OPP launch human trafficking research project in northwestern Ontario
Research to include examining how victims are recruited, especially in Indigenous communities
OPP hope a new research project will give the police service and its officers more insight into human trafficking in northwestern Ontario.
The project, which is being funded by the Ontario Solicitor General, will have a special focus on Indigenous people and will help shed light on a crime that is very underreported, said Det. Staff Sgt. Andrew Taylor of the OPP's Anti-Human Trafficking Unit.
"We know that it is underreported across the province and Canada, generally speaking, due to the traumatization of the victims involved, as well as in some cases, the lack of trust between those victims and the police," Taylor said. "We do know that in Ontario, it is an issue. Two-thirds of all reported human trafficking cases in Canada are in the province of Ontario."
Taylor said OPP have contracted an independent researcher, Olsen Harper, from Lac Seul First Nation, to gather information. Olsen can also provide anonymity to any victims who wish to come forward.
Taylor said bringing an independent researcher on board was important, as human trafficking victims often don't want to talk to police.
"They don't want to be in a situation where they're involved in a criminal investigation," he said. "And we want to have that information from those people in order to better assess how individuals are recruited into human trafficking in northwest Ontario, and where they're actually being trafficked so that we can fulfil a commitment … that we made to the [National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls] to use, or conduct, programming that is based on an evidence-based approach."
Taylor said he hopes any information gathered will help police better understand the process by which a victim is recruited into human trafficking, particularly in Indigenous communities in northwestern Ontario.
He said recruiters target vulnerable people, posing as a friend. When the recruiter has built up trust with the victim, they can then exploit the victim for profit.
OPP hope the research will help the service enhance training and coordination of resources, with the goal of reducing human trafficking in Ontario.
"This is not a big city problem," Taylor said. "This is not a small-town problem. It is everywhere in the province of Ontario."