them would be threatened if they failed to provide, or
offer to provide, the labour or service.
(2) In determining whether an accursed exploits another person under subsection (1), the
Court may consider, among other factors, whether the accused
[a] used or threatened to use force or another form of coercion;
[b] used deception; or
[c] abused a position of trust, power or authority.
(3) For the purposes of subsection 279.01 to 279.03, a person exploits another person if they
cause them, by means of deception or the use or threat of force or of any other form of coercion,
to have an organ or issue removed. (Justice Laws, Criminal Code of Canada, 2017)

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Questions
Please note, you have to option to refuse to answer any questions or cease the interview process
at any time. You also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. If you have any
concerns or complaints about your rights as a research participant and/or your experiences while
participating in this study, contact the UNBC Office of Research at 250-960-6735 or by e-mail at
reb@unbc.ca.
Agency/Institution Work
1. Please describe your work and how it relates to human trafficking in British Columbia/
Canada. If you opted for anonymity on the consent form, all identifying markers will be
removed and this information will be used for coding purposes only.
2. How long have you been working in an agency/institution that addresses human
trafficking? (See question above with regards to anonymity).
Rate and Frequency
3. In your opinion, has there been a change to the overall rates of human trafficking in
British Columbia/ Canada since 2000? If so, how do you account for these changes?
4. How do the rates of domestic human trafficking cases compare to rates of international
human trafficking in British Columbia/ Canada? How do you account for these
differences?
5. Have you noticed observable changes to the demographics of people most commonly
impacted by human trafficking from 2000 to today (i.e. rural/urban,
international/domestic, women/men, age)?
Legislation and Anti-Trafficking Needs
6. In your opinion, how do you think anti-trafficking efforts in British Columbia compare to
those in other provinces?
7. In your opinion, has there been a change or shift in the provincial/federal government’s
discourse about human trafficking from 2000 to today? If so, how do you account for this
shift?
8. In your opinion, has there been a change or shift in public discourse about human
trafficking in British Columbia/ Canada from 2000 to today? If so, how do you account
for this shift?
9. Do you believe there is sufficient public awareness about human trafficking in British
Columbia/ Canada? If not, what information is missing from public attention?
10. In your opinion, how accurate are media depictions of human trafficking? In your
opinion, what influences media depictions of human trafficking?
11. What do you believe is needed to combat human trafficking?
12. In your opinion, are social services meeting the needs of the people being victimized by
human trafficking?
13. In your opinion, is the BC provincial/federal government meeting the needs of people
being victimized by human trafficking?

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Appendix B

Information Letter / Consent Form
Comparing Government and Social Service Observations about Trends in Human Trafficking in
British Columbia
Project Lead: Ursula Kroetsch, MSW Student
University of Northern British Columbia
Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9
kroetsch@unbc.ca and/or (250) 329-6229
Supervisor: Dave Sangha, BA, BSW, MSW
University of Northern British Columbia
Prince George, BC V2N 4Zp
Dave.Sangha@unbc.ca and/or (250) 787-6223
Purpose of Project
The purpose of this research is to compare observations about the type of human trafficking in
British Columbia (BC) from 2000 to today as described by government personnel and non-profit
service providers. Since signing the United Nations Palermo Protocol 2000, Canada has enacted
two amendments to legislation: the first amendment was to the Immigration and Refugee
Protection Act (IRPA) in 2002, and the second was to the Criminal Code in 2005.
Understanding different perceptions about human trafficking is especially important when
considering how policy is put into practice. Oftentimes, there is a perceived disconnect between
how government understands social issues and how front-line service providers understand the
same issues, which can impact policy outcomes and efficacy. This research does not assume that
one understanding is more correct than another, but rather I seek to examine differences and
similarities between the observations made at the government level and those made by front-line
workers. My research questions is: have government officials observed changes to the type of
human trafficking occurring in BC since 2000, and how do these observations compare to those
made by non-profit service providers? In an effort to address this research question, I am
interviewing both government personnel at the provincial and federal level, as well as non-profit
service workers in BC.
What will happen during the project?
If you decided to take part in this study, here is how it will be conducted:
 We will schedule one interview session to be conducted in person, via Skype, phone or
email.
 I will ask you to sign this consent form prior to the interview.

