Trafficking Updates and Helplines

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Halifax man faces March 16 preliminary inquiry on human trafficking charges

Markeit Symonds, 20, is accused of directing and influencing a 16-year-old girl for the purpose of prostitution. He has elected to be tried by a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge alone.

a day ago by: Steve Bruce

https://www.localxpress.ca/local-new...charges-527340

A preliminary inquiry will be held next month for a Halifax man facing human trafficking charges involving a 16-year-old girl.

Markeit Symonds, 20, was arrested in October after police looked into allegations that a man had directed and influenced a teen for the purpose of prostitution.

Symonds is charged with trafficking a person under the age of 18, receiving material benefit from human trafficking, procuring a person under 18 to provide sexual services, advertising sexual services, receiving material benefit from sexual services provided by a person under 18, assault and uttering threats.

Lawyer Mark Bailey appeared in Halifax provincial court this week for Symonds, who has been free on bail since October.

Bailey announced his client wants to be tried by a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge alone and requested a preliminary inquiry in provincial court.

Judge Michael Sherar scheduled the inquiry for March 16. The hearing will determine if there is sufficient evidence for the case to proceed to trial.
 

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Edmonton police charge 26 'johns' in sex-trade enforcement effort

The men charged include professionals, trade workers, and a university student

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/edmonton/johns-sex-trade-edmonton-charges-1.3982798

CBC News
February 14, 2017

Edmonton police have charged 26 men after a two-day crackdown focused on "johns" who buy services from sex workers.

The enforcement effort on Feb. 9 and 10 was conducted by the Edmonton Police Service VICE Unit and Northeast division officers.

It was designed to target exploitative activities associated with the street-level sex trade.

Police wouldn't specify exactly where the enforcement effort took place other than that it was in the city's northeast.

The 26 men — including trade workers, professionals, a university student and the unemployed — were charged with obtaining of sexual services for consideration. The men are between the ages of 19 and 60.

Police also laid two trafficking charges and one 24-hour suspension under the Traffic Safety Act.

Anyone who witnesses someone soliciting sex is encouraged to call the EPS Report-a-john line at 780-421-2656.
 

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She was a sex-trafficking victim, but Texas law labeled her a pimp

Laws the state uses to put sex traffickers behind bars can sweep up their prey, too. A few years in age can mean the difference between a chance at rehabilitation and a lengthy prison sentence, as Yvette learned.


BY MORGAN SMITH, EDGAR WALTERS AND NEENA SATIJAFEB. 16, 2017 12:01 AM

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/02/16/she-was-sex-trafficking-victim-texas-law-labeled-her-pimp/

How the crusade against sex trafficking in Texas has left child victims behind.

SAN ANTONIO — The day after her 23rd birthday, Yvette sat in in a Bexar County courtroom, facing up to 99 years in prison for exploiting a 16-year-old girl.

She wasn't the ringleader of the "prostitution enterprise," the prosecutor said. But as an adult who showed a teenager the ropes while they were both being sold for sex, he said, Yvette was just as guilty the pimp.

In other circumstances, Yvette would have been considered a victim.

She'd had a childhood scarred by sexual abuse and instability. She'd been recruited herself to sell sex. A pimp who went by "Red Nose" wrote the online ads that listed her as a "sexy lil Latina." He decided what hours she worked, which men she had sex with and how much she cost. His brutal attacks left her covered in bite marks.

Instead, on that afternoon in October 2015, Yvette was the accused, pleading not guilty to three felony charges related to trafficking a minor.

In the past decade, the state's strategy for fighting sex trafficking has largely focused on going after pimps and strengthening the laws that help send them to prison.

By raw numbers, it has worked. Trafficking convictions in Texas have climbed over the last five years. In Dallas County alone, the district attorney's office went from no convictions in 2010 to 16 in 2015.

But the laws used to secure those convictions can fail to distinguish victim from perpetrator, meaning Texas' mission to put traffickers behind bars is sweeping up their prey, too. Without corresponding efforts to identify and treat victims, a few years in age can mean the difference between a chance at rehabilitation and a lengthy prison sentence.

Ask prosecutors to explain the spike in sex-trafficking convictions and they point to 2011, when legislators passed a far-reaching law aimed at combating the practice.

The law dramatically lowered the burden of proof to send pimps to prison when their victims were underage. Prosecutors no longer had to show that traffickers had forced a child into sex work, only that they'd helped facilitate it in some way. Anyone who participated — by renting a hotel room for a minor, for instance — could be charged with the same crime.

It was a watershed moment that turned a previously ineffective law into a powerful tool, said Kirsta Melton, a career prosecutor who helped write the law and now leads the Texas attorney general's year-old sex-trafficking unit.

The law gives tremendous discretion to prosecutors, who must sort out the intricate hierarchies in a criminal underworld with complicated power dynamics.

Pimps, who use fear and shame to control their victims, may enlist experienced prostitutes to lure in other girls in exchange for fewer beatings or a meager profit-share. More sophisticated operators shield themselves from culpability by designating "bottom girls" — women who manage other sex workers, rent the hotel rooms and communicate with potential customers. Victims are often afraid or unwilling to talk about their experiences. That leaves law enforcement with few tools but age to help distinguish victims from perpetrators.

Because cases with adult victims are more difficult to prosecute, there’s also less incentive to pursue them.

"Although we don't focus on just kids, if we get five tips in and one of them is a kid, we're going to go after the kid. That's just the way we do business," said Austin Police Detective Trent Watts, who's been in the department's vice unit since 2013.

