Canada and the World

        Current Events with a Canadian Perspective

 

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02 January 2012

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Slavery in Canada Today

 

The selling of people into bondage is thought by

most to be a minor scourge in the developing world,

but it still goes on in rich countries

 

Some of Canada’s First Nations people sometimes used their enemies as slaves.

 

The Canadian Encyclopedia reports that the first European-imposed slavery was that of the Portuguese explorer Gaspar Corte-Real “who enslaved 50 Indian men and women in 1500 in Newfoundland.”

 

A statue (left) of Corte-Real was erected outside the Confederation Building in St. John’s in 1965.

 

The encyclopedia adds that “Black slaves were introduced by the French as early as 1608. The first slave transported directly from Africa was sold in 1629.”

 

The institution of slavery declined in Canada at the end of the 18th century and was made illegal in 1834 when it was banned in the entire British Empire.

 

But, just because it’s illegal does not mean that it’s vanished.

 

Human Trafficking for the Sex Trade

Benjamin Perrin is a law professor at the University of British Columbia. In his 2010 book Invisible Chains – Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking he documents an underground trade in bodies that exists in most Canadian communities.

 

In reviewing the book in The Calgary Herald Mark Milke writes that Perrin and “some other Canadians spent time in Cambodia to combat human trafficking in that country. There, underage rural girls were sometimes sold even by their families to urban pimps who would prostitute them out to foreign ‘sex tourists,’ including men from Canada.”

 

Staffing Massage Parlours and Escort Agencies

But, customers don’t have to go to Asia for paid sex; a quick glance at online advertising for massage parlours leaves no doubt the enterprises are selling more than therapy for an aching back.

 

Massage parlours across the country are staffed by Asian and East European women some of whom may be working willingly, but most are probably coerced.

 

Tess Neale

This anti-slavery billboard in South Africa carries the message “Human trafficking is slavery. Men, women and children are being sold into forced labour and prostitution.”

 

Professor Perrin is quoted by Laval News (November 2010) as saying, “Escort agencies have been used to sell victims of sex trafficking…It is huge money…Sex trafficking victims have also been sold in massage parlours, in strip clubs, on-line.

 

“Essentially at any outlet for the commercial sex trade in Canada that you could think of we have found victims of human trafficking.”

 

Internal Trafficking also Happening

In 2008, a man from Longueuil, Quebec became the first person found guilty in Canada of human trafficking.

 

Jacques Leonard-St. Vil recruited a 20-year-old Montreal woman to work in a strip club in Mississauga, Ontario. Canadian Press reported (November 2008) that, “Police said that over four months, the woman was severely beaten while earning $60,000 in three strip clubs and handed it all to Leonard-St. Vil.”

 

Arrested in May 2007, Leonard-St. Vil walked out of a Brampton, Ontario courtroom a free man after his conviction, having received two-for-one credit in pre-trial custody against his 36-month sentence.

 

Forced Labour also Exacted from the Enslaved

In December 2009, a person contacted RCMP in Hamilton, Ontario claiming to be a victim of human trafficking.

John Burman of the Hamilton Spectator reports (October 2010) that, “What followed was a 10-month investigation which identified 16 people who reported being lured from Hungary with promises of a good life and good pay.”

 

Once in Canada, the people were coached to make false refugee claims and apply for social assistance while living in the trafficker’s basements and being fed on scraps.

 

Mountie Sergeant Marc La Porte is quoted as saying, “The victims further alleged that they were taken to construction work sites on a daily basis and made to work long hours without pay.”

 

Scale of Modern Slavery in Canada Unknown

Nobody knows how many victims of modern slavery there in Canada today; according to endmoderndayslavery.ca: “In 2004, the RCMP estimated that 800 foreign trafficking victims were exploited every year in Canada (600 in sexual exploitation and a further 200 in forced labour).”

 

And, the Hamilton Spectator quotes RCMP Inspector Steve Martin as saying, “Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery and a priority of the RCMP. Public awareness is the first step toward putting an end to this horrific crime that robs one person’s freedom to benefit another.”

 

Image credits

Pam Coristin

 

Sources

“Slavery.” Robin W. Winks, Canadian Encyclopedia.

“Invisible Chains – Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking.” Benjamin Perrin, Viking, October 2010.

“Slave Trade Makes Comeback in Canada.” Mark Milke,

The Calgary Herald, November 14, 2010.

“Quebec Fails Victims.” Martin C. Barry, Laval News, November 3, 2010.

“Man Convicted in First Human Trafficking Charge Laid in Canada.” Canadian Press, November 12, 2008.

“RCMP Hunt Hamilton Family on Slavery Charge.” John Burman, Hamilton Spectator, October 8, 2010.

“How Many People Are Victims of Modern Slavery in Canada.” End Modern-day Slavery.

 

© Canada and the World, January 2012

All rights reserved

 

What the Hamilton Spectator calls “The largest human trafficking case in Canadian history” is still winding its way through the court at the start of 2012.

 

About ten members of an extended Roma (Gypsy) family from Hungary face charges.

 

 

According to CBC News (May 2011) “A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a West Vancouver woman accused of keeping a slave.”

 

The 21-year-old “slave” was recruited in Africa and told she would have a job in a hair salon.

 

Instead, RCMP Const. Michael McLaughlin says she was forced to exist on table scraps while working 18 hours a day, seven days a week.

 

She was paid nothing.

 

Mumtaz Ladha, 55, who lives in a house valued at more than $3 million is charged with human trafficking.

 

“Canada is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour.

 

“Canadian women and girls, many of whom are aboriginal, are trafficked internally for commercial sexual exploitation.

 

“Foreign women and children, primarily from Asia and Eastern Europe, are trafficked to Canada for commercial sexual exploitation, but victims from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean also have been identified.”

 

Trafficking in Persons Report 2009.

U.S. State Department

 

 

See also Human Trafficking