It’s a serious crime that’s hard to detect and difficult to prosecute. But police on the South Shore are watching for evidence of human trafficking and, in at least one case, ramping up efforts to stop it.
During a July 24 presentation to Region of Queens Municipality (RQM) council, Staff Sgt. Derek Smith said Queens District RCMP is making the issue a priority. “This year we want to have one successful prosecution,” he said, noting a detachment member recently completed a week-long course on human trafficking.
Making his last council report before retiring from the RCMP, Smith said tackling the issue will require hard work and good timing. “That’s an investigation that’s going to take a lot of source information and asking the right questions to the right people at the right time,” he said.
The Bridgewater Police Service told LighthouseNow it has not received reports of human trafficking. But a spokesperson acknowledged it could be happening without their knowledge.
“There may be situations where this has happened in Bridgewater and the parents don’t recognize it and they don’t report it to us,” said Det. Angela Wareham. “The thing is, if you don’t tell us, we don’t know.”
Wareham said she participated in a one-day human trafficking workshop offered jointly by the RCMP and Halifax Regional Police. While other members of the Bridgewater Police Service have not received formal training, they “know what to look for,” she said.
Public Safety Canada (PSC) describes human trafficking as “one of the most heinous crimes imaginable.” PSC’s website says the Criminal Code offence involves “the recruitment, transportation, harbouring and/or exercising control, direction or influence over the movements of a person in order to exploit that person, typically through sexual exploitation or forced labour.”
According to the RCMP’s human trafficking coordinator for Nova Scotia, the problem is not confined to the big city. In fact, smaller communities may be at greater risk than their urban counterparts.
“What we’re seeing is people recruiting girls from rural areas specifically for a number of reasons,” said Cpl. Dave Lane. “One of them is that the rural girls aren’t going to see it coming. Someone down in Shelburne or Queens or Kings, it might be easier to lure them, get the ‘hook’ in, as they say.”
Traffickers seek to isolate and control their victims, usually teenage girls and young women, he said.
“They will use a variety of techniques so that the victims don’t even know they’re victims because they thought they chose this lifestyle.” That lifestyle typically involves being manipulated into working as strippers or escorts for the financial benefit of their exploiters.
Traffickers may use drugs to control their victims and often transport them to other communities or provinces to further isolate them, Lane said. In many cases, parents have no idea their daughter is being victimized.
“It could be right under your nose,” he said. “Girls as young as grade 11 or 12 say they’re going away with their friends for the weekend, but actually they’re going away with their trafficker working in the sex trade, and then returned in time to go to school.”
In other cases, it could simply appear that a girl or young woman has found the “man of her dreams” and impulsively moved away with him, Lane said.
Jennifer Holleman of Yarmouth is all too familiar with the tragic consequences of human trafficking. Her daughter, Maddison Fraser, was lured to Alberta to work in the sex trade and was killed in an Edmonton car crash in 2015 at the age of 21.
The man driving the vehicle was Maddison’s john, her mother said. Like many parents, Holleman was largely unaware of human trafficking or its warning signs. She only learned the full details of her daughter’s experience after her death.
“I can’t even imagine what my child went through,” she said tearfully. “They don’t realize what they’re getting into until it’s too late.”
Now a vocal advocate on the issue, Holleman said her eyes have been opened to the extent of the problem in Nova Scotia. “People want to pretend that it doesn’t exist, but it’s huge around here and I had no idea,” she said. “I have literally been inundated with messages from people in Lunenburg and Liverpool, places like that.”
Holleman said she’s spoken to many parents who are concerned about their own daughters. She warns them to stay involved and communicate honestly. “You really have to maintain an open relationship with your child,” she said. “Be more hands-on.”
That advice is echoed by Lane, who said warning signs could include expensive gifts from a new boyfriend, unexplained money, a change in attitude toward family and friends, as well as new tattoos, possibly featuring the new boyfriend’s name.
“You should know who your daughter is associating with,” he said. “I wouldn’t wait to talk to my daughter if I was a concerned parent, no matter how young she was.”
Holleman said laws concerning human trafficking need to be toughened to better protect victims. “I don’t understand why police can’t do more,” she said.
But, even in cases where police are actively involved, convictions are difficult to obtain, according to Lane.
“Human trafficking cases are extremely complex. They’re very labour-intensive and long-term,” he said. “We’re dealing with complex psychological, physical and sexual abuse.”
Most victims refuse to cooperate with police because they are ashamed or fear reprisal from their traffickers, he said. While there have been no convictions for human trafficking in rural Nova Scotia, Lane hopes that will change with increased awareness and enforcement efforts.
LighthouseNow Progress Bulletin
August 29, 2018
Scott Costen 