Melton, who for years tried sex-trafficking cases out of the San Antonio District Attorney's office, said she looks at a wide range of factors when she's considering bringing charges against a woman who has been trafficked herself: How long has she been with the pimp? Is he beating her? Was she a child when she first entered the sex trade?

"Is she under his control?" Melton asked. "Or is she really engaging in a lot of this truly, fully, on her own, and taking delight in that to a certain degree?"

The first time Yvette ran away from her home on the outskirts of San Antonio, she was 15.

She had just started getting her period, and she was afraid of getting pregnant. An older relative in the house had been molesting her since she was a child. "My mom would always wonder why, but I would never tell her," she said. "I didn't want her to hurt."

By the time she was 18, Yvette was dancing at strip clubs to pay the bills. The next few years were a blur of alcohol and drugs. She lived with friends or in motels. Though pimps often approached her, she said she always turned them down. "I was just like, 'I've got to do me,'" she said. "I like to keep my money."

Yvette fell more deeply into a meth addiction after going through a breakup. At 21, she moved back in with her mom. That's when a woman came knocking at the door with a 16-year-old girl, Jade, in tow. The woman, who Yvette would later learn was a recruiter for a pimp, asked her if she wanted to make some money with them.

She had never intended to work as a prostitute, but she agreed to the proposal. The decision is difficult for her to explain even now, except to say that her life felt so empty that any change seemed appealing. "I didn't even want to be here anymore," she said.

Prosecutors acknowledge it's not unusual for sex-trafficking victims to be implicated as perpetrators. "We often have people who are both victims and offenders," said Brooke Grona-Robb, a prosecutor in Dallas County who has worked on human-trafficking cases for more than a decade. "That puts us in a difficult situation."

It's impossible to quantify such cases because court records rarely spell out the details of a defendant's background and relationships. But Texas Tribune reporters identified several recent cases in which women who had been sold for sex were themselves charged as traffickers.

In 2016, Dallas prosecutors charged an 18-year-old with trafficking a 15-year-old. Though both teens were being pimped out by the same man, police implicated the older teen for giving the younger one her cellphone and for appearing in online ads with her.

The year before, a 24-year-old Sherman woman whose pimp beat, choked and burned her pleaded guilty to charges related to trafficking a 16-year-old. The pimp, who hosted a radio show called "Cheap Hoes Gotta Go," had trained the teen by forcing her to watch the woman have sex with clients.

A particularly poignant example comes from a 2012 case Melton tried as a San Antonio prosecutor. Melton went after a pimp who had sold a 16-year-old girl for sex over two years. The girl suffered horrific abuse at his hands — she was raped, impregnated and forced to have an abortion. When she tried to run away, the pimp carved his initials into her forearm.

Kirsta Melton, a former Bexar County prosecutor who now leads the Texas Attorney General’s Office's sex-trafficking unit, in her Austin office on Sept. 26, 2016. Sex-trafficking convictions in Texas have climbed since 2011.

The pimp got a 20-year sentence. A year later, the same girl was 19 and headed to prison herself. A federal judge sentenced her to three years for helping her new pimp recruit a San Antonio high school student.

Melton said what happened to the girl, who never received treatment, broke her heart. "It's a great example of the cyclical nature of trafficking and how devastating it is, and how if you do not intervene it will indeed continue, and just continue to breed itself both victims and defendants,” she said.

The pimp went by Red Nose — a muscled, heavily tattooed man in his late 20s who wore red clothing and shared his nickname with a breed of pitbull. He'd been in prison for assault and drug-related charges. But when Yvette first met him, she said he made her feel protected. "I never had my dad, so to me he was like a father figure in a way. And I guess that's what attached me to him," she said.

Red Nose set up Yvette and 16-year-old Jade at the Fiesta Inn on the northwest side of San Antonio. He posted photos of the girls online, sometimes listing Yvette under the name Selena. When clients arrived, he left. This continued at three different motels over the next four days.

Red Nose's name, which the Tribune is not disclosing to protect Yvette's identity, was never on the room bookings. That responsibility, along with answering the phone and calling the cabs to move the group from motel to motel, usually fell to Yvette, who gave half her money to Red Nose.

On the fourth day, an undercover police officer responded to one of Jade's ads and found her alone in a motel room. Once he learned she was 16, he took her to her mother's house.

Then it was just Yvette and Red Nose. Red Nose began insisting Yvette see clients at all hours, plying her with meth and Ecstasy. She would stay awake for days on end. He began talking about demons in his head that made him want to hurt her.

Two weeks after the undercover sting, Yvette told Red Nose she'd had enough. He flew into a rage, breaking the motel room window and viciously beating her. When officers arrived, they found her covered in bite marks, her face battered and one eye swollen shut. Red Nose was gone. The police wrote up the case as domestic violence.

Yvette kept making plans to run. But every time she tried, Red Nose found a way to draw her back. "I ended up in stuck mode," she said. "He told me he would kidnap my little brother, kidnap my mom, or rob my mom, or shoot up my mom's house."

As her attempts to escape grew increasingly desperate, Yvette said she sought help at a friend's house. But Red Nose tracked her down, she said, and forced her to betray her friend.

Accompanied by Yvette, Red Nose and a companion confronted the friend in the parking lot of an apartment complex, shoving him into the trunk of his own car. Then they took the man's debit card and drove to ATMs around the city. Security camera footage showed Yvette, along with the two men, unsuccessfully attempting to withdraw her friend's money. "It was ugly, I couldn't control it," Yvette said.

