Lyonel Doherty
Times-Chronicle
Oliver is not immune to human trafficking, says one town council member.
“Human trafficking is not something we are immune to just because we’re in a small town,” said Aimee Grice at a recent meeting.
She noted she was absolutely in favour of inviting anti-human trafficking educator Cathy Peters to speak to council as a delegation, a motion that was approved.
For the past seven years, Peters has been raising awareness about sex trafficking and the exploitation of children in B.C.
She was a former life skills high school teacher for 40 years, keeping students out of gang life and the sex industry.
According to Peters, the rapidly growing sex industry is specifically targeting Indigenous, LGBTQ2, youth at risk, new migrants, runaways, the disabled and any girl under 14 years of age.
“No community is immune,” she said.
Peters said the media narrative in B.C. is that sex work is legitimate as a choice and a job. However, there is another side that is not being reported, she pointed out.
“I speak for the voiceless; the 95 per cent who are coerced, tricked, manipulated, forced and lured into the sex industry. It is not a choice or a job.”
Peters said B.C. is decades behind any province in addressing this crime, and now COVID-19 has exacerbated the problem since the luring is taking place online and youth have more unsupervised screen time.
Peters pointed out that today’s slavery has low costs and huge profits. For example, a trafficker can make $280,000 per victim per year. The average age of entry into prostitution is 12 to 14 years, while some traffickers are targeting children as young as eight. Other human trafficking involves domestic servitude and forced labour.
Peters said the biggest problem in Canada is people don’t know there is a problem.
“Every woman and child, the marginalized and vulnerable will become a potential target and victim unless we do something to stop it.”
People needing help can call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-833-900-1010.
