Canada’s Anti–Human Trafficking Measures critically assesses the scope, impact, and progression of federal and provincial anti–human trafficking measures over the past twenty years.
In 2000, the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons established an international framework for anti–human trafficking action. As a party to the protocol, Canada implemented an array of legislative and policy measures, including action plans, awareness campaigns, personnel training, and other anti–human trafficking initiatives.
This book is the result of collaboration between activists, lawyers, front-line practitioners, and scholars in immigration and refugee law, human rights, public health, social justice, sociology, and anthropology. Together, they provide a comprehensive, critical overview of the theoretical, policy, and applied aspects of Canadian anti–human trafficking efforts. Those efforts face significant challenges, including inconsistent legal definitions that hinder effective enforcement; a focus on criminalization that overshadows the structural drivers of exploitation, such as colonialism and discriminatory immigration policies; and measures that often leave survivors in precarious situations.
Canada’s Anti–Human Trafficking Measures showcases promising practices and innovative approaches adopted in other jurisdictions and advances a transformative approach grounded in human rights and survivor empowerment. It calls for clear legal frameworks, transparency, community-led initiatives, and the adoption of comprehensive models capable of addressing the structural complexities of human trafficking.