The man would ultimately regain consciousness hours later, staggering out of his abandoned car to get help from a nearby house. Two weeks after the ambush, police arrested Yvette and charged her with robbery. Red Nose remained at large.

While she was in jail, prosecutors linked her to the trafficking of 16-year-old Jade.

Yvette's sex-trafficking trial lasted a day and a half. She didn't testify; her lawyer recommended against it because of the pending robbery charges, she said.

Prosecutors relied on two primary pieces of evidence: hotel room bookings with Yvette's name on them and statements from Jade. The 16-year-old said Yvette had given her advice on how to look happy when clients arrived at the motel room. "Act like you really want them there," Jade said Yvette told her.

The only witness called on Yvette's behalf was her mother. But prosecutors blocked her from describing Red Nose's abuse of her daughter.

Jurors in Yvette's trial never learned of Red Nose's extensive criminal record and history of violence, or what he'd done to her. In the eyes of the law, Yvette was the pimp. She got 15 years for trafficking a minor, and another eight years for the robbery.

Red Nose never went to trial; he took a plea deal the day before Yvette's trial began. He got 10 years for trafficking a minor and was never charged with the robbery. As part of the plea bargain, he received an additional 25-year sentence for a separate child endangerment case.

A few months after testifying in Yvette's trial, Jade went missing. The Tribune has been unable to locate her.

Yvette does not have clean hands: She helped instigate a violent robbery that easily could've been fatal. She also played a part in the operation that exploited Jade. But it's clear she was a victim, too.

David Lunan, who heads the sex-trafficking unit in the Bexar County District Attorney's Office and handled Yvette's case, understood that.

He knew about the abuse Yvette had suffered, and he was hoping to lock up Red Nose for as long as possible. He said prosecutors offered her a greatly reduced sentence if she would testify against him. When it came time for Yvette to make a statement to the judge, though, Lunan said she froze up.

Yvette said she was willing to testify against Red Nose, but she was terrified when she saw him in the courtroom. Without Yvette's testimony against her pimp, Lunan said, there was nothing he could do to help her. "She was victimized, but she graduated from victim to oppressor and exploiter," he said. "Her loyalty to him was too strong to even protect herself."
 

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Posted February 19, 2017 02:09 am
By LIZ KELLAR Juneau Empire

http://juneauempire.com/local/news/2017-02-19/more-nuanced-story-sex-trafficking-expert-talks-policy-alaska-state-capitol

‘A more nuanced story’: Sex trafficking expert talks policy at Alaska State Capitol | Juneau Empire - Alaska's Capital City Online Newspaper

On Wednesday, actor Ashton Kutcher made national news when he testified, eloquently and passionately, in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on progress in combating modern slavery.

As part of his anti-trafficking work with his foundation, THORN (Tech Innovation to Fight Child Sexual Exploitation), Kutcher said, “I’ve been on FBI raids where I’ve seen things that no person should ever see. I’ve seen video content of a child that’s the same age as mine being raped by an American man that was a sex tourist in Cambodia.”

Sex trafficking as defined by those images — the forcible kidnap and sexual exploitation of minors — is appalling and emotionally wrenching. But the attention paid to those stories helps foster a narrative that is, to a large extent, false — and that keeps us from addressing the root causes of teens in the sex trade.

That’s the message Alexandra Lutnick wants to get across; after 15 years researching the sex industry she has recently published a book on domestic minor sex trafficking to provide a “more nuanced story.”

Only a very small percentage — about 10 percent — of sex workers report being forced into the sex trade against their will by a stranger, Lutnick told an attentive audience at the Alaska State Capitol Thursday.

Lutnick spoke at a Lunch &Learn about her research and then fielded questions on how best to address sex trafficking issues in Alaska.

“We wanted to expand education about domestic minor sex trafficking and about effective strategies for the legislative community, from an evidence-based perspective,” said Terra Burns of Community United for Safety and Protection, an advocacy group for those in the sex trade that invited Lutnickin to speak.

The popular narrative that is spread in the media is not the entire story, Lutnick explained. Most sex workers report being 15 to 17 when they entered the sex trade, mostly because they were homeless and had a financial need for food and shelter. This group includes runaways and those pushed out of their homes; according to Lutnick, one California study showed a staggering 60 to 80 percent of minors arrested for sex work already were in the child welfare system.

Lutnick told the audience she uses the term “third party” rather than pimp or trafficker to describe the role of a person who facilitates sex work. In many cases, she said, sex workers work for themselves or with peers, citing a study that had only 50 percent of the respondents reporting a stereotypical “third party.”

Because sex workers are a very diverse group, a one-size-fits-all solution is not feasible, she said. The issue becomes how communities can better meet those needs so sex work does not become the “best worst option,” Lutnick added.

There is no data to suggest that arrest is a positive intervention despite the hope that it might force sex workers into using services. For one, many sex workers experience exploitation by law enforcement, so there is a lack of trust to overcome. And there is no better way to keep someone in the sex industry than to saddle them with a criminal record, Lutnick said.

Policies to protect sex workers who report crimes are one great option, Lutnick said; CUSP worked unsuccessfully during the last legislative session to get a bill passed that would give prostitutes immunity for prosecution when they come forward as a victim or witness of a violent crime. Peer-led support and outreach is a positive way to connect sex workers with needed services. And it must be explicit that exploitation by law enforcement is unacceptable, Lutnick added. CUSP currently has a bill in the works, HB 112, that expands Alaska’s current sexual assault statute to prohibit peace officers from having sexual contact with those they are investigating.

For more information on sex trafficking or on CUSP, go to Community United for Safety and Protection | Facebook or Sex Trafficking in Alaska.
 

