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Reading time: about 8 minutes │ Topic: Human trafficking, sex trafficking, labour trafficking, victim support │ Sources: Public Safety Canada, RCMP, Statistics Canada, Department of Justice Canada, Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline
Why this matters
Why this matters
Human trafficking, also called trafficking in persons, is the recruiting, transporting, holding, or controlling of a person for the purpose of exploiting them, most often for sexual exploitation or forced labour. The Government of Canada describes it as a heinous crime that is happening in communities across the country, and one that can happen to anyone. [1] [2]
The majority of victims are Canadians, trafficked inside Canada by someone they know. Since 2013, 91% of identified victims knew their trafficker, and about 93% of all victims are women and girls, two-thirds of them under the age of 25. [3]
The risk is real, but the crime is preventable, and it is reportable. Once you know what trafficking looks like, you can help stop it. [1] [4]
What human trafficking is
What human trafficking is
Human trafficking has been a criminal offence in Canada since 2005. The Criminal Code (sections 279.01 to 279.04) makes it a crime to recruit, transport, hold, or control a person's movements for the purpose of exploiting them, and to profit financially from that exploitation. Penalties are severe, and include up to life imprisonment when the victim is under the age of 18. [9]
The single most important thing to understand is that trafficking is about control and exploitation, not about crossing a border. A person can be trafficked without ever leaving their own city. Consent that is obtained through force, fraud, deception, or coercion is not consent under Canadian law. [2] [9]
There are two main forms of human trafficking in Canada: [7] [8]
• Sex trafficking. A person is forced, coerced, or deceived into providing sexual services for someone else's profit. This is the most commonly reported form of human trafficking in Canada. [3] [7]
• Labour trafficking. A person is forced to work, often for little or no pay, under threats, debt, or the confiscation of their documents, in industries such as agriculture, construction, domestic work, food service, or cleaning. [8]
Who traffickers target
Who traffickers target
Traffickers look for people whose circumstances make them easier to control. Public Safety Canada's National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking identifies several groups that are at higher risk in Canada: [2]
Indigenous women and girls, who are dramatically over-represented among trafficking victims relative to their share of the population. [2]
Youth and at-risk youth, including children in the child welfare system and young people who have run away or lived in group homes. [2]
Migrants and new immigrants, who may face language barriers, precarious immigration status, or unfamiliarity with their rights and with Canadian law. [2] [8]
people living with disabilities, and anyone facing poverty, homelessness, isolation, addiction, or a history of abuse. [2]
Traffickers deliberately look for an unmet need, whether it is love, belonging, money, safety, or a way to support a family, and offer to fill it. Anyone can be targeted, but exploitation almost always begins by exploiting a vulnerability. [1] [2]
How traffickers operate
How traffickers operate
Public Safety Canada and the RCMP describe a pattern that most trafficking cases follow. It rarely starts with force. It usually starts with attention and false promises. [1] [4] [6]
Targeting. Traffickers go where vulnerable or in-transit people gather, such as bus stations, shelters, group homes, malls, and outside schools, and increasingly online, where they can hide who they really are while learning everything about a target. [1] [6]
Luring and grooming. They shower the person with affection, attention, and gifts such as jewellery, designer clothes, a phone, or a place to stay, posing as a boyfriend, a friend, or someone offering a dream job. This stage can last weeks or months. [1] [6]
Isolation. They gradually cut the person off from family and friends, sometimes by moving them to a new city, so the trafficker becomes their only source of support. [4] [6]
Exploitation. The relationship turns. The person is pressured, then forced, into sex work or labour, and the trafficker keeps the money. [6] [7]
Control. Traffickers keep victims trapped using threats, violence, debt bondage, blackmail with intimate images, addiction, and by controlling the person's phone, ID, money, and movements. [4] [6]
Warning Signs
Warning Signs
The RCMP and Public Safety Canada list these signs that a person may be a victim of human trafficking. One sign on its own does not confirm trafficking, but several together are a reason for concern:
Someone else controls their phone, ID, passport, or money, or always speaks for them.
They cannot freely leave their job or their living situation, or seem to be under someone else's control.
They are not allowed to explain their own circumstances, or seem fearful, anxious, or intimidated.
Sudden unexplained gifts, expensive clothes, a new phone, or cash from a new, older boyfriend or friend.
Signs of physical abuse, malnutrition, or exhaustion, or a tattoo or branding used to mark ownership.
They have been suddenly moved to a new city, or are frequently moved and accompanied by the same person.
They are unaware of where they are, or of where their documents are, despite having been there a while.
