Tourism meccas are often popular sites for sex work, and with Squamish being a summer tourism destination that also happens to be close to Whistler, residents need to be on guard for human and sex trafficking.
It was a message from activist Cathy Peters, whose 'Be Amazing' campaign seeks to stomp out human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
"Sex trafficking is a form of human trafficking. It involves recruiting, transporting or holding victims for sexual exploitation," according to Public Safety Canada.
"Sex traffickers get their victims to provide sexual services through different forms of coercion."
Peters gave a presentation to District council on April 13, and warned officials that with COVID-19 increasing the screen time of just about everyone, young people are particularly susceptible to being lured into meeting strangers, who could abduct them and force them into sexually exploitative work.One major high-profile case that brought this problem to the forefront of the nation was that of Amanda Todd, Peters told The Chief in a follow-up conversation.
Todd committed suicide after meeting a stranger online who took compromising photos on a webcam, which he used to blackmail her.The problem appears to be on the rise, according to police.
At a recent federal ethics committee meeting held on April 12, RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki reported that child sexual exploitation online increased 36% from March 2020 to May 2020 — a big jump in just three months last year.Back in Squamish, after hearing Peters' talk, District council did not provide any direction, but asked the advocate to provide some information regarding best practices in spotting human trafficking that could be shared with staff.
When approached for further comment, spokesperson Rachel Boguski said council had no further comments on the matter.Speaking with The Chief, Peters said that locals in town should be on their guard.
"It's a problem in Vancouver because it's an entry into Canada, and it's a port city, and it's also a fabulous destination for travellers," she said.
"But things like this have a nasty criminal underbelly. And this is it. And then we've got Whistler, which is also a global tourist destination, and it has a nasty criminal underbelly as well."
She pointed out that there are frequent advertisements in Whistler for sex work or escorts.
"Squamish is en route. Squamish is too close to Vancouver to not be impacted. But because we have the computer and the internet, every community now is impacted by this. There's not a community that is immune."
Canada is considered a Tier 1 country by the U.S. Department of State, meaning it is among the highest-ranked countries when it comes to fighting human trafficking.
However, this does not mean the country is without problems.
The department's 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report said that while Canada meets standards for Tier 1, it has its share of issues.
"Although the government meets the minimum standards, it did not provide comprehensive data on investigations, prosecutions, and convictions from all jurisdictions or on victims provided with services nationwide. The government's efforts to identify victims and address forced labor, through both law enforcement and victim identification and protection measures, remained inadequate," reads the report.
There is also a gap in information, which, as Peters pointed out, makes it very hard or impossible to provide accurate statistics on the state of trafficking in Squamish and other communities."As there is no mandatory reporting mechanism across municipal, provincial, and federal agencies, the government admitted gaps in data collection and analysis of the prevalence of trafficking," the U.S. report says.
Peters also noted the racial component in human trafficking and sexual exploitation. It is often vulnerable communities such as Indigenous peoples and immigrants that are forced into these circumstances."The reality is Indigenous women and girls are being targeted aggressively by the sex industry," she said.
The issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls puts this to the forefront, Peters said."I would call it the most egregious form of systemic racism in our country," she said.
Decriminalizing prostitution would further put Indigenous women in the crosshairs of the sex industry, Peters said.For its part, Squamish RCMP said it was aware of the issue.
"The Squamish RCMP acknowledges that human and sex trafficking is prevalent, under-reported and thus often under-investigated," said acting corporal Ashley MacKay of the Squamish RCMP General Investigation Section, in a written statement provided to The Chief."We believe, in our community, that we are not immune to such behaviour and are educating ourselves to be alive to the indicators. Our team has sought out various training opportunities and connected with partners to ensure we have the knowledge and investigational standards for these types of investigations. We are asking anyone who is aware or is a victim of these types of offences to please call the Squamish RCMP at 604-892-6100."
Officers told The Chief they did not immediately have numbers on this type of crime on hand.Sgt. Sascha Banks said these types of cases usually don't initially present themselves to police as a trafficking file.
As a result, determining which cases would end up being human trafficking incidents requires an analyst to examine cases, which takes some time.
