National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking

Bethany Hastie of McGill University, Shae Invidiata of Free-Them, and Andrea Burkhart of ACT Alberta all criticized the plan for focusing too much on law enforcement and not enough on victim services.

Thomas Axworthy of the Toronto Star said that the unanimity of this decision demonstrated that the Harper government was just as dedicated to opposing human trafficking as was Barack Obama, President of the United States.

[5] Early promoters of a Canadian anti-trafficking action plan hoped for up to $100 million in funding, which they argued would turn Canada into a world leader in the fight against human trafficking.

[7] In September 2009, Smith's Bill C-268 successfully passed into law as An Act to amend the Criminal Code (minimum sentence for offences involving trafficking of persons under the age of eighteen years).

[4] Smith announced several dozen specific recommendations for the proposed plan, one of which was to create an office to regularly evaluate national human trafficking opposition efforts and generate annual reports of their findings.

Callandra Cochrane of Citizens for Public Justice said that such a plan "has become an imperative in order to ensure the protection of victims and effectively combat human trafficking," but that Smith's proposal had "definite weaknesses that need to be strengthened.

"[8] Cochrane praised the document's suggestions that NGOs be granted funding, that efforts be coordinated with First Nations communities, that awareness-raising campaigns be initiated, and that immigration be regulated.

[8] In October 2010,[18] Tara Teng used her position as Miss BC World[19] to meet with Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, to discuss the possibility of implementing the NAP-CHT.

Ron Evans, the assembly's Grand Chief, said that Smith's recommendations "bring attention to the fact that most vulnerable victims of domestic human trafficking and sexual exploitation are First Nations youth."

Charles Momy, president of the Canadian Police Association, said that despite existing efforts from local law enforcement agencies, Canada lacked and required "a coordinated response to ensure the offenders are prosecuted, and put a stop to this modern day form of slavery.

"[11] In October 2008, John Fenn of Toronto's Streetlight Support Services expressed his frustration that there was still no national action plan on this subject despite the passing of the corresponding motion the previous year.

At the conference, Perrin, who was named in the report as one of the world's ten anti-human-trafficking heroes, called for Harper "to announce that he will enact a national action plan to combat human trafficking to follow up on the measures that his government has already taken.

He wrote the book Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking and said that a national anti-human-trafficking plan is necessary if the country is to be free and just.

Perry had led a police taskforce against the gang in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but he said that without a national action plan, politicians lost interest in the endeavour and funding ran out.

[34] Ambrose called the plan an "important step to ensure the safety and security of women and girls across Canada who are being targeted for sexual exploitation by violent traffickers".

[34] Toews said that the need to establish the NAP-CHT was demonstrated by the ongoing legal proceedings regarding the Domotor-Kolompar criminal organization, Canada's largest human trafficking case to date.

[41] Randy Hoback, MP for Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, said that the goals of the action plan included "enhancing the response of law enforcement and the justice system to cases of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls and supporting culturally appropriate victim's services.

[49] Although Smith said that human trafficking would be more effectively combatted if Canada's prostitution laws were reformed to align with those of Sweden, criminalizing the purchasing rather than the selling of sex, the NAP-CHT does not make such legislative recommendations.

[53] The month after the plan took effect, the Canadian government announced that the country's sex industry would no longer be allowed to employ foreign workers because of the risks of exploitation, abuse, and trafficking in that environment.

"[60] Around the same time, the EFC voiced its support for the plan, specifically praising the commitments to create a national human trafficking law enforcement taskforce, to raise awareness, to invest in prevention, to care for victims, and to consult with stakeholders on an ongoing basis.

The EFC's policy analyst Julia Beazley said that the organization was "particularly pleased with the proposals aimed at combatting sexual exploitation, and with the focus given to our Aboriginal communities, which are particularly vulnerable to trafficking.

"[60] Luis CdeBaca, United States Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, said, "With the announcement of a new national action plan, Canada is showing the international community what an effective anti-trafficking strategy looks like.

