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The Palermo Protocol & Canada: the Evolution and Human Rights Impacts

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The Palermo Protocol & Canada: the Evolution and Human Rights Impacts THE PALERMO PROTOCOL & CANADA: THE EVOLUTION AND HUMAN RIGHTS IMPACTS OF ANTI- TRAFFICKING LAWS IN CANADA (2002-2015) Key Findings 15 October 2015 Hayli Millar & Tamara O’Doherty, In collaboration with SWAN Vancouver Society Millar & O’Doherty 2015 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 3 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 4 Project Context & Goals ................................................................................................................. 7 Purpose of the Project ............................................................................................................... 15 Specific Objectives ................................................................................................................... 16 Methods......................................................................................................................................... 18 Legal Analysis........................................................................................................................... 18 Interviews with CJS Personnel ................................................................................................. 21 Focus Groups with SWAN staff, Board and volunteers ........................................................... 22 Overview of Key Findings ............................................................................................................ 24 The Legislative Framework: Relevant International and Domestic Laws................................ 24 Key Findings on the Jurisprudence ........................................................................................... 37 Offences and Proceedings ..................................................................................................... 37 The Accused.......................................................................................................................... 44 The Complainants ................................................................................................................. 47 Sentencing ............................................................................................................................. 50 Appeals and Constitutional Challenges ................................................................................ 51 Perceptions of the Law: CJS personnel .................................................................................... 55 Politicization and Knowledge Production in Canada ........................................................... 56 Conceptual and Definitional Challenges .............................................................................. 60 Other Factors Affecting Investigations and Prosecutions..................................................... 62 Recommendations ................................................................................................................. 65 1 The Palermo Protocol & Canada Ten Years On: The Evolution and Human Rights Impacts of Anti-Trafficking Laws in Canada Perceptions on the Law: Focus Group Participants .................................................................. 68 Consolidating the Data.................................................................................................................. 74 Recommendations ......................................................................................................................... 79 References ..................................................................................................................................... 83 Appendix A: SWAN’s Advocacy Tool Targeted Messages For Service Provision..................... 93 Police Officers........................................................................................................................... 93 Policy Makers ........................................................................................................................... 95 Researchers ............................................................................................................................... 96 Appendix B: Consent Forms......................................................................................................... 99 Appendix C: Interview and Focus Group Schedules .................................................................. 102 Appendix D: Table of Cases ....................................................................................................... 106 Appendix E: A Comparison of the UN Trafficking Protocol and Canadian Legal Definitions of Trafficking in Persons ................................................................................................................. 108 Appendix F: A Comparison of Original to Current Trafficking in Persons Offences (2005-2015) ..................................................................................................................................................... 110 Appendix G: The Collaborative Partners.................................................................................... 113 2 The Palermo Protocol & Canada Ten Years On: The Evolution and Human Rights Impacts of Anti-Trafficking Laws in Canada Acknowledgements This study was funded by the Law Foundation of British Columbia and facilitated by the University of the Fraser Valley, which also provided in-kind contributions. The research team was comprised of the two study authors (Millar and O’Doherty), SWAN Vancouver Society Executive Director Alison Clancey, and several student research assistants. The authors wish to acknowledge the individual research assistance efforts of Noah Hodgson, Kim Mackenzie, Sukh Mangat, Jessica McBeth, and Ruben Timmerman. In particular, the authors wish to acknowledge Noah’s contributions to the collection and organization of the case law data and Kim’s contributions to the collection and analysis of the focus group data. We are tremendously grateful to each of these individuals for their commitment to excellence and to this collaboration. We also wish to thank Amanda Stewart for her exemplary editorial assistance. We are very grateful to the many persons who graciously shared their time and expertise assisting us to access primary data throughout the duration of the project, including but not limited to all of the persons who participated in our focus groups and interviews, and as part of our review process and stakeholder meeting. 3 The Palermo Protocol & Canada Ten Years On: The Evolution and Human Rights Impacts of Anti-Trafficking Laws in Canada Executive Summary The Palermo Protocol & Canada Ten Years On: The Evolution and Human Rights Impacts of Anti-Trafficking Laws in Canada [hereinafter the Palermo Project] is an academic and community partnership critically evaluating the stated intentions and actual effects of national anti-human trafficking laws,1 in the more than ten years since Canada ratified the international treaty. With the generous support of the Law Foundation of British Columbia, two socio-legal researchers (Millar and O’Doherty) and several student research assistants at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) collaborated with SWAN Vancouver Society to undertake a comprehensive study of Canada’s use of anti-trafficking legislation. Our primary goals were to assess the empirical evidence about human trafficking in Canada with a view to advancing migrant workers’ access to justice. The study comprised three primary components: 1) legal analysis of the legislative framework and jurisprudence relating to human trafficking in Canada; 2) qualitative analysis of criminal justice system (CJS) personnel’s perspectives on the enforcement and use of anti-trafficking legal measures; and 3) qualitative analysis of SWAN society personnel’s perspectives on the enforcement of anti-trafficking legal measures. The first component of the study involved obtaining and analyzing empirical data such as case law, legislation, government publications and other secondary resource document analysis (research studies), as well as media reports related to anti-trafficking legal measures. In the second component, criminal justice personnel (including Crown counsel, policy advisors, police, and others) were invited to take part in interviews to fulfil the collection of data on criminal justice personnel perspectives. The third component employed focus groups to discuss the experiences of those who work directly with im/migrant sex workers to ascertain the effectiveness of the legal measures and the needs of their membership. This collaboration sought to contribute to the empirical research on human trafficking in Canada 1 For the purposes of this report, we use the terms ‘trafficking in persons’ and ‘human trafficking’ interchangeably. We also use the term ‘trafficked person’ and/or ‘complainant’ where possible as opposed to trafficking ‘victim’ given that several of the cases we examined did not result in convictions and that many trafficked and exploited persons do not necessarily consider themselves to be victims. 4 The Palermo Protocol & Canada Ten Years On: The Evolution and Human Rights Impacts of Anti-Trafficking Laws in Canada while facilitating the transmission of SWAN’s experiential knowledge to academic and legal audiences. In this report, we have outlined our key findings relating to each
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