Book Notes l Invisible Chains : Canda's Underground World of Human Trafficking

This is my first time publishing any of by "book notes" which is my version of annotating essentially. Normally I don't do such a thorough job but this topic has really struck me.

Here is my Book Review that goes along with these notes.

This may not be the most organized list just so you know.

Defining Human Trafficking

• Human Trafficking is also called, debt bondage and modern day slavery
• Slavery is the best definition of the word. It is an ugly word for an ugly thing. I think if  political correctness was put aside in talking about these problems, the information would be more widespread than it is. 
• The general public wants to think of slavery as a thing of the past. 
• Another reason is because we have to change our idea of slavery into the modern sense of the word. It is not minorities being thrown in chains and kidnapped. The scope is so much boarder than that.
• The definition of slave from the oxford dictionary is : a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them.
• I think this should be redefined by illuminating the word "legal". Those 5 letters are the only difference between the old version and this new version
• The definition is :
• any person(s) who are treated as property or a commodity by another person(s) with power or control over said individual(s).
• any person(s) who have been coerced (tricked), deceived, threatened or forced into any form of labour.
• any person(s)  who cannot end such labour at will. This confinement of person(s) can by physical, emotional, psychological or anything otherwise prohibiting that person(s) from exercising the human right of free mobility.
• Other Key defining points
• another reason why I've come to dislike the term "trafficking"is gives people the (false) idea that movement is involved in the process. You can be trafficked in your home town, by your neighbor, to your neighborhood. You do not have to cross a boarder, a city limit or even a city block. This kind of trafficking with little to no real "movement" is a common event. (I will explain why soon)
• There are three different types of trafficking,
• human sex trafficking
• labour trafficking
• and other human trafficking
• The victims of this crime are : Women, Girls, Men, Boys, Adults and children
• 75% of victims are female
• 25% are male
• 6-34% are children ranging from 4-17.
• The victims are of every race and religion
• Statistics vary with these so I am using averages here just FYI.
• Lifespan of a victim is 7 - 10 years from the day they are "bought" 
• 10-22% will escape this life, the rest die in that age window. Essentially worked to death.
• lack of nutrition, sleep deprivation, and no healthcare. Lead to medical complications resulting in death.
• Suicide 
• "industrialized murder" (which is my own term). If a victim is unable to work or refuses to work any longer, they might be "publicly" killed in front of other captives to instill fear and obedience. They can be killed accidentally by Johns or Traffickers, they can be killed by traffickers once they are of little to no use in order to protect the status quo. 
• There are two types of perpetrators 
• The Seller (aka. trafficker)
• The Buyer (aka. patrons, johns ect.)
• There are multiple "sub" kinds of perpetrators but the two main distinctions are:
• Abroad : travelling buyers and travelling traffickers. The travel can be for various reasons
• To distance and veil these actions from "your life" this is common with "buyers", purchasing sex  in countries where the risks are lower. This goes hand in hand with pedophilic behaviour and extreme sexual behaviours (which can range from "regular non-vanilla" sex right through to a snuff film) 
• Because it is cheaper. This is for both Johns and Traffickers. Renting a person for a day or buying their lives.
• Domestic : Homegrown buyers and sellers - this is a largely ignored problem, because none of us want to think that our friends, family, communities are filled with this people 

Something I have yet to address is how the traffickers "hold" these victims often without having them physically confined, to an "acceptable" extent.

I have explained that in detail here,

which is a post containing information not found or referenced through this novel. 

World Facts 

• Slavery is illegal in every country in the world.
• The Palermo Protocol (link to Wiki) is an agreement to which many nations have signed (Canada included - we will get to why this is important). It is a clear guideline on defining human trafficking in its many forms within judiciary systems, in order to appropriately combat the problem.
• Despite the UNs many laws and protocols prohibiting Human trafficking, it is an ongoing problem. Why? among other reasons it is because, it is a supply and demand business, and there is huge demand. 
• The demand is really the driving factor. The major players in this might surprise you. 
• USA, UK, Canada, Europe, Australia. - This is both domestically and abroad. Wonder how this can be? plain and simple these countries have the most money and particularly if you are abroad, travel is easy with these passports.
• The supply is often found among the poor, uneducated, minorities of any area. The average age of initiation into this terrible system is between 13 - 16. Although anyone of any age can be victimized by these predators.

