A U.S. State Department report warned yesterday that Canada needs to do
more to halt the trafficking of vulnerable immigrants and to prevent its
own citizens from being bought and sold as sex slaves. In the seventh
annual report on Trafficking In Persons, released yesterday by U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice states: "Canada is a source, transit
and destination country for men, women and children trafficked for the
purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour."
Secretary Rice said "the Government of Canada demonstrated limited
progress in law_enforcement action against human traffickers." The
RCMP estimates that as many as 800 to 1,200 people in Canada are
victims, although some activists put the figure as high as 15,000. The
report added that "Canadian girls and women, many of whom are
aboriginal, are trafficked internally for commercial sexual
exploitation." Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of
B.C. Indian Chiefs, said he is saddened, but not surprised, that the
U.S. report found that Canadian aboriginal women are among those who are
targets of trafficking. Chief Phillip added: "We know there are 3,000
or more aboriginal women deemed missing in Canada who may have been
murdered, or trafficked in and out of Canada." Amnesty International in
2004 estimated there are up to 5,000 native women missing in Canada.
Trafficking in Persons Report 2008
"We are pleased that in the seven years since the creation of the Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, the United States and our friends and allies have made important strides in confronting the reality that human beings continue to be bought and sold in the twenty-first century. It has been gratifying to witness the determined governments, human rights and women’s groups, faith-based organizations, and many brave individuals who are dedicated to advancing human dignity worldwide. Trafficking and exploitation plague all nations, and no country, even ours, is immune."
--Secretary Rice, June 4, 2008
The Report
The report is available in PDF format as a single file [PDF: 49 MB
]. Due to its large size, the PDF has been separated into sections for easier download: Introduction; Country Narratives: A-G, H-R, S-Z; Special Cases. To view the PDF file, you will need to download, at no cost, the Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Related Material
Secretary Rice's Remarks at the Release of the Eighth Annual Trafficking in Persons Report
Ambassador Lagon's Remarks at the Release of the Eighth Annual Trafficking in Persons Report
