Ottawa Police have added two new officers to a unit dealing with human trafficking, an area of criminal activity in the region that’s become more challenging to patrol because of the rapidly increasing use of the Internet to facilitate prostitution.
Insp. Chris Rheaume, who oversees police activity in the Central/East district of the city, says the team now has four officers in it – two more than it had at this time last year.
Areas known for prostitution in Centretown, such as the alleys off Gladstone Avenue, are not the only places to find it.
Rheaume says the use of websites for escort services is “exponentially increasing.”
He says most people envision only what they see on the street when they think of prostitution.
“But then there’s this whole other underworld that is five times, six times, or 10 times bigger than what people think is going on,” says Rheaume.
He says Internet escort services are becoming a huge problem.
Websites which are commonly used to sell apartments, cars and bicycles are also a breeding ground for soliciting sex.
A user will have to agree to a disclaimer which absolves the webmaster’s responsibility for what’s inside.
Often ads for sex will be shady and not explicit.
“You don’t even have to punch in sex,” says Rheaume.
“All you have to punch in is ‘nanny’ and you’ll see a whole whack of what I’m talking about,” he adds.
Helen Roos, chair of the Ottawa Coalition to End Human Trafficking, says victims who are caught up in human trafficking are typically among the most vulnerable.
Victims are often young, female, and displaced from friends and family.
However, she says this is not always the case.
One of the victims helped by the coalition came from a middle-class family in Kanata.
She says it all comes down to exploitation, and that the average age for pimps to “groom” youth to be trafficked is age 14 to 20.
The coalition, described as a victim/survivor support group, works with the four officers who were delegated earlier this year to deal with human trafficking.
Roos says last month the coalition got in contact with several more victims, with whom they are currently working.
“We also have close to an entire family of six trafficked from Africa into Ottawa,” she says.
Rheaume says a typical example of human trafficking is that a man, typically much older, will befriend a younger woman/girl.
He will give her things and then ask that she sleep with people in return.
He says victims will often be from other places, using Toronto as an example.
Roos says human trafficking is happening on a large scale across Ontario.
“Highway 401 is a prostitution pipeline,” she says.
This is why the Ottawa coalition works with groups in nearby cities to help displaced victims return home.
Maude Adams, a law student who works with Ottawa’s coalition, says one of the biggest issues for victims when seeking help is the financial aspect.
“The pimps have it all,” she says, making reference to the money made through escort services.
Victims of crime can be compensated up to $25,000 under Ontario’s Compensation for Victims of Crime Act.