She said that she and the other members of Sex Trade 101 "have been collectively afraid, raped, beaten, sold, discarded [so] we are forever grateful to MP Joy Smith for being a voice for those who are not allowed to speak out.

Sister Nancy Brown of Covenant House British Columbia said that her organization was in support of the NAP-CHT and Smith's efforts to combat human trafficking.

"[62] In October 2012, the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children (CCRC) said that it approved of Canada's adoption of the plan, but was reserving judgement on whether the new Human Trafficking Taskforce would be more effective than the body it replaced.

He also recommended focusing on these countries because Canadians have been caught participating in child sex tourism there; McIntosh made specific reference to the cases of Kenneth Klassen and Donald Bakker.

[64] UNICEF Canada approved of the establishment of the NAP-CHT, and encouraged Canadians to write letters to politicians asking them to make sure that youth and children are the plan's foremost priorities.

[65] A month after the plan's establishment, Public Service Alliance of Canada Prairies Regional Executive Vice-President Marianne Hladun wrote an open letter to Brad Trost, MP for Saskatoon—Humboldt, saying that, while she approved of the NAP-CHT, the government was being inconsistent in its treatment of human trafficking because it had recently announced that it would be eliminating four CBSA intelligence officer positions, thereby dismissing four people who were already doing effective anti-human-trafficking work.

In this report, Don Hutchinson, vice president of the EFC, said that "continuing focused implementation of the Action Plan is essential to Canadians doing our part to put an end to this travesty."

He said that "there has been progress in combating human trafficking" as a result of the NAP-CHT, but he criticized the country for not doing more with the new information that the plan has exposed, saying that "we haven't seen the number of convictions we wanted to see."

A photograph of a blonde woman wearing a white shirt, a purple jacket, and black dress pants standing in front of a black microphone
Joy Smith suggested the NAP-CHT to the House of Commons , prepared the initial proposal, advocated that it be implemented, and announced its establishment once it had been adopted.
A photograph of a lit room in which there are many brown-and-green chairs facing in various directions as well as a brown table
When Joy Smith proposed the implementation of an anti-human-trafficking national action plan to the House of Commons (pictured) in 2007, the motion was passed unanimously.
A photograph of six standing, smiling people, five of whom are wearing black uniforms with the sixth wearing a pink dress shirt
The Salvation Army made recommendations for the NAP-CHT and was consulted by the government in the plan's development (Salvation Army officers pictured with Natasha Falle ) .
A photograph of a man with dark hair and a cleft chin wearing glasses, a grey suit, and a colourful tie while looking at the viewer and smiling
Before the NAP-CHT was established, University of British Columbia law professor Benjamin Perrin said that, "while traffickers have a plan, Canada doesn't."
A photograph of a man with grey hair looking to the right of the viewer and wearing glasses, a black suit jacket, and a white dress shirt
Stephen Harper , Prime Minister of Canada , promised during the 2011 Canadian federal election that he would establish the NAP-CHT by 2012, and he did.
A photograph of a woman facing left and looking left while wearing a pink, black, and white plaid scarf, a grey jacket, and earrings
Rona Ambrose , Minister responsible for the Status of Women , called the NAP-CHT an "important step to ensure the safety and security of women and girls across Canada".
A photograph of a man outside wearing a black suit, a white dress shirt, and a blue striped tie, looking at the viewer and smiling
Jason Kenney , Minister of Citizenship and Immigration , said in 2012 that he hoped that Canada's new policy of not allowing the country's sex industry to employ foreign workers would strengthen the NAP-CHT.
A photograph of a man with a goatee looking at the viewer while wearing a navy suit jacket, a white dress shirt, and a red necktie
United States Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Luis CdeBaca said that the NAP-CHT shows "the international community what an effective anti-trafficking strategy looks like."
A photograph of a man with white hair and a white moustache facing the right and looking just to the left of the viewer while wearing a necktie
UNICEF Canada recommended that Canadians write to Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews to ensure that youth and children would be the plans's foremost priorities.