On July 30, World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, both the Federal and Ontario Governments made announcements on their efforts to address human trafficking in Canada. Aura Freedom analyzed our governments’ renewed commitments to ending human trafficking. Read our summary below.
A Reflection on World Day Against Trafficking in Persons 2025:
World Day Against Trafficking in Persons is a globally observed event proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly. Each year, Canadian governments at multiple levels share an update on their anti-human trafficking initiatives on this date. This year’s theme, “Human Trafficking Is Organized Crime – End the Exploitation,” highlights the role of law enforcement and the criminal system.
While we recognize the ongoing role that law enforcement and the criminal system play (and the power exclusively held by law enforcement in seeking prosecutions for perpetrators), we must acknowledge the harms brought to survivors and those at risk when looking at human trafficking through a crime-centric lens, and the ongoing centering of law enforcement and “rescue” narratives, rather than survivors and their long-term healing and justice, in anti-human trafficking efforts.
As we outlined in our brief to the Standing Committee on the Status of Women for their Study on Human Trafficking in Canada back: “Human trafficking is often viewed through the lens of crime, but it must be viewed as a human rights abuse before anything else. The focus on crime is problematic for many reasons. If we focus on crime, we will also focus on the many ‘crimes’ that survivors are forced and coerced to commit by their traffickers, which include: carrying drugs/arms, committing petty crimes, credit card fraud/identity fraud, recruiting others for their traffickers to sexually exploit, and more. Many of the survivors Aura Freedom has worked with were criminalized during their trafficking experience. Essentially, they were punished for crimes that were completely out of their hands, and these convictions will follow them, and their families, for the rest of their lives.“
The criminalization of survivors is a form of coercive control utilized by traffickers to maintain their control and prevent survivors from reporting to police or seeking support. Rarely are human traffickers reported to police, let alone charged and prosecuted – and even when they are, they rarely receive an appropriate sentence for their human rights abuses. Further, we know that the healing of and justice for survivors cannot rely solely on the prosecution of perpetrators. A truly effective response to human trafficking must prioritize survivors’ rights and long-term support over ongoing centering of law enforcement, crime, and convictions.
Additionally, many survivors in Canada are subjected to both sex and labour trafficking by family members, who are often not members of larger organized crime rings. In this light, we can see human trafficking as a form of non-state torture by family members, and a result of larger systems of oppression such as patriarchy, colonialism, classism, and others.
Canada Releases Report on the National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking – but Uncertainty Remains Around the Strategy Itself
In June of 2024, Aura Freedom, in collaboration with other community partners working to end human trafficking, sent an Open Letter to Canadian leadership regarding the renewal of Canada’s National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking (2019-2024).
The letter urged that efforts to prevent and eradicate human trafficking, and support survivors, not disappear with the Strategy – which was set to expire in 2024.
We collectively cited the need for ongoing consultations with service providers, grassroots organizations, Indigenous groups, advocates, survivors, children and youth, and other community stakeholders – including those who had not received funding from Public Safety Canada. A number of organizations, including Aura Freedom, consistently implement aspects of the Strategy with no funding from Public Safety Canada, while being inconsistently invited to consult on these ongoing strategies. For example, Aura Freedom participated in Public Safety Canada’s regional and national human trafficking consultations in 2018 before the National Strategy was launched, and further provided a webinar for Public Safety Canada on “Training Against Human Trafficking,” but continues to be unfunded by Public Safety Canada.
Our letter also emphasized the need for the government to consider the many studies and reports that have already been published, including:
- The Standing Committee on the Status of Women’s 2023 study of the Human Trafficking of Women, Girls, and Gender Diverse People
- The UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery’s report on his 2023 country study of Canada. During the Special Rapporteur’s visit to Canada, Aura Freedom organized and hosted a meeting at Toronto City Hall with the Rapporteur and anti-trafficking stakeholders in Toronto and the GTA, which directly contributed to the Special Rapporteur’s final report.
- The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and others.
We called on the government to renew its commitment to combating human trafficking, and implement an ongoing whole-of-government National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking. We firmly advocated that a collaborative approach be taken, one that values community and grassroots input – and reaffirmed our openness to collaboration and consultation, advocating for a survivor-centered and comprehensive approach.
