HUMAN TRAFFICKING under the lights

By Laureen McMahon

Can B.C. citizens do anything to combat an explosion of sexual exploitation caused by human trafficking leading up to next year's 2010 Winter Olympics?

The Canadian Religious Conference is working to provide education about the human trafficking that often follows the announcement of major world events such as the Olympic Games.

The 290 members of the conference are the leaders of religious congregations which count some 21,000 men and women.

The CRC chose St. Patrick's Regional Secondary School in Vancouver to launch an information kit for high school students Feb. 11. The global scourge of profit-driven trafficking in human beings is considered by many to be today's most prevalent and dangerous form of slavery.

We Are a Global Village - Human Trafficking and the 2010 Olympic Games, was introduced to Grade 12 students at a press conference attended by Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB; Doug Lauson, superintendent of Catholic Schools; Victor Porter, representing B.C.'s Ministry of Children and Families; members of the Sisters Association of the Vancouver Archdiocese and the Catholic Women's League; and Professor Benjamin Perrin, an assistant professor of law at UBC.

The kit included a DVD called the Oldest Oppression and resource materials for teachers, parish religious educators, and all those interested.

St. Pat's student Stefanie Paysan told The B.C. Catholic that she was appalled by the human trafficking statistics she had heard from the speakers at the press conference.

"I was shocked to think that this is happening to kids my age. I've heard about human trafficking before, but never anything that would make me want to go out and work on the issue like this afternoon's presentation. Now that I understand what is happening, I am really looking forward to reading the kit and getting involved."

The Olympics will bring in an estimated 1 million visitors, many looking for prostitutes, according to the CRC's Jean Bellefeuille, who called on the government to tighten up immigration surveillance as the games get closer.

"There will be efforts to open the door to smuggling persons into this country illegally for purposes of prostitution unless tight screening is in place," he warned. "We hope that this education kit will open the eyes of the students and their parents and teachers and help raise the awareness that young people all over the world are being systematically targeted and lured into prostitution rings."

In 2004, Bellefeuille explained, the Canadian religious superiors began to see the necessity to fight human trafficking on a national and international level.

"In 2008 there was an international conference in Rome which vigorously called on all international organizations and heads of government to end the trafficking and exploitation of persons. We understand human trafficking is a complex problem which, from our perspective, has multiple root causes interacting to create imbalance and oppression.

"Increased immigration, especially of women and children, as well as more inequality between people and nations and a higher incidence of poverty for women and children, are all relevant factors," he said.

"We call on the Canadian government to adopt measures that recognize that the need to escape poverty domestically and internationally is a common factor among those who are trafficked. The demand for sexual exploitation needs to be addressed, as does the need for migrants' rights.