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





I will ask you to sign an additional form or provide verbal consent acknowledging that all
opinions are your own and do not reflect those of any affiliated political party,
organization, committee, or employer.
The interview will take approximately 45 minutes to an hour.
I will ask you about your observations regarding human trafficking in BC
With you permission, the interview will be audio recorded and later transcribed.
You will receive a copy of the transcript for review.

Risks or benefits to participating in the project
POTENTIAL RISKS OF THE STUDY: I do not think there is anything in this study that could
harm you. Some of the questions we ask might be upsetting as they address human trafficking.
Please let me know if you have any concerns. You do not need to answer any questions you do
not want to. All participants will have access to a list of available supports should they feel they
are needed. A list of local support services will be made available to participants for follow-up
support. To mitigate and minimize any potential social risks, you will be asked to indicate in
writing what level of anonymity you prefer in the written results. You must indicate whether or
not you wish to be identified by name and institutional/organizational affiliation, by a
pseudonym and no institutional/organizational affiliation, or if you prefer to use a pseudonym
but agree to the identification of your institutional/organization affiliation. During the interviews,
I will not ask you any questions regarding your organization’s efficacy or management.
POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF THE STUDY: this research is intended to provide insights into any
changes to the type of human trafficking occurring in British Columbia from 2000 to today. In
doing so, this research will examine how and to what extent government personnel and nonprofit service providers share or diverge in their observations. Examining whether or not
observations about human trafficking diverge or converge between sources allows us
opportunities to improve the correlation between policy and front-line practice, and to study the
impact of policy on practice.
Anonymity
In order to protect your anonymity, I have listed three options below providing you with the
opportunity to indicate what level of anonymity you prefer in the research written results. Please
indicate your preference:
____ I agree to be identified by name and institutional/organization affiliation, to be credited in
the written results of the study, and to have my responses attributed to me by name and
institutional/organizational affiliation in the written results.
____I prefer the use of a pseudonym and the removal of the name of my
institutional/organization affiliation in the written results.
____I prefer the use of a pseudonym but agree to the identification of my
institutional/organizational affiliation in the written results.

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Confidentiality
Regardless of the level of anonymity you choose above, the confidentiality of the data will be
protected using the following procedures. The transcribed interviews will be coded and
encrypted and stored in the researcher’s password protected computer. The code itself will also
be encrypted and kept in the Supervisor’s password protected server. Printed transcripts and
hardcopy consent forms will be stored in a secure and locked location in the researcher’s home
residence. Only the researcher (Ursula Kroetsch) and the supervisor (Dave Sangha) will have
access to the original data.
Study Results
The results of this study will be reported in a graduate thesis and may also be used for future
publication. As such, the data may be kept for up to 3 years following the study for the purpose
of publication in academic journal articles or peer reviewed articles by the researcher. After 3
years, all data will be permanently disposed of.
If you are interested in the results of the study, please include your consent and provide a followup mailing address:
I ___________________________________would like a copy of the results of the study send to:
(Full Name)
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
Questions or Concerns about the project
If you have any concerns or complaints about your rights as a research participant and/or your
experiences while participating in this study, contact researcher Ursula Kroetsch at
kroetsch@unbca.ca, Supervisor Dave Sangha at Dave.Sangha@unbc.ca or (250) 787-6223, or
the UNBC Office of Research at 250-960-6735 or by e-mail at reb@unbc.ca.
Participant Consent and Withdrawal
Taking part in this study is entirely up to you. You have the right to refuse to participate in this
study. If you decide to take part, you may choose to pull out of the study at any time without
giving a reason and without any negative impact on your employment. Should you choose to
withdraw from the study, any data collected will be immediately shredded and digitally deleted
from all sources. You will also receive written confirmation that the data has been destroyed.

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Consent
Your signature below indicates that you understand all of the above conditions of participation in
this study and that you have had the opportunity to have your questions answered by the
researcher. I have read or been described the information presented in the information letter
about the project:

_____________________________ _____________________________ _________________
Name of Participant
Signature
Date
A copy of this consent will be left with you and a copy will be taken by the researcher.