Canadian Human Trafficking Prosecutions: Carceral Punishment, Paternalistic Protection, and Systemic Inequity

• In Event: Criminology of Mobility. Panel 9. Contemporary issues related to human trafficking

Abstract

This presentation outlines our chapter contribution in Trafficking Harms: Critical Politics, Perspectives and Experiences (2024) and provides updates on our longitudinal findings on the prosecution of trafficking in persons cases since the publication of the edited volume. Our work demonstrates the impacts of legally conflating human trafficking and sex work: human trafficking prosecutions are now deeply entangled with Canada’s ideologically driven asymmetrical approach to the criminalization of commercial sex, the Protection of Exploited Communities and Persons Act (PCEPA). Canada’s form of criminalization claims to target the prosecution of those who purchase sexual services and those who materially benefit from the sex work of others; however, it is now evident that human trafficking law is often being used in place of the PCEPA—or in addition to the PCEPA—to prosecute these cases, allowing for increased severity in sentences, multiple convictions for the same offence conduct in contradiction to the principle of res judicata, and other serious consequences. Having tracked and analysed prosecuted human trafficking and sex work commodification cases for the past 10 years (2013-2024), we call attention to the ideologically motivated and flawed empirical basis for the enactment, amendment, and enforcement of Canadian anti-trafficking in persons laws. Rather than offering protection against exploitative conduct, including the increasingly well-documented experiences of temporary workers and international students, Canada’s approach appears to sustain adverse racialized and gendered impacts for those excluded from and subjected to the enforcement of the laws, while failing to address the myriad challenges faced by those who experience exploitive victimization, raising deeply troubling questions about Canada’s commitment to fundamental principles of justice and equitable access to legal protections.

Authors

• Tamara O'Doherty, Simon Fraser University

• Hayli Millar, University of the Fraser Valley