Over a month later, in August of 2024, we received a response from the Minister of Public Safety, Minister Dominic LeBlanc, citing that the Department was in the planning stages for the renewal of the National Strategy and would be “engaging with partners, stakeholders, victims, survivors, and experts across the country to help inform our next steps and future efforts”. We additionally received a response from the office of the Prime Minister, acknowledging historic contributions to the National Strategy.
Despite stressing the need for transparent, inclusive consultations with a diverse range of survivors, children/youth, direct service providers and grassroots organizations working in the anti-trafficking sector, the consultation process that followed excluded many organizations and stakeholders – including most authors of the Open Letter. When the original co-authors followed up with another letter, we again called for a public, inclusive, and informed consultation process. This second letter was acknowledged by the Prime Minister’s Office but redirected to Minister LeBlanc—who has not responded to date.
While organizations like ours and others – who have spent years advocating and organizing around anti-human trafficking – called for meaningful engagement, we were not contacted for consultation. Instead, we received a generic survey link – an approach that severely limits meaningful inclusion of diverse perspectives and in-depth expertise. The short deadline to complete the survey (less than 24 hours) further added to the opaque nature of the consultation process.
The National Strategy officially expired in 2024. While we await an official renewal, Public Safety Canada released a report summarizing their ongoing anti-human trafficking efforts from 2023 to 2025, and an overview of their community consultation findings. It should be noted that these ongoing efforts are an investment of $10.28 million annually beginning in 2024-2025, which is roughly a 10% decrease in funding in the already insufficient amounts to address this human rights abuse, as $57 million had been dedicated over the course of the National Strategy years of 2019-2024. Of this $10 million for 2024-2025, only $341,000 go to dedicated initiatives that raise awareness and promote prevention actions. While prevention and early intervention-based supports can be integrated into programming done by frontline and response-based services, we know this already decreased annual funding also does not adequately fund the National Strategy’s prevention pillar.
Meanwhile, Ontario’s renewed strategy commits $345 million over the next five years. At a time when women’s rights face growing threats from both reactionary movements and damaging government decisions and funding cuts – including a planned funding cut of 80% to Women and Gender Equality Canada – continued and increased investment in anti-human trafficking, anti-gender-based violence, and gender equity is more essential than ever.
Despite recent public statements from the Minister of Public Safety and the Chief Advisor to Combat Human Trafficking citing the renewal of Canada’s National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking, we have yet to see a renewed federal Strategy – or a renewed federal investment – into anti-human trafficking.
Ontario Announces Ongoing Anti-Human Trafficking Funding – But Not All Pillars Are Supported.
On July 30, 2025, the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services announced that Ontario will be investing $345 Million to “Protect Ontario from Human Trafficking” and renew its Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy for 2025-2030, which was released in Spring of this year. This is a critical investment and reflects a continued provincial commitment to addressing human trafficking through financial investment and legislative action.
That said, we must also acknowledge that this renewed funding continues to go exclusively to downstream services. While these services are crucial and life-saving, they predominantly intervene after human trafficking and sexual exploitation have already occurred—or when women and youth have already been identified as high-risk. Often, someone has already experienced trafficking and exploitation – and the violence has already made significant impacts.
To truly eradicate human trafficking, and “Protect Ontario,” we must ensure we are adequately investing in initiatives to prevent it from occurring in the first place – in addition to the funding of downstream services, not instead of them.
“Awareness and Prevention” is once again one of the pillars of the Ontario Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy (alongside protecting victims, supporting survivors, and holding offenders accountable). And yet, we do not see this pillar funded in the same way. This is not a singular case – we have seen “prevention” highlighted in strategies and efforts historically (including the National Strategy of 2019-2024), only for prevention-focused organizations and initiatives to be left with minimal or no funding.
Aura Freedom has long advocated for upstream prevention to be regarded with the same importance as downstream response and, subsequently, funded in the same way. This does not mean less support for the frontlines; it means that both pillars (prevention and response) are funded equally. If not, we will always be here, perpetually chasing our tails on the frontlines.
