A measure in the federal government’s new border security plan to expand the sharing of police data on sex offenders appears to answer a U.S. request to help combat cross-border sex trafficking.
But advocates say there still needs to be greater collaboration and data sharing between Canadian police forces for sex trafficking investigations within the country, where a majority of victims are Canadian women and girls.
“There’s a profound failure of Canada’s justice system in serving survivors of human trafficking and especially sex trafficking,” said Julia Drydyk, executive director of the Canadian Centre 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 fall economic statement to amend the Sex Offender Information Registration Act to “enhance” the RCMP’s ability to share information about “high-risk travellers” with domestic and international partners, officials announced Tuesday.
“As well, we will enhance and expand information and intelligence sharing between federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous authorities,” Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters.
“Throughout, there will be a sharp focus on fentanyl, human smuggling and organized transnational crime at our borders.”
Canadian law currently states information in the National Sex Offender Registry is only available to police for limited investigative purposes within Canada. By contrast, U.S. sex offender data from across the country is openly accessible to the public and is easily shared between federal, state and local police forces.
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In an interview on The West Block earlier this month, David Cohen, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, told Global News the “heightened privacy rules and regulations that exist in Canada” regarding sex offenders was “one of the real barriers to full cooperation” with the U.S. government on combating sex trafficking, which he called a “significant issue.”
Asked if the U.S. felt those laws were protecting sex traffickers, Cohen responded, “Correct.”
Cohen said at the time that legislation was being considered in Canada after conversations with the U.S. that would give convicted sex offenders “a lesser level of privacy protections.”
Canada and the U.S. also entered into negotiations in 2022 for a bilateral agreement under the U.S. Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act, which would enhance cross-border sharing of data between law enforcement agencies.
The proposed legislative amendment isn’t expected to be introduced until Parliament resumes in late January. The fall economic statement itself is facing an uncertain fate after Chrystia Freeland resigned as finance minister Monday, raising fresh questions about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s political future.
‘Holes in our social safety net’, advocate says
The CCEHT has advocated for greater collaboration and data sharing between domestic police forces to stop human smuggling within Canada, including sex trafficking, Drydyk said.
Although she said there is evidence of sex trafficking between the U.S. and Canada, “the overwhelming trend is that this is happening domestically to Canadian women and girls largely, but across provincial and municipal jurisdictions, not necessarily state borders.”
She said police forces across Canada are often working in silos and not sharing data with one another, making it harder to track victims and perpetrators moving between provinces and territories.
Intra-jurisdictional police units in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, she added, have proven change can be made with enough resources dedicated to addressing the issue.
“This isn’t a legal issue in terms of laws that need to be overcome or changed,” Drydyk said. “It’s about law enforcement changing the way that they operate.”
The CCEHT’s Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline identified roughly 1,500 human trafficking cases out of over 12,000 calls it received between 2019 and 2022. Of those cases, 69 per cent were cases of sex trafficking.
Most of the victims and survivors helped through the hotline to date have requested help with finding shelter, navigating the social service system and accessing counselling and mental health supports, Drydyk said.
The latest U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report said that while Canada meets the minimum standards for combating human trafficking, there are gaps in both police data collection and victims services and protections, with the latter deemed “inadequate.”
Drydyk said traffickers are “honing in on those holes in our social safety net” by preying on people dealing with homelessness, poverty, substance abuse and other vulnerabilities. Those victims then find it just as difficult to access supports as before.
She said if the government is serious about combating human trafficking, it needs to consult with victims rather than prioritize issues being raised by U.S. officials.
“I think it’s far more complicated,” she said.
“We need to be taking an evidence-based, but also survivor-informed perspective. We need to be talking to survivors about where the solutions lie.”
Survivors of sex trafficking looking for help can contact The Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline 24-7 at 1-833-900-1010.
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