You’re a shy, insecure teenage girl and you’ve been having difficulties making friends at school. You start working at a restaurant where you befriend a co-worker who invites you to her birthday party. You’re extremely excited because a) You’ve made a new friend and b) This girl is a really cool girl from Toronto. she tells you that everything all costs will be covered and that she’ll come pick you up this Saturday evening .

She comes as promised and you you spend a fun night partying at a club in Toronto. 

The next morning you get back into her car expecting she’ll drive you back home to Hamilton, but when she parks the car you find yourself in an unfamiliar parking lot somewhere still in Toronto. She turns to you and says, “You owe me $600.” You’re confused. She continues, “You owe me for the rental car, the gas, the club entry, and the drinks last night.” You don’t know what to say.

She tosses you a bag and inside you see a bikini and heels. “Go dance.” she demands.  You look out your window and realize she has brought you to a strip club. She tells you that there are two men inside waiting for you to ensure that you make her that $600 and if you don’t follow these orders, she says she’ll kill your family. Your heart sinks. 

She had no choice but to go dance. she was horrified and humiliated, but she stayed until she had made $600. After she handed her co-worker who was waiting in the car, she thought this was all done and that she could return home. Instead she was taken back to the girl’s place where she was met with her pimps. She was driven from strip clubs to strip club all around the GTA to make money for them and raped multiple times by different pimps for the next couple years of her life.

Markie Dell is a human trafficking survivor and her story sheds light on the horrors of human trafficking and how impossible it can be to escape it once you get caught. 

The remainder of the story on how she escaped and recovered from human trafficking can be found in this TED talk.

I got to hear Markie Dell’s story in person at a Love146 conference at UofT where she came to share her story and advocate for her methods of finding inner peace after trauma. She was radiant and loving. Full of life.  

Unfortunately, Markie Dell’s case of wonderful recovery is not a common one. Her horrible experiences of Human Trafficking is the story of too many girls in Toronto today.

Girls ages 14 to 22 are trafficked all around Canada with 93% victims being from Canada not other countries as many misconceive (Canadian Women, 2014). They are trafficked in the hotels you’ve been to, private residence buildings you’ve walked by, movie theatres you watched a movie at: all around Toronto and the GTA.

Below is a table of the recorded cases of human trafficking in Toronto retrieved from the City of Toronto’s website. Keep in mind that similar to how less than 10% of sexual assault cases are reported to the police, most human trafficking cases rarely get to the point where law enforcement is involved and thus recorded. 

Classification	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	Total
Charges Laid	365	463	529	373	410	2,140
Occurrences	149	170	236	253	284	1,092
Arrests	59	61	77	52	46	295
Victims	33	30	67	60	60	250
Convictions	11	11	8	14	12	56

The issue of human trafficking started to gain attention in Canada around 2005. The RCMP conducted Canada’s very first Threat Assessment concerning human trafficking to find out the depth and extent of this issue in 2007. The official report was released in 2013 and it provided the information that was needed for government to create the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking. The government of Canada began investing over $6M annually after the release of this report to combat this issue. Some examples of areas this funding went towards include funding a Dedicated Enforcement Team specifically to tackle this issue, awareness and research regarding public safety, and enhanced victim services.

The findings from the RCMP’s Domestic Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation in Canada Report showed that Traffickers pose as friends or as romantic partners to psychologically manipulate individuals and later hold them through further manipulation, physical and sexual violence, as well as threats. It also reported that although victims usually meet their traffickers directly through people they know or simply being approached, there is a portion of people that become victims to human trafficking through social media such as Instagram or Facebook.

Toronto as a city has also made great strides towards tackling this issue since the release of the RCMP assessment. The Toronto Police created Toroto’s Human Trafficking Enforcement Team to fight human trafficking in 2013 with investigation, arrest and prosecution of traffickers on their agenda.

These new implementations lead to Toronto’s first human trafficking conviction in 2014 when Tyrone Burton was found guilty for prostitution charges. This was the case that shed light on how difficult the process of arresting human traffickers is. Detective Peter Brady who is a member of Toronto’s Human Trafficking Enforcement Team shared to the Toronto Star during this case that human trafficking cases are very difficult to navigate and prove because the traffickers are “really good at what they do. They prey on vulnerable girls, girls that come from bad backgrounds, low self-esteem, and then they befriend them, promise them condos, money, clothes, [and] protection.” 

As Detective Brady explained, often victims feel a sense of protection. In many cases hey are unaware that what they are experiencing is human trafficking. Kaitlin Bick, a human trafficking survivor that was trafficked in the GTA shared that she simply thought she had a “crappy boyfriend”. Read more about her story here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/canadas-first-human-trafficking-hotline-1.5365185

This is why awareness and education is crucial. 

Fortunately, the growing prevalence of human trafficking was followed by a much necessary increase in aid and advocacy from non-governmental organizations such as Covenant House Toronto, and Aura Freedom both of which the City of Toronto helps fund. 

Further, the Waterloo Region District School Board has added sex trafficking education to the curriculum to educate students about this issue to both help them stay safe and identify signs of risk around them. This is something I believe is necessary for all school boards and would like to see in Toronto education material. Click this link to find out more about how the WRDSB is spreading awareness about human trafficking to students.

Perhaps you’re thinking “but what can I do? I’m just one individual, how am I supposed to help deal with this overwhelming problem?”

Talk to those around you about this issue – perhaps mentioning this blog post can be a start. You’re adding to the education part of the solution.

Post or repost human trafficking awareness posts on social media – again you are a part of the solution simply by helping raise awareness.

Most importantly, check up on the people around you. Ask your friends how they’re doing. Maybe go sit with the person you see in the dining hall every day. And don’t forget to take care of yourself as well. Remember to stay cautious because the frightening truth is that anyone can be affected by human trafficking. 

Detective Davies, member of Durham Regional Police’s human trafficking unit when asked whether they were making a difference by carrying out police raids to save the women being trafficked replied “It’s like taking a spoon full of water out of Lake Ontario. One bit at a time, but we’re trying our best and that is all that we can do.”

Human Trafficking is an issue greater than we may conceive, but if we as citizens do our part in staying informed and helping spread awareness then I believe you and I can make a difference.