Ontario’s approach to ending human trafficking must be transformative to be effective – it must shift from acknowledging the importance of prevention to comprehensively and intentionally funding it. The pillar of “awareness and prevention” cannot be a pillar in name only – it must receive comprehensive and long-term backing. Prevention and awareness initiatives must be given the opportunity to be funded today.
We have seen Ontario take this step under its Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, which included a dedicated Call for Proposals to expand innovative services and supports to prevent and address gender-based violence in Ontario. However, we did not see a similar call come out for Ontario’s Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy – and, as a result, we continue to see a lack of funding for prevention and awareness initiatives in Ontario.
See below for further analysis of the Ontario Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy 2025-2030.
Analyzing Ontario’s Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy (2025–2030)
In 2024, Aura Freedom was invited to a consultation with the Minister of Children, Community, and Social Services, MPP Michael Parsa, to inform Ontario’s renewed Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy 2025-2030, which was released in May of 2025 and would replace Ontario’s Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy 2020-2025. We reaffirm the importance of renewing Ontario’s Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy, and continuing provincial investment. At the same time, to meaningfully address the crisis of human trafficking, the renewed Strategy must address persistent structural and systemic gaps—including its narrow focus on sex trafficking to the exclusion of labour trafficking, minimal survivor leadership, weak accountability mechanisms and justice framing, and insufficient long-term, culturally responsive supports. Particular attention must be given to the ongoing impacts on Indigenous, racialized, migrant, 2SLGBTQQIA+, and rural communities—groups that remain disproportionately affected and underserved.
Strategic Framework and System Response
As mentioned, the strategy includes a $345 million investment over five years – an increase from $307 million in the previous cycle. However, there is no clear breakdown of how these funds will be distributed, nor assurance that comprehensive prevention and awareness, community-based, or survivor-led organizations will receive adequate support.
The strategy lacks specific commitments to sustain long-term prevention, education, and capacity-building initiatives. Similarly, we have seen “survivor support” highlighted, and subsequently seen police and legal services primarily funded, often at the cost of funding community frontline services such as counselling, shelters, life skills programs, financial aid programs, employment services, and more.
The absence of transparent funding allocation raises concerns about whether the most impacted communities and community-specific resources, frontline service providers, researchers, advocates and public educators will benefit from this increase.
Key developments include the expansion of the sex offender registry to include child sex traffickers and the introduction of the Accommodation Sector Registration of Guests Act (2026). Bill 41 (Protection from Coerced Debts Act) is under consultation – which does address a critical gap in financial exploitation. These legislative moves are essential but limited in scope. The strategy fails to include any new laws or policy changes related to labour trafficking or the non-punishment of survivors coerced into illegal acts.
While the strategy acknowledges a need for multi-ministerial collaboration, it omits essential sectors such as health care, mental health, housing, tech, child welfare (CAS), and private services frequently linked to human trafficking – including spas, salons, and body-rub parlours. Further, prevention and public education focused organizations are not mentioned adequately in cross-sectoral and collaborative initiatives. Further, while acknowledging the need for multi-sectoral training, there is no integrated or enforced cross-sector strategy to ensure a coordinated and inclusive approach.
Accountability Framework
A major concern of this Strategy is the focus on (and pillar of) “Holding offenders accountable” – centering rescue narratives and police and legal-focuses on accountability and justice.
The Strategy relies primarily on police-reported incidents as indicators of success – an extremely limited and problematic metric. This approach fails to account for the numerous systemic barriers that prevent survivors from feeling safe or supported enough to report their trafficking experiences. It also overlooks prevention outcomes, systemic changes, and indicators of long-term well-being. A reliance on law enforcement data obscures the experiences of many survivors, particularly those who never enter the justice system due to fear, distrust, or systemic harm.