Withdrawal from family and friends, a secretive new relationship, or a sudden change in behaviour, appearance, or routine.
[4] [1]
A Real Example
A Real Example
Not all trafficking is sexual. Labour trafficking forces people to work, often in construction, agriculture, food processing, or cleaning, for little or no pay and under threats they cannot escape, and in Canada it most often targets migrant workers and newcomers. [8] The largest human trafficking prosecution in Canadian history was a forced-labour case. [11]
In one of the country's most notorious cases, the Domotor-Kolompar crime ring lured as many as 19 vulnerable men from Hungary to the Hamilton, Ontario area with the promise of good jobs and a better life in Canada. Once the men arrived, the ring took over their lives: it forced them to claim refugee status, applied for welfare in their names and kept the money, and put them to work on construction and stucco jobs, sometimes for 15-hour days, for no pay. [11] [12]
The victims were kept in the traffickers' basements, fed scraps and sometimes only one meal a day, and controlled through threats of violence. One man was flown across the country to apply stucco at a hotel in Regina, and the ring's leader was described in court as having “bought” workers for about $3,000 each. [12]
The case was investigated by the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency as “Project OPAPA” after a single victim spoke to an immigration officer, and it led to more than 20 convictions. Ferenc Domotor, the ring's leader, was sentenced to nine years, and Gyula Domotor received seven and a half years, at the time the toughest human trafficking penalty ever handed down in Canada. It is a stark reminder that labour trafficking is happening in Canadian cities, and that one victim coming forward can bring an entire ring down. [11] [12]
What To Do
What To Do
Public Safety Canada, the RCMP, and the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline recommend these steps if you think you, or someone you know, may be a victim of human trafficking: [1] [4] [5] [10]
• If someone is in immediate danger, call 911. For any situation that is not an emergency, you do not have to be certain, you only have to be concerned. [4] [10]
• Call the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-833-900-1010. It is free, confidential, available 24/7, and offered in more than 200 languages. You can call about yourself or about someone you are worried about, or submit an anonymous tip online. [5] [10]
• Do not confront a suspected trafficker. It can be dangerous for you and for the victim. Report what you have seen to the hotline or the police and let trained professionals act. [4] [10]
• Write down what you notice: descriptions, locations, vehicles, dates, and times. Details help police and the hotline connect a victim to support and build a case. [4]
• If you are a victim, it is not your fault, and you are not in trouble. Coming forward does not require you to press charges. The hotline can connect you to shelters, counselling, and trauma-informed support first. [5] [10]
• Tell a trusted person: a family member, friend, teacher, doctor, or faith or community leader. Trafficking depends on isolation, and reaching one safe person is often the first step out. [1] [10]
References
[1] Public Safety Canada (Government of Canada), Human trafficking can happen to anyone (national awareness campaign). https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/campaigns/human-trafficking.html
[2] Public Safety Canada, National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking 2019–2024. https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/2019-ntnl-strtgy-hmnn-trffc/index-en.aspx
[3] Statistics Canada, Trafficking in persons in Canada, 2024 (The Daily, December 8, 2025). https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/251208/dq251208e-eng.htm
[4] Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Know the signs of human trafficking. https://rcmp.ca/en/human-trafficking-recognizing-and-reporting/know-signs-human-trafficking
[5] Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline (Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking). Call 1-833-900-1010, 24/7. https://canadianhumantraffickinghotline.ca/
[6] Public Safety Canada, How human trafficking works. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/campaigns/human-trafficking/hhtw.html
[7] Public Safety Canada, Sex trafficking. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/campaigns/human-trafficking/sex-trafficking.html
[8] Public Safety Canada, Labour trafficking. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/campaigns/human-trafficking/labour-trafficking.html
[9] Department of Justice Canada, Human trafficking (Criminal Code offences, sections 279.01 to 279.04). https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/tp/index.html
[10] Public Safety Canada, How to get help safely. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/campaigns/human-trafficking/how-get-help.html
[11] CBC News, Hamilton human trafficking kingpin sentenced to 9 years (Ferenc Domotor; the Domotor-Kolompar ring, investigated as Project OPAPA, described as the largest proven human trafficking ring in Canadian history). https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/headlines/hamilton-human-trafficking-kingpin-sentenced-to-9-years-1.1189198
[12] The Globe and Mail, Judge hands down Canada's toughest penalty for human trafficking (Gyula Domotor, 7.5 years; Hungarian men lured to Canada and forced into unpaid construction labour, held in basements). https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/judge-hands-down-canadas-toughest-penalty-for-human-trafficking/article4097571/
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