Canada Facts + More Information

This information is coming largely from the book,

with the odd fact I searched up from the appendix listed in the back of the novel. 

So the most recent facts are 2010 and older.- As I said in my book review, I would love to see an updated set of these facts, I have tried to educate myself, but internet resources are unreliable and the information varies a lot, much of this "sensitive" information is not open to the public.

I have to wonder if that is the right choice?

or is it just the government covering up its inaction on this issue. 

• While Canada signed the Palermo Protocol we are way behind other countries on dealing with this problem.
• We had not at this time changed our definition of human trafficking to match the Palermo, which was the whole point of the agreement
• We had less than a half dozen criminal convictions for human trafficking up to 2010
• We had few resources designed specifically for victims 
• witness protection (which includes safe housing and basic needs, such as food and clothing)
• health care / dental care 
• counselling / psychological and emotional care
• This is hugely important the victims often have trauma bonds with their traffickers (which is akin to Stockholm Syndrome), these people have been groomed by their trafficker - this grooming is why traffickers often choose younger people, but they will also chose adults who they sense may have had grooming in their past - The majority of victims where disenfranchised individuals before, they were trafficked. 
• disenfranchised is someone without power. Some of the factors and characteristics of these people are : being from a minority group (be it ethnic, language, religion), people from welfare homes, people with mental illness, people who were abused emotionally, physically, or sexually in the past. 
• education (most do not have high school diplomas)
• translators for foreign or domestic non-English speaking victims
• temporary residence passes for foreign victims (many have been deported - we will talk about that soon)
• resources for victims to learn English. 
• Victims are actually often prosecuted as criminals.
• They are deported for being illegal aliens - these people were sometimes brought into the country willingly, sometimes tricked into it with false promises and there is another demographic that was brought to Canada by force. Most of these people, particularly that last group, are at huge risk, when they return to their home country, either more trafficking or death. These people where often human trafficking victims in their own countries, essentially sold to Canada. By deporting them we often lose the chance to prosecute their abusers, they are deported before they can tell their stories, how did they get here? these facts are needed information to help stop the problem. 
• prostitution is illegal, it is a crime, but 80% of all prostitutes are human sex trafficking victims. For every 10 prostitutes arrested, 1 John or 1 Trafficker is arrested as well. Virtually 100% of those prostitutes end up with criminal records, while only 25% of Johns and Traffickers end up with criminal records.
• Why? because a criminal record blemishes the future of that person, the Johns often get away because they are "good people" businessmen, family men, respected community members, dentists, doctors, lawyers, teachers... 
• Why do Traffickers get away? often because their victims will not testify against them (because of the previously mentioned trauma bonds and because law enforcement cannot promise them proper witness protection), and it would be too expensive to prosecute them without witnesses.
• Our law enforcement agencies are underfunded, understaffed and undereducated
• It is up to Vice Squads or Special Victims Units (SVU's) to investigate human trafficking.
• They also deal with domestic abuse, gangs, rape, murders, drug busts and illegal weapons raids.
• These units can have as few as one or two full-time detectives, any additional personnel (be it officers, detectives, crime scene units ect.) are shared between departments
• This means that their is a priority to cases; the faster, cheaper, high conviction, cases take higher priority (which has to be the case when resources are so few)
• Human Trafficking cases are very time consuming, they take up lots of man power, lots of resources and they are also very time sensitive (traffickers have a huge network to work within, and if they feel pressure from the law, they simply pack up "their product" and move to a different city or area where their is less heat at the moment).
• Another key problem with these cases is witnesses, they have been under the control of these people for so long that they can't imagine speaking out against them.
• These victims are still being held captive in many cases through physical threat to them, their family and their friends. Which is the result of inadequate services such as witness protection
• They are also often being asked to testify before they have received any counselling or psychological help, to address the trauma bond they normally have formed with their captor
• Lack of education causes breakdowns in the system all over the place,
• Education on grooming and sexual predators, how to identify them, how to deal with compromised situations, this training and knowledge in the hands of parents, teachers, all children, particularly at risk children. Could help stop the problem before it ever got started. 
• All health care, social service, police, EMS, should know how to identify victims of human trafficking and the initial steps to take once the person has been identified. 
• How to treat victims during and after the fact, so that they are not harmed anymore than they already have been. Just because the system has unintentionally traumatized them, does not make it ok to do so.