There is no plan for independent evaluation, public reporting, or survivor-informed monitoring. Without clear benchmarks or regular assessments, it is impossible to determine whether programs are effective, equitable, or reaching the communities most impacted. Accountability must extend beyond “holding offenders accountable.” Survivor-led accountability structures – such as advisory councils, participatory audits, or lived-experience oversight mechanisms – are entirely absent, despite growing international consensus that lived experience must inform anti-trafficking efforts. Furthermore, there are no precise enforcement mechanisms or standards for implementation across agencies. Ministries and service sectors are tasked with carrying out aspects of the strategy, but no mechanism ensures that commitments are followed through or that funding aligns with measurable outcomes. This lack of inter-ministerial accountability makes the strategy’s goals difficult to track, evaluate, or refine.
The absence of these accountability structures limits transparency, weakens public trust, and undermines the strategy’s long-term credibility. Without built-in feedback loops or third-party evaluation, communities and service providers cannot assess whether gaps are closing, survivors are safer, or resources are being used effectively. This is particularly critical in a context where systemic discrimination, overreliance on criminal justice solutions, and underfunded community services persist.
Finally, the strategy does not define “success” from a survivor’s perspective. There is no commitment to tracking outcomes such as housing stability, access to mental health care, reintegration support, or community safety—indicators that would reflect a broader, trauma-informed view of what it means to recover from trafficking and prevent re-exploitation.
Policing, Prosecution, and Survivor Impact
Overall, the strategy’s emphasis on policing and prosecution lacks a corresponding commitment to making the justice system safer, more equitable, and truly survivor-centred. Without explicit protections against criminalization, stronger safeguards against retraumatization, and mechanisms to hold authorities accountable, Ontario’s anti-trafficking efforts will remain misaligned with survivor needs and international human rights standards.
Survivors of human trafficking face significant barriers when seeking justice. These include deep-rooted fears of retaliation, mistrust in the legal system, and the risk of retraumatization during legal proceedings. Many are discouraged from reporting due to past negative experiences with law enforcement or the daunting prospect of having to recount their trauma in court repeatedly. As a result, reporting rates remain low, and conviction rates for traffickers are consistently poor. Survivors frequently withdraw from proceedings due to trauma, intimidation by traffickers or their networks, unstable living conditions, or a lack of trauma-informed legal support. Although the Criminal Code allows for life sentences in human trafficking cases, the most severe sentence handed down in Ontario to date is only nine years (as seen in the Dömötör–Kolompár case in Hamilton), reflecting a gap between statutory penalties and judicial outcomes. Further, in the few cases where offenders are sentenced, survivors are often left retraumatized by the legal system.
In addition to these barriers, many survivors – particularly those who are racialized, Indigenous, migrant, or part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community – face criminalization themselves. Survivors may be coerced into recruiting others, engaging in illegal activities, or committing crimes under duress. Yet, the strategy fails to address the risk of criminalization or acknowledge the international non-punishment principle. This principle, which protects victims from prosecution for crimes they were compelled to commit as part of their exploitation, is a fundamental international standard. Its exclusion from the strategy represents a significant oversight and undermines survivors’ trust in the justice system.
The strategy also neglects to address issues of police accountability and misconduct, both of which can significantly affect the safety and outcomes of survivors. Law enforcement bias, systemic racism, and discriminatory practices can lead to failure to investigate, over-policing of marginalized communities, or even the misidentification of survivors as offenders. Moreover, the strategy has no references to independent oversight, complaint processes, or other external accountability mechanisms. Without these, survivors and advocates have little recourse when harmed by law enforcement responses, further eroding public confidence and reducing the likelihood of survivor cooperation.
Understanding Exploitation, Root Causes, and Enabling Environments
Additionally, the strategy offers few details on how this principle will be embedded in service design, delivery and evaluation. Existing supports remain limited primarily to legal processes, with minimal investment in long-term healing or reintegration care. As a result, survivors are left without the comprehensive, wraparound support needed for sustainable recovery.
Equally concerning is the absence of meaningful survivor leadership in the strategy’s development, governance, and implementation. While peer support networks are acknowledged, there are no commitments to paid survivor leadership roles or funding for survivor-led infrastructure. This falls short of best practices and recommendations widely advocated by survivors, experts and advocates in the sector, who stress that survivors must not only be consulted but empowered as decision makers in the anti-trafficking response.
