National definition

In their National Strategy To Combat Human Trafficking 2019-2024, the Government of Canada defines human trafficking as “recruiting, transporting, transferring, receiving, holding, concealing, harbouring, or exercising control, direction or influence over that person, for the purpose of exploitation, generally for sexual exploitation or forced labour.”

Provincial definition

Ontario’s Anti-Sex Trafficking Plan for School Boards (definitions)

Human trafficking refers to the control over and exploitation of an individual, most often for sexual exploitation. It is one of the fastest-growing crimes worldwide. It is predatory and devastatingly damaging to victims, survivors, their families and communities.

Sex trafficking is a form of sexual exploitation and is a crime under the Criminal Code of Canada. It can include luring, grooming, recruiting, harbouring, transporting, obtaining or providing a person for the purpose of sex. It involves the use of force, physical or psychological coercion or deception.

• Ontario accounts for approximately two-thirds of police-reported cases in Canada.
• 26% (1 in 4) of victims in police-reported cases are under 18. 
• 97% of victims of human trafficking are women and girls.
• 92% of victims of human trafficking knew their trafficker beforehand, 1/3 are former partners.
• The age of recruitment is generally 12 to 14 years old. 

Key Findings

• The average age of recruitment into sex trafficking is 13 years old.
• It is well known that the information about this issue is still underreported in Canada.
• Female traffickers usually work with at least one male. This partnership is sometimes relationship-based.
• Traffickers who are under the age of 18 years commonly work in partnership with adults.
• Victims who are trafficked by individuals under the age of 18 years are usually under 18 years old themselves.
• Canadian victims are typically female, white, between the ages of 14 and 22 years old.
• In recent years, individuals with relatively stable backgrounds are increasingly becoming victims of human trafficking.
• Trafficking always requires coercion by a third party.
• In approximately 50 per cent of specific cases of domestic human trafficking for sexual exploitation, traffickers are associated with street gangs. However, research does not indicate that human trafficking is an organized street gang activity.
• Traffickers work with friends, trusted associates, family members, boyfriends/girlfriends or other females involved in prostitution.

(How does a trafficker lure someone into being trafficked? – End Indigenous Trafficking)

Luring: The sex trafficker can be a stranger, someone you know or someone connected to you through your social network. They may suddenly be very interested in you and say nice things, pay attention to you, take you out and spend money on you. This is referred to as love bombing.

Grooming: The sex trafficker may act like a generous boyfriend or friend, make you feel amazing and adored, get you used to a new lifestyle and spend money on things like lingerie, accessories and new clothes. They may also try to get you to look older or sexier and push your boundaries by asking you to try out things that are risky, like taking nude selfies.

Isolation: The sex trafficker may try to cut you off from your friends and family and make you feel like they are the only person who cares about you. This helps them control you.

Manipulation: At some point, the sex trafficker will ask you to do sexual things to pay back the money that has been spent on you, to maintain your new lifestyle or to earn money for your future together. The sex trafficker may also tell you they owe someone money and something bad will happen to them if you don’t do what they want.

Threats: The sex trafficker may try to coerce you into sex by threatening to expose the things you’ve done in order to humiliate you. They may also threaten to hurt you or someone you care about.

Exploitation: The main goal of the sex trafficker is to exploit you by making you engage in sex with other people in exchange for money. This is different from sex work, where the person is over 18 and legally able to consent.

Recruiting: Includes proactive targeting of vulnerability and grooming behaviours.

What are the THREE ELEMENTS of human trafficking?

ACT + MEANS + PURPOSE = Human trafficking

Recruiting tactics 

Victims usually meet traffickers in person, online or through mutual friends or acquaintances. Recruiters identify the vulnerabilities of potential victims, such as the desire to be loved or to belong, or an addiction to a substance. They may shower victims with love or entice them with the promise of a glamorous life. They could promise money, brand name clothes, work or education, financial aid for their family, etc.

Traffickers approach potential victims in many ways, including

• pretending to be a potential love interest, friend or sponsor
• posting newspaper or Internet ads for jobs and opportunities
• threatening or kidnapping them
• connecting with them over social media
• sale by family
• seduction and romance.

• People with addiction, mental health issues and developmental disabilities are also at higher risk.
• Physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual abuse happened, and continues to happen, to children and youth who were removed from their communities. This makes them vulnerable to sex traffickers who target the homeless or people who do not have secure housing, those struggling with poverty and those with mental or physical disabilities.
• ‘Sex traffickers’ prey on low self-esteem, feelings of abandonment and hopelessness and a lack of resources or employment, but young people who do not have any of these issues also fall prey to sex traffickers’ grooming tactics. The targeting of Indigenous women and girls for sex trafficking can occur online, in public places or within families. 

Noticing the Signs (Part 2 – Aurafreedom.org)

What you might notice

• Increase in school absences/bathroom breaks
• Returns from lunch hungry
• Drop in grades and withdrawal from social activities
• Tattoo of boyfriend’s name, gang symbols/colours, tattoo branding
• Change in friends, becomes labelled as promiscuous by teachers/colleagues and experiences slut-shaming from peers
• Drug and/or alcohol use/misuse/abuse
• Change in attire/expensive clothing, different hairstyles/manicures
• Carrying multiple phones with blocked numbers, taxi numbers stored
• Avoids eye contact
• Can be fearful, anxious, depressed, submissive, tense, nervous, paranoid, experience extreme mood swings
• Exhibits unusually fearful or anxious behaviour regarding law enforcement or other figures of authority
• Becomes protective of siblings or other loved ones
• Lacks health care, appears malnourished, signs of physical abuse like cigarette burns, bruises, etc

Language to be aware of

• Makes references to boyfriend (often older) as “Daddy” or self as "mama” or “baby”
• Refers to friends as “wives, sisters” being part of a “stable"
• Speaks about having to make a quota or “bill”
• Talks about being in The Game, The Life or “telly time”
• Makes reference to certain websites
• Overheard describing how much money they make
• Change in lingo in general
• Speaks about hanging out in hotels and Airbnb’s
• Talks about future plans with intimate partner including quitting school, getting married, buying a home
• Uses lingo/terms by those “in the Game”
• Inability to clarify where they are staying / their address
• Loss of sense of time
• Has numerous inconsistencies in their story

Internet Safety – General behaviours to make note of (Part 3 – Aurafreedom.org)

When someone doesn't provide much information about themselves but wants to know everything about you.

Wanting to keep all exchanges a secret - going private, talking on Snapchat, vanishing modes on Messenger/Instagram - “Are you alone?”

“I know a way you can earn money fast.” If something seems too good to be true, it probably is; trust your instincts.

Wanting to meet up too suddenly, especially in isolated or sketchy places; insisting that you go alone.

Asking for nude photos fairly quickly or sending nudes to you.

Stalker behaviour (e.g., ridiculous amounts of one-sided messages or liking all of your pictures in what seems like a second).