A Sarnia pastor is sounding the alarm about human sex trafficking in the Sarnia-Lambton community.
Almost 65% of trafficking in Canada occurs in Ontario, much of it along the 401/402 highway corridor, says Deve Persad of Sarnia Evangelical Missionary Church on Talfourd Street.
His church is working with the Sexual Assault Survivors Centre Sarnia/Lambton and the Coalition Against Human Trafficking Sarnia/Lambton to raise awareness and ultimately open a safe house for local survivors, Persad said Tuesday.
Local Victim Services report assisting 18 survivors of human trafficking in 2022 and 15 in 2023, he said, speaking to about 35 members of the Rotary Club of Sarnia at the Dante Club.
Persad suggested those numbers are just the tip of the iceberg.
“One is too many…Just as domestic violence increased during the pandemic, so has human trafficking,” he said.
Studies show over 90% of females being trafficked in Canada are Canadian-born girls and women, said Persad.
And 91% of victims of police-reported human trafficking incidents knew their trafficker, according to Public Safety Canada.
“Too many people would prefer to believe these injustices don’t happen in our community, our city, and our country,” Persad said.
His church recently started a social enterprise called The Greater Glass Co., which involves youth groups finding local beach glass, making jewellery with it and selling it on Etsy.
The idea is to raise awareness about human trafficking and kick start fundraising for a four-bed safe house to help victims and provide trauma counselling.
“People are looking to capitalize on the vulnerable,” Persad said. “So the question is, how can we protect the vulnerable?”
Most targeted groups are women, girls, immigrants and migrants, LGBTQ2 individuals, those with addictions, and unhoused youth, he said.
While he had no statistical evidence that homeless women are being trafficked locally, Persad related an experience that occurred April 5 when he and his wife went for a walk in Sarnia and encountered a woman they had known for years.
“We could barely recognize her,” he said. “Gone was her bright smile, her infectious personality and her positive outlook. She is now homeless, forced into being trafficked so she could buy drugs to numb her from the pain of repeated abuse.”
Those who have studied human trafficking in Ontario say trafficked individuals are moved every two to three days from motel to motel along the 401/402 highway corridor, he said.
“That’s one of the reasons they are hard to pin down.”
Persad said his congregation took a careful look at a Lambton College study of human trafficking completed in 2019 and made a commitment to raise awareness in Sarnia-Lambton and fill the “gaps” identified by the study.
That includes alerting the community to what is often considered a hidden crime and arming young people with information to help them remain safe.
“Through advocacy, we want to make it uncomfortable for those who are keeping the demand levels for this damaging, damaging crime against our young people,” Persad said.
RECOGNIZING SIGNS OF HUMAN SEX TRAFFICKING
The following may indicate that sex trafficking is occurring:
• Withdrawing from friends and family and/or being secretive about a new friend/boyfriend;
• Frequent absences from the home, work and/or school;
• Having unexplained gifts or expensive items and/or sudden changes in appearance;
• Giving scripted or ‘canned’ answers to casual questions;
• Showing fear and intimidation through facial expressions or body language (ie not making eye contact, acting on edge, afraid);
• Tattoos of the trafficker’s name or symbol;
• Not having any money even if they say they are working consistently;
• Not having possession of their identification documents;
• Visible signs of abuse and fatigue; Intoxication or substance use.
If you believe you or someone you know is being trafficked, contact the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-833-900-1010, reach out to www.canadianhumantraffickinghotline.ca, or call the Sexual Assault Survivors Centre Sarnia-Lambton crisis line at 519-337-3320.