Elizabeth Bainbridge
9-24-10
11:31 am
This week Manitoba had its first human trafficking charge. A 38 year old woman, Teresa Peebles, was charged after she trafficked a 21 year old woman that had been living with her. Apparently, Peebles had met this young woman who was staying in an aboriginal woman’s shelter. She had convinced the woman to come and live at her home instead. Once the woman consented, however, Peebles took advantage of her in a terrible violation of human rights. After stealing from her, beating her, and trapping her in the house, Peebles “forced her to work as a sex trade worker” and kept all of her earnings for food and shelter. The police were alerted on Monday when they received complaints about a fight at her home. Peebles was arrested on Wednesday after investigation.
Human trafficking has been illegal in Canada since 2005. “The Criminal Code describes a trafficker in human beings as ‘a person (who) exploits another person if they cause the victim to provide labour or service for fear of their safety or the safety of someone known to them.’” More solutions to the problem of human trafficking are in the making. Joy Smith, Winnipeg MP, wants to prohibit the buying of sex at all in an effort to reduce cases like these. She is currently working on a national action plans and is full of ideas on how to end modern day slavery.
I’m so glad that efforts are being taken in Canada to crack down on human trafficking. Although the cases reported there are relatively few when compared to some other parts of the world, the government is not taking the issue lightly. I agree that human trafficking is one of the worst human rights violations, and that people should never close their eyes to it because it’s going on all over the world. I appreciated the details presented in the first article, and it seemed like they were presented in a straight-forward manner. The second article was also helpful, as it presented the story from a slightly different angle. The two did contradict each other in minor details, however, such as what day the police were called to Peebles’ home, but between the two I felt I had a fairly good grasp on what had happened.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/human-trafficking-count-laid-103697094.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2010/09/23/manitoba-human-trafficking-charge-winnipeg.html
2 comments:
Trafficking is a global issue I would like to share this documentary it features Pramila, an 18 year old girl who was trafficked from Nepal to a brothel in India ; Afsana, a 16 year old who was trafficked from her village in Bangladesh into forced domestic servitude in Kolkata;It provides a compelling look into this dark, inhuman, and exploitative world and shows how each one of us can help to prevent modern-day slavery.
Watch http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/479
It's good that a first world country like Canada is even admitting that human trafficking and slavery exist within the nation; I feel like sometimes here in the US the media sweeps the internal issues like this 'under the rug,' opting instead to look at external instances of human rights violations. Based on what we learned in class and the video we watched (The day my god died on Hulu.com), the method used in this instance is commonly used. I'm glad Canada is attempting to create an action plan to address this issue in a more proactive manner.
Post a Comment