Human trafficking in Canada

Human trafficking in Canada has become a significant legal and political issue, and Canadian legislators have been criticized for having failed to deal with the problem in a more systematic way. Public Safety Canada defines human trafficking as "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. It is often described as a modern form of slavery."

British Columbia's Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons formed in 2007, making British Columbia the first province of Canada to address human trafficking in a formal manner. The biggest human trafficking case in Canadian history surrounded the dismantling of the Domotor-Kolompar criminal organization. On June 6, 2012, the Government of Canada established the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking in order to oppose human trafficking. The Human Trafficking Taskforce was established in June 2012 to replace the Interdepartmental Working Group on Trafficking in Persons as the body responsible for the development of public policy related to human trafficking in Canada.

In 2005, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) estimated that 600-800 people are trafficked into Canada annually and that additional 1,500-2,200 are trafficked through Canada into the United States. This was updated in 2010. In 2011, Corporal Jassy Bindra stated that there were more than thirty ongoing investigations into human trafficking across Canada. Cindy Kovalak is the Human Trafficking Awareness Coordinator for the Northwest Region Immigration and Passport Section of the RCMP.

On June 29, 2010, the 40th Canadian Parliament enacted An Act to amend the Criminal Code (minimum sentence for offences involving trafficking of persons under the age of eighteen years). The act established a mandatory sentencing of five years' imprisonment for those charged with the trafficking of children within Canada. On June 28, 2012, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (trafficking in persons) amended the Criminal Code to enable the Government of Canada to prosecute Canadians for trafficking in persons while outside Canada.

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