Krystal Snider sees many types of sex workers in her day-to-day crusade to help protect Niagara women from human trafficking. If you have been trafficked, you have been raped. Lots of people make money from it. She said she's "excited" to join forces with the dedicated Human Trafficking Unit created recently by the Niagara Regional Police Service.
The unit will be made up of two investigators working out of the Special Victims area, he explained, with a mandate of directly focusing on investigating human trafficking offencesβthe difference being that up until the creation of a dedicated unit, human trafficking offences have been assigned to investigators who were also responsible for the investigation of other offences. Studies show that it takes seven or eight times to exit the sex trade successfully.
Sometimes they can make it safer for the women with increased police presence and sometimes it can drive them farther underground. I feel really positive about the way Niagara is responding to the issue of trafficking. Shortly after being trained, Thorold firefighters identified a case of trafficking. It would be great to get EMS involved, and to have an action plan that works nationally.
Hotels and motels may get training in preventing trafficking" as well. Selling sex is illegal for people aged 18 and younger, she noted. Officers work with school administrative staff and to create positive relationships with the youth and to support resolving issues as they arise.
Awareness of trafficking is key to prevention, said Snider, who assisted in developing a training program in Moncton last fall, and has done presentations at Brock and McMaster University campuses. YWCA Canada is a national movement, she continued. Our officers will be present, visible and approachable to members of the community. They will be able to speak, hear about, and address issues in the downtown. It has for some time been our experience that investigative and court processes have become more complicated, and unlike the prioritization of investigations as they are reported, investigators may only be assigned to one trial process at a time and because of preparatory commitments and time spent in court are otherwise unavailable.
