Our April 23rd meeting was held at The Bruce Craft House, with featured speaker Sergeant Jason Bonikowsky of the Waterloo Regional Police Services' Human Trafficking Unit. There are actually two types of human trafficking: labour (which often involves human smuggling) and sex trafficking, the primary focus of the WRPS unit.

The unit was created in 2020, and Sergeant Bonikowsky presented a sobering overview of his four years' in the unit. From the WRPS website...Sexual Human Trafficking is defined as: "Every person who recruits, transports, transfers, holds, conceals or harbours a person, or exercises control, direction or influence over the movements of a person, for the purpose of sexually exploiting them or facilitating their sexual exploitation."

Human trafficking is the second largest criminal industry in the world. Human trafficking is the exploitation, manipulation or control of a person (usually a female) by violence or threats of violence to provide a sexual service or forced labour.

Victims may:

• Be unable to present identity documents
• Have no cell phone
• Lack access to their own money and resources
• Work excessively long hours with no or few days off
• Not go out unaccompanied
• Be branded with tattoos of the trafficker's name
• Exhibit signs of chronic fear, guilt, shame, distrust of authority and the inability to make decisions
• Have bruises and other signs of physical abuse.

Victims are alone, isolated and are trapped in a life of exploitation. They have no means to return home or any means to survive. The victim remains dependent on the trafficker for survival and believes the only way they can make money is through prostitution.

Sergeant Bonikowsky also described the police services' approach to their work which is very much "victim-centric" - focused on the needs of the individual who is caught in this. His talk was tough to hear - but important to understand so that we can generate greater awareness. Human trafficking doesn't just happen in far away places: it happens right here in our own region, too.