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Canadian banks, police following money trail to target human trafficking
TAVIA GRANT
The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017 5:00AM EST
Last updated Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017 7:14AM EST

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadian-banks-police-following-money-trail-to-target-human-trafficking/article34093888/
Canada’s financial watchdog has sent more than 100 disclosures to police in the past year on human trafficking in a quiet new initiative that targets traffickers by following their money.

Project Protect is a partnership between the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FinTRAC), financial institutions and law enforcement that is using money trails to detect and investigate traffickers. Banks’ anti-money laundering arms are starting to red flag suspicious accounts, based on indicators such as multiple motel bookings, large expenditures at drug stores and frequent ATM deposits in the middle of the night. They report suspicious activity to FinTRAC, which in turn notifies law enforcement.

In the year since the project was launched, FinTRAC has made 102 disclosures to police across Canada under the Project Protect label. By comparison, in the year before, there were 19 such trafficking-related disclosures.

Those who work to counter human trafficking say following the money trail can help back up a victim’s story and potentially reveal other people who are being exploited. It may also, eventually, help secure convictions, which are still rare for this crime.

“It’s a great tool for us,” said Detective Sergeant Nunzio Tramontozzi, head of the Toronto Police Service’s Sex Crimes-Human Trafficking Enforcement Team, which is part of the project. “We’ve had three or four investigations where the information that we received in the FinTRAC reports has helped us in our investigation.”

Its usefulness comes largely after the arrest is made, as “it really does corroborate everything that a victim says,” he said.

Human trafficking is defined as recruiting, transporting or controlling the movement of someone for the purpose of exploitation. More than 90 per cent of human-trafficking victims are female, and a quarter of victims are under the age of 18, according to Statistics Canada. Most police-reported cases in Canada are domestic, rather than cross-border, and most involve sexual exploitation.

It is a hidden crime, though not uncommon. Last year alone, Toronto police made 77 human-trafficking arrests, and laid 529 charges for trafficking or related offences. Police also found 67 victims last year – 60 per cent of whom were 16 and under. The youngest victim was 13 years old. So far this year, police have found another 12 victims, Det. Sgt. Tramontozzi said.

The new initiative was hatched in late 2015, when a crowd of bankers and consultants gathered in Toronto for an annual conference on financial crime and anti-money laundering. Appearing at the final day’s event was a survivor of human trafficking, Timea Nagy, and an RCMP constable who both spoke of the impact of the crime and the importance of looking at money flows. They appealed to the audience to help tackle the crime.

Peter Warrack, director of the Bank of Montreal’s anti-money laundering unit, stood up and publicly pledged his support.

“I just knew that financial institutions held an important key to identifying the traffickers, by seeing the money,” said Mr. Warrack, who has worked in the field for more than 20 years.

“What was going through my head was, as regulated financial institutions, we have a mandate to identify and report suspicious transactions, and human trafficking fell within that mandate.”

By the end of the day, he says FinTRAC – an independent federal agency created in 2000 with a mandate to detect and deter money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities – and all the other major banks were on board. Project Protect was officially launched in January, 2016, and has spurred information sharing on the warning signs and common financial indicators of trafficking.

In December, FinTRAC released an operational alert to 31,000 businesses, partners and police that included a lengthy list of indicators that point to signs of trafficking. Red flags include payments for online escort ads, frequent hotel and motel bookings along with air and rail purchases, frequent large purchases at pharmacies and lingerie shops, payment in bitcoin and frequent deposits or withdrawals between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., along with banking activity at ATMs in different cities or provinces.

In the year before the project, financial institutions sent about 400 suspicious-transaction reports (STRs) to FinTRAC that involved human trafficking, human smuggling or related activity. In the year since, the number of human trafficking-related STRs rose to 2,000, FinTRAC said. They came from all of the Big Five banks along with money-service firms such as Western Union. Another 500 were sent in the first month of this year.

“I don’t think I really had an appreciation for how large it was going to get,” Michael Cowley, manager of FinTRAC’s central region intelligence unit, said in an interview at the agency’s Ottawa headquarters. “The quantity of reports has gone up, and the quality of the reporting has increased significantly, as well.”

It’s too early to evaluate how effective the project is in leading to arrests, additional charges or convictions, which are still rare. Since Canada introduced trafficking in persons legislation in 2005, there have been 53 completed adult court cases that had human trafficking as the most serious offence. Of those, as of 2014, less than a third resulted in a guilty finding, Statscan says.

And it may also raise concerns in some quarters over the balance between protecting clients’ privacy and efforts to curb crime. FinTRAC doesn’t automatically send all STRs to police; it evaluates and analyzes the reports and sends disclosures only if certain thresholds are met, said Barry MacKillop, FinTRAC’s deputy director of operations. (Under law, banks are already required to report to FinTRAC suspected cases of money laundering).

The financial disclosures “don’t typically, in my opinion, help us to identify a trafficking situation,” said Detective Cam Brooks of the Calgary Police Service’s Counter Exploitation Unit, in part because they don’t indicate whether a woman is working by her own free will in the trade, or whether she’s being exploited. But they have been useful in corroborating a victim’s story.

For example, an arrest last fall involved a man who coerced a woman into the sex trade, often abusing her. Over the next two years, she was allegedly moved across the country. The man would advertise her online, and then funnel money electronically into his own bank account, leaving the victim with almost nothing to support herself. She was cut off from friends and family, and denied routine medical treatment for diabetes, which several times led to her going to hospital.