The strategy’s services remain vague, lacking the nuance and cultural specificity required to serve highly impacted populations. There is no infrastructure for identity-based programs tailored to the distinct needs of Indigenous, racialized, 2SLGBTQIA+, and migrant communities, despite their disproportionate representation among trafficking survivors. Rural and remote areas also remain chronically underserved, further entrenching inequities. Without targeted investment in culturally responsive and geographically accessible programming, equity remains a rhetorical goal rather than a measurable outcome.
Moreover, the strategy continues to narrowly focus on sex trafficking, with virtually no attention given to labour trafficking. This limited scope is particularly troubling, as the Strategy’s effectiveness is constrained by what it chooses to recognize. There is no mention of protections for migrant agricultural workers, domestic labourers, or individuals exploited through coercive workplace arrangements, despite known vulnerabilities in these sectors.
While the strategy briefly acknowledges systemic drivers of trafficking such as poverty, colonialism, systemic racism, gender-based violence, and child welfare failures, it stops short of addressing them through concrete actions or investments. For example, youth in the care of child welfare systems are widely recognized as being at elevated risk of trafficking. Yet, the strategy includes no reform efforts targeting the Children’s Aid Society or prevention strategies tailored to high-risk youth. This represents a critical missed opportunity to intervene early and break cycles of exploitation.
Furthermore, the strategy fails to address the enabling environments where trafficking is most often facilitated. Known hotspots such as hotels, motels, short-term rentals (e.g., Airbnb), and spas – particularly along the 401 corridor and within the GTA – are identified by survivors as common sites of exploitation. Yet, no mandated standards, inspection protocols, or staff training requirements are outlined to improve safety or accountability within these venues.
Finally, the role of digital platforms in facilitating trafficking is notably absent from the strategy. Despite overwhelming evidence that online spaces – especially Meta platforms, Snapchat, and Discord – are primary tools for grooming and recruitment. Yet, there is no mention of provincial collaboration with tech companies, no investment in digital safety education, and no policy mechanisms for platform accountability. This is a critical omission given that online exploitation now outpaces many traditional forms of recruitment, particularly among youth. Without a plan to regulate or engage tech platforms, the province risks leaving its most vulnerable populations without adequate protection.
Conclusion
Ontario’s 2025–2030 Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy demonstrates a sustained political commitment to addressing trafficking and includes several welcome initiatives, such as peer networks, new legislation on coerced debt, and continued investment. However, the strategy remains limited in driving meaningful, survivor-centred change. It lacks robust accountability mechanisms, underrepresents the full scope of trafficking (particularly labour exploitation), and continues to rely heavily on the criminal justice system while overlooking prevention in key environments like digital platforms, housing, and youth systems. Without structural reform, culturally specific support, and meaningful survivor leadership, Ontario’s anti-trafficking response risks remaining reactive and incomplete. A truly effective strategy must centre equity, root causes, and the voices of those most impacted at every stage—from design to delivery.
The “ultimate goals” of the strategy are identified as “reduced incidences of human trafficking in Ontario” and “survivors are able to rebuild their lives”. However, the framing of these goals reflects a limited and somewhat reductive understanding of the issue. Striving to merely reduce incidences of human trafficking is insufficient—our collective aim must be the eradication of all forms of human trafficking, supported by bold, systemic change. Framing reduction as the highest aspiration risks accepting trafficking as an inevitable, manageable issue rather than an urgent crisis rooted in structural inequality, systemic failure, and societal neglect.
Similarly, the notion that survivors can rebuild their lives, while important, cannot exist in a vacuum. Survivors cannot rebuild without the foundational supports of housing, mental health care, community safety, cultural connection, and long-term reintegration assistance. When these elements are not meaningfully resourced or embedded into the strategy, the promise of rebuilding becomes a hollow one. Moreover, centering “offender accountability” without equal focus on holding systems, institutions, and policies accountable for their roles in enabling trafficking further undermines survivor outcomes. A justice response that prioritizes prosecution but fails to invest in healing, equity, and prevention is not justice—it is incomplete.
True accountability means transforming the very systems that allow exploitation to thrive and ensuring that strategies such as this one are responsive, survivor-led, and structurally sound.