A move in the federal government’s new border security plan to expand law enforcement data sharing on sex offenders appears to respond to a U.S. request to help combat cross-border sex trafficking.
But advocates say there still needs to be greater collaboration and data sharing among Canadian police forces for sex trafficking investigations within the country, where the majority of victims are Canadian women and girls.
“There is a profound failure of Canada’s justice system to serve survivors of human trafficking and especially sex trafficking,” said Julia Drydyk, executive director of the Canadian Center to End Human Trafficking. (CCEHT), in an interview with Global News.
The $1.3 billion border security plan includes a proposal first mentioned in the government’s autumn economic statement amend the Sex Offender Information Registry Act to “enhance” the RCMP’s ability to share information about “high-risk travelers” with domestic and international partners, officials announced Tuesday.
“In addition, we will improve and expand information and intelligence sharing between federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous authorities,” Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters.
“At all times, there will be a strong focus on fentanyl, human trafficking and transnational organized crime at our borders.”
Currently, Canadian law states that information from the National Sex Offender Registry is only available to police for limited investigative purposes within Canada. In contrast, data on American sex offenders from across the country is openly accessible to the public and easily shared among federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.
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In an interview in The west block Earlier this month, David Cohen, the US ambassador to Canada, told Global News that the “stricter privacy rules and regulations that exist in Canada” regarding sex offenders were “one of the real barriers to full cooperation” with the United States government in the fight against sex trafficking. , which he described as “an important issue.”
When asked if the United States felt those laws protected sex traffickers, Cohen responded: “Correct.”
Cohen said at the time that legislation was being considered in Canada after talks with the United States that would give convicted sex offenders “a lower level of privacy protection.”
Canada and the United States also entered into negotiations in 2022 for a bilateral agreement under the US Clarification of Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act, which would improve cross-border data sharing between law enforcement agencies. .
The proposed legislative amendment is not expected to be tabled until Parliament resumes at the end of January. The fall economic statement itself faces an uncertain fate after Chrystia Freeland resigned as finance minister on Monday, raising new questions about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s political future.
‘Holes in our social safety net,’ says advocate
The CCEHT has advocated for greater collaboration and data sharing between national police forces to stop human trafficking within Canada, including sex trafficking, Drydyk said.
Although she said there is evidence of sex trafficking between the United States and Canada, “the overwhelming trend is that this is largely happening to Canadian women and girls nationally, but through provincial and municipal jurisdictions, not necessarily across borders.” state”.
He said police forces across Canada often work in silos and do not share data with each other, making it difficult to track victims and perpetrators who move between provinces and territories.
Intra-jurisdictional police units in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, he added, have shown that change can be achieved if enough resources are dedicated to addressing the problem.
“This is not a legal issue in terms of laws that need to be overcome or changed,” Drydyk said. “This is about law enforcement changing the way they operate.”
The CCEHT Canadian Anti-Human Trafficking Hotline identified approximately 1,500 cases of human trafficking of more than 12,000 calls it received between 2019 and 2022. Of those cases, 69 percent were sex trafficking cases.
The majority of victims and survivors served through the hotline to date have requested help finding shelter, navigating the social services system and accessing mental health counseling and support, Drydyk said.
The latest report on human trafficking in the United States He said that while Canada meets minimum standards to combat human trafficking, there are gaps in both police data collection and victim services and protections, with the latter considered “inadequate.”
Drydyk said traffickers are “exploiting those holes in our social safety net” by preying on homelessness, poverty, substance abuse and other vulnerabilities. These victims find it as difficult as ever to access help.
He said that if the government is serious about combating human trafficking, it needs to consult with victims rather than prioritize issues raised by U.S. officials.
“I think it’s a lot more complicated,” he said.
“We need to take an evidence-based, but also survivor-informed, perspective. “We need to talk to survivors about where the solutions are.”
Sex trafficking survivors seeking help can contact The Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-833-900-1010.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