The Project Protect disclosure was helpful in validating her story, he said. “We have to dig deeper than just what that information provides us. But it gives us a starting point.”

It’s not just banks getting on board. Accounting firms are, too. Grant Thornton LLP joined the project a year ago, and has produced two reports for clients in different sectors on the financial red flags for trafficking. “There’s been a strong response to stop this; we need to eradicate this and get this out of our communities,” said Jennifer Fiddian-Green, partner and anti-money laundering expert, who went to Winnipeg this month to train credit unions on what to watch for.

The project is a good addition for law enforcement, but it’s just one part of tackling the problem, said Barbara Gosse, CEO of the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, who wants to see more focus on awareness and prevention.

“You need to have a multipronged approach,” she said. “Yes, Project Protect should be one of those prongs, no question, looking at the financial side of this, forensic accounting is positive. And yes, it can assist victims. But Project Protect takes place while the trafficking operation and exploitation is happening.

“We need to do more on the prevention side, we need to have other supports and right now.”
 

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WATERLOO - Local Resources for Sex Workers and Survivors of Sex Trafficking

Our Centre is a member of the Sex Workers' Action Network of Waterloo Region.

If you are a sex worker who has experienced sexual assault or if you are being exploited sexually, our confidential 24 Hour Support Line is available to you at 519-741-8633. If you have experienced sexual assault or sexual expoitation, free counselling is available to you by calling our office at 519-571-0121.

If you've been sexually exploited or trafficked, click here to view a copy of A Guide To Supports For Survivors of Trafficking, created by the Waterloo Region Anti Human Trafficking Coalition.

Below is a summary of some local resources for sex workers and/or those who have experienced sexual exploitation:

ACCKWA
Works to reduce HIV-related infection, stigma and discrimination, and improve HIV care and support to individuals and families.

Kitchener Downtown Community Health Centre
Identification clinic for those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, medical and dental services, counselling.

Kitchener- Waterloo Mulitcultural Centre
Settlement workers are available to help survivors of sex trafficking in a number of areas including housing, forms, finances, identification/passports, emotional support. Free interpreters are also available through KWMC.

The SHORE Centre
Sexual health counselling and educational services.

Sanguen Health Centre
Strives to meet the needs of those living with or at risk for Hepatitis C through the provision of education, support, and medical care.

Victim Services of Waterloo Region
24 hour crisis intervention. Emergency services and basic needs.

Waterloo Region Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Treatment Centre
Medical examination and assessment, STI, HIV & pregnancy prophylactic medications, forensic evidence collection for sexual assault survivors.

Waterloo Regional Police Service
Investigate crimes related to sexual exploitation, assault and trafficking.

YWCA Kitchener-Waterloo
Housing, shelter, emergency needs for women, families with children and trans men and women.

http://www.sascwr.org/resourcesforse...rsandsurvivors
 

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A guide to supports for survivors of human trafficking

Waterloo Region Anti Human Trafficking Coalition
September 2015

http://www.sascwr.org/files/www/A_gu...ember_2015.pdf

General Indicators of Trafficking for Commercial Sexual Exploitation

Appearance (Physical/Emotional)

 Exhibits fear, anxiety, hyper-vigilance or signs of depression
 Signs of physical abuse and /or sexual abuse
 Signs of poor health or malnutrition
 Indicators of substance use or misuse
 Indicators of self-harm behaviours (i.e. cutting)
 Individual is dressed in inappropriate clothing for the context or weather
 Tattoos on the neck and/or lower back that the Individual is reluctant to explain – i.e. a man’s name or initials; other
types of branding (i.e. cutting or burning)

Control or Isolation
 Evidence of a controlling or dominating intimate relationships (i.e. accompanied by a partner who appears
controlling; repeated phone calls from a partner, and/or excessive concern about displeasing a partner)
 Not allowed to speak for herself (i.e. a partner or 3rd party speaks or translates for the individual)
 No access to personal documents of identification (ID, Health Card, Birth Certificate)
 Inconsistencies regarding where she lives, how she came to be here or knowledge of her current location, may claim
to be “just visiting”
 Lack of personal possessions or money
 Has no access to her earnings
 History of frequent movement (around the city, between cities, provincially, or internationally)
 Not allowed to leave her living or working situation unless monitored
 Lack of contact with family or friends

Sex Work Involvement
 Use of lingo or slang relating to the sex industry (i.e. referring to a boyfriend as “Daddy” or talking about “the game”,
“the life”, “Johns” “tricks”, etc.)
 Indicates that she is involved in the sex industry and has a boyfriend/manager/”daddy”/pimp
 Engaged in sex work and has to meet a nightly quota or someone else “holds” her money
 Exchanging sex for food, a place to stay, drugs, or other material items

Screening Tool for Trafficking for Commercial Sexual Exploitation

The following document contains questions that can be used to assess a client for potential signs that she has been a victim of
human trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation. The suggestions and indicators below are not exhaustive or cumulative in
nature and each question taken alone may not indicate a potential trafficking situation. Assessment questions should be tailored
to your context and client’s specific needs.

Screening for Human Trafficking for CSE should:
 Take place in a private setting. No friends, partners or relatives should be present, including providing translation, as
they may be involved in her trafficking.
 Be confidential. Clients should be informed of their right to confidentiality and the limits of confidentiality.
 Be conducted in the client's primary language with professional translation.
 Keep in mind that many victim-survivors do not self-identify as "human trafficking victims" due to lack of knowledge
about the crime and also power and control dynamics involved in trafficking situations.

