By Thane Burnett, QMI Agency
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Though the Canadian government has announced a national strategy to fight the last frontiers of slavery, the road ahead is bitterly long and backbreaking.
As the Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking was unveiled this week, the sad reality is it comes at a time when the numbers of people enslaved on Earth has likely never been higher.
In countries around the world, women are trafficking women, children are being sold from one hand to other for sex, the weakest members of society are tricked into forced labour for the promise of a better tomorrow, those without a voice are exploited as domestic servants and, don't kid yourself, the borders of Canada have not been a barrier to the exploitation of the desperate.
A disturbing number of trafficking victims are kids -- about 1.2 million youngsters out of an estimate of 2.4 million people worldwide -- though in some corners, including in parts of Africa and the Mekong region, children are the majority. The damage goes beyond even child soldiers and sex tourism, to become as commonplace as the domestic help working right next door.
"It's heartbreaking," says Manith Chea, the manager of a Cambodian government transit centre that tends to migrants being returned from nearby Thailand, "to see entire families lured by brokers ... where adults are told if you don't work, they would cut off parts of the body of the children."
The reason is as old as money, even if the dirty tricks have been modernized.
In Kazakhstan, as people flock to the cities for the promise of a better life, brokers sell humans off to farmers for their fields.
Those that fight against trafficking are modern abolitionists, though many Canadians are still unaware of the staggering statistics.
QMI Agency recently shadowed experts from World Vision Canada through Cambodia and into Thailand -- the land of milk and honey for many migrants in the region -- as they gathered information for the kick-off of a three year anti-trafficking and child labour campaign called Help Wanted -- End Child Slavery (endchildslavery.ca).
Story after story -- along the path taken by migrants searching for hope -- was of narrative of corruption, cruelty and humans preying on one another for a quick reward.
In Canada, beyond humanitarian organizations, perhaps no one has championed the cause of combating trafficking harder than Manitoba MP Joy Smith. The Conservative politician has been the main architect of anti-trafficking legislation, including minimum sentencing for child traffickers and introducing Bill C-310, which gives the ability of Canadian human traffickers to be prosecuted in Canada when offences occur outside of our country. That bill has now moved to the Senate for review.
She was also front and centre when the national action plan to fight back against trafficking was unveiled last week.
The plan includes assistance for victims and victim service providers, support for law enforcement and prosecutors and a plan for collaborative efforts. Human trafficking is a lucrative criminal activity that generates billions of dollars annually for syndicated criminal organizations, and affects virtually every country, including Canada, Smith points out.
"This is a modern-day form of slavery that our government denounces and is committed to addressing," she says.
"Today in our nation, men women and children are being bought and sold like commodities and coerced into forced labour and providing sexual services.
"It is an egregious abuse of fundamental human rights that we must take action against."
While criticized in the past for not doing as much as countries like the U.S. and Australia, Smith says Canada is ready to take a leadership role.
"A big part of this is public participation in combating human trafficking," she says.
For Smith, the fight is personal.
She was inspired by the work of her son, RCMP Cpl. Edward Riglin, on the Manitoba Integrated Child Exploitation Unit.
The unit was formed in 2001 to hunt down online child predators and pedophiles. Her son was one of the original 10 officers assigned to this special squad.
"During the year that my son was in the ICE Unit, his hair turned from jet black to grey," she recalls.
"For these officers, work often travels home with them at the end of the day or week.
"My son once told me their motto was 'One child at a time," she says.
For Smith herself, her drive to fight was fuelled by the story of a 14-year-old Canadian girl who was caught up in trafficking and never saved. "I will never forget about her and I work to ensure no one has to be bought or sold."
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