The Joy Smith Foundation has launched a provocative new campaign, #ShesNotForSale, to raise awareness about sex trafficking in Canada.
An online video, created by Toronto-based Public shows a variety of men walking the hall of a dimly lit apartment, while captions question what city they’re in: “Ukraine?” “Bosnia?” “Haiti?” “Vietnam?”
It then shows a young girl in a room, holding a tissue and being touched by one of the men. The Canadian national anthem plays eerily in the background as a startling statistic is revealed: 93% of Canada’s sex trafficking victims are Canadian.
“Canadians have no idea that this a Canadian issue,” said Phil Haid, CEO of Public. “When you hear sex trafficking, you think about faraway places where women and girls are being sex-trafficked and human-trafficked. And the reality is… this is a made-in-Canada problem.”
This is the first major campaign for the Joy Smith Foundation, which was founded five years ago by Joy Smith, a former MP in Manitoba. While she was in Parliament, Smith helped pass two private-member bills that help strengthen laws against human trafficking. Smith retired earlier this year to devote herself full-time to her not-for-profit organization.
Citing a 2014 RCMP report, the foundation notes most sex trafficking victims are female, Canadian citizens between 14 and 22, and are typically Caucasian. Canadian girls from all walks of life are being groomed online or lured into false “boyfriend” relationships at the local mall or recreational centre. It then escalates to forcing the girls into having sex for money.
“When they become of age, people start calling them prostitutes. This is really human trafficking,” said Smith. “It is modern day slavery in Canada.”
“My goal is for people to understand human trafficking happens every day in Canada and it happens to any vulnerable young person,” she added. “The way we can stop it is for every school, every home, every community centre, every church and every organization to know that human trafficking happens and this is how they lure the kids. Let’s tell them about it so it doesn’t happen to one other person.”
The campaign is coincides with Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women on Dec. 6. The Joy Smith Foundation is asking people to share the video and donate to the foundation to help rescue and rehabilitate victims and end sex trafficking in Canada.
Public is also handling social media and public relations. As part of the media outreach, a sex trafficking survivor and mother, “Jessica,” wrote an article about her experience in the Huffington Post and is doing media interviews.
“This issue is buried deeply and people don’t want to talk about it,” said Haid. “We have to just start getting the conversation going.”
