A group of Ottawa activists dedicated to bringing an end to human trafficking is preparing for its 8th annual “End Slavery Day” on Dec. 2.
Adriane Cartmell, associate director of events for PACT-Ottawa, or Persons Against the Crime of Trafficking Humans, says the main goal of the event is to educate the public about human trafficking.
“We’re looking at three projects PACT has done over the past year that have been very vital in the community and require community involvement to go forward.”
Cartmell says one of those initiatives is Project imPACT – including a report that looked at human trafficking within the sex trade in Ottawa.
Human trafficking includes forced labour, sexual exploitation, slavery and the removal of organs, according to the Project imPACT report. Traffickers use coercive techniques to recruit and control their victims for the purpose of exploitation.
“A lot of the projects focused on working with service providers, different organizations, to try to assess how many victims do we think are out there.”
From 2013-14, the report identified 140 human trafficking victims in Ottawa. The majority of those trafficked were from the Ottawa area and between the ages of 15 and 18 years old.
Those marginalized by race, class or sexual orientation were found to be more vulnerable. Though the report found victims from all ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.
Cartmell says the theme of this year’s event is community involvement. She says she hopes people will realize there is something every person can do to make a difference.
“It’s not a big global problem that’s untouchable … there are actions we can do individually that will make a difference,” says Cartmell.
“One our key goals is that education and that prevention because we would like as many people to be educated as we can reach,” she says.
“That way maybe that won’t be a victim. Maybe they’ll have that knowledge to save someone else from being a victim.”
End Slavery Day coincides with the UN International Day for Abolition of Slavery. PACT-Ottawa has held an event on Dec. 2 to commemorate the day since 2008 – four years after the group formed.
Christina Harrison Baird, PACT-Ottawa’s director of policy and legal affairs, says the idea is to inform the public that modern day slavery exists in Ottawa.
“When there are things that we can do to address the problem then we should.”
Baird says one human rights abuse is too many.
“If you are in a conversation with your friend, challenge the gender or the race stereotypes that are inherent in just regular speech or people’s attempts at humour,” she says. “Then you can begin to change those attitudes that give rise to rape culture and to human trafficking for sexual exploitation.”
Cartmell added Project Northern Outreach would also be highlighted at the event.
The project will bring frontline service providers to Thessalon, a town in Northern Ontario. Team members will visit indigenous communities and educate grandmothers about the issue of human trafficking.
“It’s recognizing the role of the grandmother within their culture and the importance of elders and it’s about educating grandmothers so that way they know what human trafficking is.”
Project imPACT found human trafficking can occur in massage parlours, strip clubs and escort agencies in Ottawa – most of which are located in Centretown. It noted however, that most trafficking occurs outside these establishments.
The report made a distinction between those who choose to engage in sex work and those trafficked. PACT-Ottawa plans to collaborate with sex workers as a result of this project to help identify human trafficking victims more easily.
Fight 4 Freedom is a newer organization with similar goals as those pursued by PACT-Ottawa. The initiative started with a small prayer group in 2012 and later formed a street outreach program to identify women forced into sex trafficking.
The organization operates in areas of the Greater Toronto Area and just recently brought the initiative to Ottawa.
Rebekah North, the initiative’s Ottawa regional rep, says Fight 4 Freedom’s goal is to encourage women who may be involved in trafficking.
“We actually go into strip clubs and massage parlours,” she says, “and build relationships with those who could be trafficked.”
Denise, one of the organization’s volunteers, was trafficked in her early 20s.
“When I met my trafficker I thought he was my boyfriend, I thought we were going to be married.”
Denise got involved with Fight 4 Freedom after sharing her story with some volunteers at an anti-human trafficking walk last year.
She says she hopes to encourage women who may be in a similar situation.
North added that she hopes to collaborate with PACT-Ottawa in the future. She says she encourages volunteers to attend the “End Slavery Day” event itself but Fight 4 Freedom does not have any formal plans for the day.