Framing the conversation
 Explain why you care about the individual’s situation and that you have worked with and assisted other individuals in
situations that may be similar to her own. Explaining who you are and why you are there is particularly important to
correct any misperceptions of your role. Do not promise anything you cannot deliver.
 When appropriate, attempt to engage in casual conversation about lighter topics and ask questions to try to get the
individual to open up, even if it’s not about their trafficking situation or service needs. Although the client might be
confused, scared and/or distracted, engaging in casual conversation before the assessment helps to build trust and
set the tone for effective, non-defensive communication.
 In your initial assessment, try to focus predominantly on assessments of their service needs, but weave in other
questions naturally and when appropriate.
 There is not a 'standard script' that can be used with victim-survivor's. Questions should fit the context and indicators
you have observed in the situation.
 Use open-ended questions, allowing for the victim-survivor to share her story.
 Establishing rapport and a degree of trust is a key factor to a victim-survivor sharing their story. Keep in mind that her
story will usually come out over a series of interactions, not necessarily in one encounter.

Areas for Screening

Control Indicators
Examples:
 Exhibits fear, anxiety, hyper-vigilance or signs of depression
 Signs of physical abuse and /or sexual abuse
 Evidence of a controlling or dominating intimate relationships – i.e. accompanied by a partner who appears
controlling; repeated phone calls from a partner, and/or excessive concern about displeasing a partner
 Not allowed to speak for herself– a partner or 3rd party speaks or translates for the individual
 Lack of identification (driver’s license, health card, passport, etc.)

Example Questions:
 Can you tell me what happened to your (injured area)?
 I notice you came in with someone, can you tell me a bit about your relationship with him/her?
 Is there anyone or anything in your life that you are afraid of right now?
 Can you tell me where your identification is?

Isolation Indicators
Examples:
 History of frequent moves (around the city, between cities, provincially, or internationally
 Identification from another city, province or country
 Lack of contact with family or friends

Example Questions:
 What has brought you to Waterloo Region?
 Who do you normally turn to for support?
 Who are you staying with here in (city or town)?

Sex Trade Indicators*
Examples:
 Use of lingo or slang relating to the sex trade – i.e. referring to a boyfriend as “Daddy” or talking about “the game”,
“the life”, “Johns” “tricks”, etc.
 Indicates that she is involved in the sex industry and has a boyfriend/manager/”daddy”/pimp
 Engaged in sex work and has to meet a nightly quota or someone else ‘holds’ her money
 Exchanging sex for food, a place to stay, drugs, or other material items

Example Questions:
 How did you first get involved with sex work ("the game")?
 How do you keep yourself safe while you're working?
 Who holds on to your money when you're with clients?
 There is an organization here that provides support for women involved in sex work, would you be interested in their
info?

*Keep in mind that not all women involved in the sex trade are trafficked. Ask questions to help determine whether she is
working independently or whether she is under the control of a trafficker. Remember, many trafficking victim-survivors will not
identify their controllers as traffickers, but may be in an intimate partner or family relationship with them.

Next Steps
If through your conversation(s) you determine that this woman is a potentially trafficked individual, offer her resources for
assistance and help to contact those resources (i.e. provide a private place for her to call and a telephone). Keep in mind that it
often takes time and several conversations before a trafficked woman decides to seek help.

Basic Resources Accessible to Victim-Survivors of Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Waterloo Region
Walk With Me Canada: 1-647-838-6673 (24 Hour Crisis Line and Intervention Support)
Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region: 519-741-8633 (24 Hour Support and Information)
Victim Services of Waterloo Region: 519-585-2363 (24 Hour Response and Support)
Waterloo Regional Police Service: 519-653-7700 (24 Hours)
 

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Winnipeg police checking into hotels to counter human trafficking

Published Tuesday, March 7, 2017 10:41AM CST

http://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/winnipeg-police-checking-into-hotels-to-counter-human-trafficking-1.3314296

Police are checking into Winnipeg hotels in an attempt curb prostitution and human trafficking.

The Winnipeg Police Service's Counter Exploitation Unit visited 43 hotels in February as part of Project Check-In, to educate staff and management about the signs of exploitation.

Six people deemed at high risk were interviewed, two sex-trade customers were warned and one arrest warrant was executed.

A report also said the unit is working with hotels and realtors near the airport, frequented by out of town sex trade workers, to combat human trafficking.
 

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Montreal man, 19, arrested for trafficking girl in Toronto


http://www.cp24.com/news/montreal-ma...onto-1.3320193

A 19-year-old Montreal man is in custody after he allegedly forced a 17-year-old girl, through threats and physical beatings, to work as an escort in the Toronto area earlier this month.

Toronto police say that last month, a 17-year-old girl met the suspect in Montreal. She agreed to travel to Toronto with him under the pretense that it was merely a trip.

Once the pair arrived in the city, police allege the suspect took the girl’s ID and cell phone and destroyed them.

Investigators say the suspect forced the victim to work as an escort and posted images of her on backpages.com.

The victim was forced hand over all of the money she earned to the suspect.

On March 4, police say the girl managed to escape from the suspect and she immediately contacted police.

The following day, a suspect identified as Jahvon Collins was arrested aboard a bus as he attempted to leave Ontario.

He is charged with 14 offences including two counts of assault with a weapon, forcible confinement, uttering threats, overcome resistance by choking, exercising control and destroying documents in relation to trafficking in persons.

He appeared in court at Old City Hall on March 6.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 416-808-7474 or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-8477 (TIPS).
 

