Sex Trafficking

Each person’s experience is unique, but sex trafficking often involves a similar pattern of luring, grooming, isolation, manipulation and coercion, and exploitation. Traffickers look for people with more obvious risk factors in their lives – they may be having problems at home or with friends, low self-esteem, living in poverty, experiencing homelessness, or struggling with substance use or mental health. Traffickers often ‘love bomb’ victims at the beginning of their relationship – fulfilling their needs, wants and dreams. Traffickers often initiate a friendship or a romantic relationship as a way to build trust and rapport with the person they are planning to exploit. As traffickers form this relationship, they usually isolate their target from loved ones to create a dependency between them and the victim. From there, traffickers use manipulation and threats to force them into providing sexual services in exchange for money, where some or all of the money gets given to the trafficker. This can happen quickly or over a longer period.

This process of luring, grooming, isolation, manipulation, and coercion can result in an intense emotional and psychological bond between the trafficker and the individual they are trafficking. This bond can make it hard for someone to realize that what is happening to them is abuse and make it hard to reach out for help or leave the situation.

Remember that even if someone agrees to sex or to work in the sex industry, it doesn’t mean they agree to be exploited or abused. If the situation changes, and they are being taken advantage of, their original consent doesn’t count anymore.

For more information on the stages of trafficking, please see this blog post.

Human trafficking can happen to anyone, but some groups are more at risk. Indigenous peoples, women, 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals, children, and youth are at higher risk of being trafficked. 90% of victims/survivors identified by the Hotline identified as female. However, it’s not just women and girls who are more likely to be targeted by traffickers. The data shows that transgender men and women and gender-diverse individuals are exploited at higher rates relative to their share of the Canadian population.

Traffickers often target people who are marginalized, including people experiencing:

• Unsafe housing or homelessness
• Drug and alcohol dependency
• Poverty
• Physical or learning disabilities
• Mental health or other emotional challenges
• History of domestic violence or sexual abuse/assault
• Being in the child welfare system
• Problems with peers, family, and/or community
• Systemic racism and discrimination

There is no single indicator of sex trafficking; instead, it is often a combination of signs and behaviours considered within the context of the situation. The following signs may indicate that sex trafficking is occurring:

• Withdrawing from friends and family and/or being secretive about a new friend/boyfriend
• Frequent absences from the home, work, and/or school
• Having unexplained gifts or expensive items and/or sudden changes in appearance (clothing, accessories, make-up, nails, etc.)
• Giving scripted or ‘canned’ answers to casual questions
• Showing fear and intimidation through facial expressions or body language (e.g. not making eye contact, acting on edge, afraid)
• Tattoos of the trafficker’s name or symbol
• Not having any money even if they say they are working consistently
• Not having possession of their identification documents
• Visible signs of abuse (cuts, bruises, burns, etc.) and fatigue
• Intoxication or substance use

If you believe you or someone you know is being trafficked, contact the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-833-900-1010 or reach out via chat at www.canadianhumantraffickinghotline.ca. Hotline Response Advocates are available 24/7 to provide confidential support and information. We won’t call the police unless you want us to or if we have a legal duty to report. We won’t judge you. You don’t have to share any information you’re uncomfortable sharing, and you can hang up anytime.

Click here to read more about the Hotline’s confidentiality policy.

It is very challenging to collect reliable data on human trafficking. Victims and survivors are often very fearful of coming forward, and there may be stigma, shame, fear of retribution, and/or fear of law enforcement. Between 2019-2020, the Hotline identified 415 cases of human trafficking and 593 victims/survivors who were associated with these cases. The most common type of trafficking identified by the Hotline was sex trafficking [71%]. For more information on the statistics of human trafficking, click here.

Selling sex doesn’t always mean human trafficking. In Canada, people over the age of 18 may legally sell sex, but forcing, manipulating or coercing someone else to sell sex is illegal. People under the age of 18 cannot legally consent to selling or exchanging sex for anything of value.

People who sell sex independently can choose who they engage with, what sexual services they provide and how much they charge. They get to keep the money they make. But trafficking victims have little to no control over how many ‘clients’ they see and what types of sexual services they have to provide, and they often must give their earnings to the trafficker.

The Hotline advocates for services and supports that meet people’s needs. We work with a network of over 900 service delivery partners to provide referrals based on our callers’ needs and wishes. This can include access to emergency shelter and housing, safety planning, medical care, legal support, and/or case management, or others.

There is no one stereotypical trafficker; they can be of any gender, age or background. However, data suggests that most traffickers identified by police in Canada are male, and 51% of traffickers are under 25. Sometimes there is one trafficker, while in other cases, a group or gang may be trafficking people. A trafficker may also coerce their victims to recruit other victims. However, there is often an existing relationship between the trafficker and the victim, and traffickers can be intimate partners, friends, acquaintances, employers and sometimes family members.

If you are or have been trafficked, it is not your fault. You are not to blame. Human trafficking is against the law in Canada. This means that people cannot be forced to work or provide sexual services against their will. If someone breaks this law, they can be charged. Human trafficking offences are included in the Criminal Code under sections 279.01 to 279.04 and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Because traffickers are often someone the victim knows, loves and trusts, there are often complicated feelings of attachment, shame, guilt, and even loyalty between the trafficker and the victim. This connection can result in an invisible bond that keeps victims feeling trapped and unable to leave. Traffickers often use violence or blackmail against individuals or their loved ones to prevent them from leaving. Traffickers also use the stigma associated with sex work to keep their victims feeling ashamed, trapped and isolated. Traffickers may even be parents or primary caregivers, making it especially difficult for victims to leave. Understanding the trauma that survivors of trafficking experience is crucial in providing them with the appropriate support and care.

When you call the Hotline, you’ll hear a recording asking you to choose English, French, or Spanish. We will also ask you if your call is ‘Urgent.’ Occasionally, if we are experiencing higher than normal call volumes, you may need to wait on hold until a Hotline Response Advocate is available to answer. Please remain on the line as we would like to speak with you about your situation or needs.

Once a call is answered, the Hotline Response Advocate will ask about your current level of safety to ensure that you are safe to proceed with the call. The Advocate will ask you to tell them about what brought you to call the Hotline and may ask follow-up questions to further understand your situation. The Advocate will work with you to identify what services may be helpful and provide you with options for connecting with them. At the end of the call, you will receive a unique case number to reference if you need or want to call back.

To make the most appropriate service referral possible, the Hotline Response Advocates might ask for personal information like your age, gender identity, preferred language, cultural background, immigration status, and location. We only ask questions to help us find appropriate referrals and services for you based on what you say you need. We won’t try to convince you to access any services you don’t want. We won’t call the police unless you want us to or if we have a legal duty to report. We won’t judge you. You don’t have to share any information you’re uncomfortable sharing, and you can hang up at any time.

Click here to read more about the Hotline’s confidentiality policy.