Nova Scotia Human Trafficking Awareness Network

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

I found this article from The Coast interesting. Reported by Lizzy Hill, 21 Apr 2010 (my bold):

 

http://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBites/archives/2010/04/21/traffic-reporting

The Nova Scotia Human Trafficking Awareness Network held a symposium Monday to increase awareness about human trafficking in Halifax. Members of the network, including the RCMP, Halifax Regional Police, the Canada Border Services Agency and the Canadian Red Cross, met in hopes of developing more streamlined guidelines to ensure the health and safety of human trafficking victims.

 

I?d like to tell you what happened at Monday?s panel discussion, but could only have done so if RCMP communications officials looked over my article first, a condition I refused to meet. After the day-long event, where I self-identified at as a reporter wearing a Coast badge, RCMP told me the event was closed to media.

 

I caught up with Rene Ross, an audience member at the event, afterward. Ross, the executive director of a local non-profit organization working for the rights and safety of sex workers, worries that key voices were not heard at Monday?s event. She says her organization, Stepping Stone, was never invited to join the Nova Scotia Human Trafficking Awareness Network.

?It makes no sense to us that sex workers are not being included in debates about policies and decisions that affect them,? she says.

 

Ross expresses concern that RCMP and others are painting a one-sided picture about sex work. ?It?s not a balanced picture of what?s going on and it?s turning into sensationalistic rhetoric that is being used against sex workers,? she says. While some people are forced into sex work against their will, Ross feels it?s important to recognize that others choose to be sex workers. ?What?s really happening in the sex trade is the global migration of women in the sex trade in search of better paid work,? says Ross. She worries criminalizing sex work pushes sex workers further underground, increasing their vulnerability to abuse and exploitation.

Note: According to Calendar posted by the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women (http://women.gov.ns.ca/calendar.asp):

The Human Trafficking Awareness Network of Nova Scotia invites Service Providers for victims of crime to the Human Trafficking Awareness Symposium to be held in Halifax on April 19, 2010. The Network consists of representation from Canadian Red Cross, RCMP, Halifax Regional Police, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Canada Border Services Agency, NS Office of Immigration, NS Department of Justice-Victim Services, Halifax Refugee Clinic, Immigrant Settlement and Integration Services.

 

This Symposium is possible thanks to: funding from the Department of Justice (DOJ), National Victims of Crime Awareness Week, 2010: Every Victim Matters.

 

The Symposium offers an excellent opportunity for Service Providers to gain additional knowledge on Human Trafficking, such as; roles of response agencies, push factors for victims, the needs of victim's and penalties for traffickers under the Canadian Criminal code and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

 

The goals of the Symposium are to raise awareness about the plight of people affected by trafficking in persons, for the Nova Scotia community to better recognize situations of human trafficking and to provide enhanced services to victims of human trafficking.

 

The event will include a panel discussion from a broad spectrum of community members.

 

We are very please to announce the key note speaker will be Timea Nagy, author of the book "Walk With Me, Memoirs of a Sex Slave Survivor". During her address, Ms. Nagy will speak about her experiences as a trafficking victim; and through the telling of this very personal story; you will be offered a glimpse into the hidden world of human trafficking.

[dunkinsailor 1220]

Looks like the RCMP make another "wonderful" communications call. I'm still shaking my head.

[PoorGuy 1098]

Strange that I don't see any Chinese or Koreans or eastern European ladies flooding incall/massage ads on Halifax CL. Neither are there any reports of massage parlours being investigated.

 

Oh wait, this isn't Vancouver, Toronto, or Montreal. What a waste of time and effort! This is the Maritimes!

[Archangael 323]

Well, I would say that there is such need for these types of talks, and it's definitely important that they have such symposiums. But it's definitely way overboard here. Like pulling out a shotgun to an ant lol! They should have these types of talks in cities like Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal...etc.

[JamesNS 102]

The Nova Scotia Human Trafficking Awareness Network may have made the first bad call - for all we know, based on the article, the RCMP may simply have been enforcing a decision made by the Network. Then again, it is one of the Network members itself, along with Canadian Red Cross, Halifax Regional Police, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Canada Border Services Agency, NS Office of Immigration, NS Department of Justice-Victim Services, Halifax Refugee Clinic, Immigrant Settlement and Integration Services.

 

I just hope the decision to close the even to media wasn't unanimous amongst panel members!

 

Looks like the RCMP make another "wonderful" communications call. I'm still shaking my head.