Law prof takes campaign against human trafficking to Parliament Hill

Earlier this month, UBC law professor Benjamin Perrin met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper as well as Attorney General and Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson to make the case for a national action plan to combat human trafficking in Canada.

The national action plan proposed by Perrin and MP Joy Smith includes the following key components:

  • Prosecute Traffickers: Identify, disrupt and prosecute human trafficking operations with integrated law enforcement Human Trafficking Task Forces to target the most prolific and violent criminal organizations and networks.
  • Protect Victims: Ensure victims of human trafficking can access needed governmental and non-governmental services wherever they are identified in Canada.
  • Prevent the Crime: Prevention efforts including outreach and education to ensure that the most vulnerable are resistant to tactics of traffickers; ensure temporary foreign workers who are victims benefit from “whistleblower” protection with alternative employment and recovery of unpaid wages.
  • Confront Demand: adopt the Nordic model of prostitution to criminalize the purchase of sex acts, but not those being sold who are instead offered support to exit exploitation; vigorously enforce Canada’s extraterritorial child sex crime offences and prevent convicted child sex offenders from freely travelling abroad.
  • Cooperation: Work collaboratively with the provinces, law enforcement, Aboriginal leaders, non-governmental organizations and survivors to implement this plan to end human trafficking in Canada.

For more information, visit http://www.law.ubc.ca/news/2010/nov/11_17_10_perrin.html