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American Sex Police
With sweeping trafficking stings, the FBI returns to its roots as the nation's vice squad.
Elizabeth Nolan Brown from the April 2017 issue

In an unremarkable hotel room, a team of officers watches the footage streaming from a hidden camera next door. A middle-aged man is making arrangements to pay a young woman for sex. Once she agrees, the squad will rush in, shouting instructions, their bulletproof vests bulging with firearms and emblazoned with police or FBI. The woman—or is she a girl?—will have her hands tied behind her back and her phone confiscated. She will sit on the bed, partially undressed, as a team of men search her room, pawing through her underwear drawer and toiletry bags, seizing any cash they find. She will eventually be fingerprinted, interrogated, and taken into police custody.

Welcome to Operation Cross Country, the U.S. government's huge, intrusive, and utterly ineffective effort to fight child sex trafficking.

Variations on the scene above play out again and again in sensationalized montages of footage from the stings, which the FBI has been proudly posting to YouTube since Operation Cross Country launched in 2008. The vignettes are unsettling. In one scene, someone can be heard crying in the background as the camera pans past her stuff—Skittles, electric toothbrush, makeup—and settles on cops counting stacks of money. Other clips follow officers tailing people in tight dresses and stiletto heels or scouring printouts of escort ads from hotel beds. Shot after shot show authorities handcuffing young people, mostly women and girls, and parading them down dim hallways, thick gloved hands gripping skinny arms on either side, or pushing them up against cop cars, the camera lingering on cuffed wrists clasped tightly over baggy jeans or long, bare legs.

The latest iteration of the initiative—Operation Cross Country X—took place across 103 U.S. cities from October 13 to 16. According to the FBI, it involved the efforts of 74 federally led Human Trafficking Task Forces, comprised of officers from 55 FBI field offices and more than 400 federal, state, and local law-enforcement agencies. These included city and suburban police departments, county sheriff's offices, state police and investigative bureaus, juvenile detention departments, drug enforcement units, and an impressive array of federal entities: Homeland Security Investigations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Customs and Border Protection, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Coast Guard Investigative Service, the State Department, myriad U.S. Attorney's Offices, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. They were aided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and local nonprofits that had recently received federal grants.

According to an FBI press release, this mighty group conducted "sting operations in hotels, casinos, truck stops, and other areas frequented by pimps, prostitutes, and their customers." The focus: "recovering underage victims of prostitution," or, as FBI Director James Comey put it, offering sexually exploited children a "lifeline" from a "virtual prison."

Overall, the operation identified 82 "children" engaged in prostitution, an average of about 0.88 per city, or one for every five agencies participating. All were teenagers—mostly 16- and 17-year-olds—and a number of cities where they were found made no simultaneous pimping or sex trafficking arrests. To the feds, anyone under 18 who trades sex acts for money is defined as a victim of sex trafficking, regardless of whether they have experienced abduction, violence, restraint, or threats.

In the end, only five men stand accused of federal crimes—with only two accused of crimes against actual minors. None of these suspects was part of anything even remotely resembling an organized criminal enterprise.

In the four months following Operation Cross Country X, U.S. prosecutors announced federal indictments against a Missouri man accused of driving an 18-year-old sex worker across state lines and a pair of cousins whose initially consensual pimping of three adult women (including one of the defendants' girlfriends) had turned abusive.

Two others were brought up on federal charges for sex trafficking of children, though both were cases of what might be called statutory sex trafficking, with no force, fraud, or coercion alleged by any parties. In one, a Kansas man is accused of earning "at least $100" for driving a 17-year-old girl to three prostitution appointments, which she arranged. In the other, a Texas man is accused of facilitating the prostitution of a 15-year-old whose fake ID said she was age 19. Police say the girl, a frequent runaway from state protective services, obtained the false identification before meeting her "trafficker," who claims he didn't know her real age.

Altogether, these numbers suggest a strikingly lackluster outcome for a federal crusade to save children from "modern slavery" (as so many in the Justice Department routinely call it) and to bring their perpetrators to justice, particularly when you consider the manpower and money mobilized, the breadth of the effort, and the supposed magnitude of the underage sex trafficking problem.

It's a very long article, read more here: http://reason.com/archives/2017/03/14/american-sex-police?utm_content=bufferb6046&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
 

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Sarnia police arrest two after human trafficking investigation
19-year-old was forced to work as an escort for two years, according to police
CBC News Posted: Mar 28, 2017 12:50 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 28, 2017 12:50 PM ET

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/sarnia-police-arrest-two-after-human-trafficking-investigation-1.4043955

Two men from the Peel Region have been arrested in Sarnia for allegedly forcing a 19-year-old woman into the sex trade.

Sarnia police charged the men last week after receiving information from Lambton County OPP.

An investigation revealed a teenaged woman, who was not from Sarnia, was forced to work as an escort for two years in cities across Ontario.

"This young lady has been forced to hand over all the money she made and has been threatened and assaulted while with the two accused," according to a media release.

A 22-year-old man was charged with human trafficking and breach of probation on March 23. The next day, a 25-year-old man was arrested on several charges connected to the same alleged offence including human trafficking.
 

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Asian-run ‘Uber of Sex Trafficking’ Crime Ring Busted in California, Minnesota

By Ryan General Posted on March 30, 2017


A criminal organization, which prosecutors call “the Uber of sex trafficking”, is now facing charges after authorities uncovered its operations in Minnesota and California. It was also discovered that the international human trafficking and prostitution ring operated in 29 different states in the United States.

Charges filed against the four arrested suspects, namely Fangyao Wu, Sophia Wang Navas, Hong Jing and Dongzhou Jiang were: “racketeering, sex trafficking, promotion of prostitution, concealing criminal proceeds and engaging in the business of concealing criminal proceeds in connection with a criminal enterprise profiteering off the sale of vulnerable human beings for sex.”

Three of the suspects, who were arrested in California, will soon be extradited to Minnesota to face charges, CBS Minnesota reports.

Investigations revealed that thousands of ads were placed on Backpage.com on behalf of the group in the last two years. According to Washington County Attorney Pete Orput, the group coordinated meeting locations with “clients” via phones, peddling victims who were mostly trafficked women from China.

“It was the Uber of sex trafficking,” Orput said. “You could order up sex…Ordering a girl was like ordering up a pizza.”

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi stated that the victims were raped, viciously beaten, and forced to work 12 to 14 hours each day. Each of them was forced with to earn a quota of $800 daily.

“This is the most sophisticated human trafficking operation I have ever seen,” Choi said.

Authorities have discovered numerous places of operation in different parts of Minnesota, such as St. Paul, Blaine, Cottage Grove, Maplewood, Oakdale and St. Louis Park, where the suspects purchased or rented properties to sell sex. The syndicate also operated in Fargo, North Dakota.

Court documents for the case detailed the horrific experiences of six rescued victims. The women were revealed to be forced to pay their traffickers house fees, transportation costs, hotel expenses and their own food. Some of the women were also forced to surrender their passports.

http://nextshark.com/asian-run-uber-sex-trafficking-crime-ring-busted-california-minnesota/
 

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'I'm hoping the judge says 10 years,' says mother of teenage human trafficking victim
Owen Gibson-Skeir, Nova Scotia's 1st convicted human trafficker, being sentenced today
By Angela MacIvor, CBC News Posted: Mar 31, 2017 6:30 AM AT Last Updated: Mar 31, 2017 7:48 AM AT

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...cing-1.4048849

A 21-year-old man who threatened his victim with a gun gesture in a Halifax courtroom will be sentenced today for human trafficking.

Owen Gibson-Skeir is the first person to be convicted of human trafficking in Nova Scotia since new federal laws took effect in 2005.

"I'm hoping the judge says 10 years," said the victim's mother.

Gibson-Skeir pleaded guilty last December to trafficking in a person under the age of 18, receiving material benefit from trafficking, and sexual assault. His victim was 14 years old at the time of the offences.

The Crown and defence had prepared a joint recommendation of seven years. However, following the statement of facts, Gibson-Skeir threatened his victim as he was led out of court by sheriffs. Two more charges were added to his file: uttering threats and intimidation of a justice participant.

The victim's mother, who cannot be identified because of a publication ban, says Gibson-Skeir's stunt in court will only hurt himself in the long run.

"The plea deal ended up not being a deal at all really, and we were kind of happy about that," she said.

'Heartbreaking' details

The girl's mother says she didn't know the extent of what Gibson-Skeir did until she heard it in court.

"There were guns involved. There were beatings. I knew some of that. More of the sexual stuff is what I didn't know the details of," she said. "It was heartbreaking."

Gibson-Skeir pimped the young girl out at hotels across the city between January and March 2016. He posted ads online, and made his victim call him "Daddy."

Her mother says she had suspicions, but it wasn't until one night when her daughter started crying that she learned Gibson-Skeir had sent the girl text messages, threatening to hurt her family.

"He had sent two pictures with a handgun and his hand right on it with his tattoos," she said.

"I had asked my daughter if she wanted to charge him and she wasn't really sure. I think she was really scared."

'We were hiding'

Her mother says she decided to go forward with a case against Gibson-Skeir, with support from her family, even though it was the "hardest, biggest step ever."

"It's not just worrying about charging them. Then there's threats. There's death threats," said the girl's mother.

"We had to have our windows closed, doors locked. We were hiding. It was crazy. It was scary."

However, she says the family would "absolutely" do it all over again.

First conviction

She says several investigators told the family a conviction was unlikely because it had never been done. Now that Gibson-Skeir will be sentenced for human trafficking, the victim's mother hopes it will pave the way for more cases.

"Other girls can now come forward and know that the police can no longer start the conversation off with 'we've never had a conviction.' So that's something to be proud of, I guess," she said.

Crown attorney Catherine Cogswell agrees it has created a path for more convictions.

"This is the sexual slavery of children and we're going to fight this tooth and nail in the community and in the courts and I think that's the significance of the first conviction for the human trafficking provisions," she said.

As of January 2017, the Human Trafficking National Co-ordination Centre identified 115 cases of human trafficking or related charges in Canada that resulted in convictions.

Difficult to prove

Cogswell explains that human trafficking is a difficult offence to prove, and often relies on a victim to come forward. Although new legislation tabled by the Liberal government is meant to reduce the likelihood that victims of trafficking would have to testify in court, Cogswell says she can't see it happening any other way.

"Any suggestion that it will reduce the instances of victims sitting in the box and giving old-fashioned testimony, I think that's naive. And I applaud their efforts, but as a prosecutor from the trenches, you have to have the witness in the box to talk about it," she said.

Nicole Barrett, director of the International Justice and Human Rights Clinic in Vancouver, believes there are other ways to successfully prosecute a human trafficking case.

"I think part of the problem with the low number of cases is that you have many people that are not good victim witnesses and then the cases are dropped," she said.

Barrett would like to see police focus on the money trail of suspected perpetrators, rather than push victims to risk their lives by speaking out.

"I mean it's a different kind of evidence. It's not as emotional," said Barrett. "But I don't think it wouldn't work to have the financial case, and it's better for many reasons."
 
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