Vancouver Sun
UBC Law Professor Benjamin Perrin on Tuesday in Vancouver.
Photograph by: Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun
VANCOUVER -- When University of B.C. law professor Benjamin Perrin volunteered in Cambodia 10 years ago to fight sex trafficking in the country known for sexual exploitation of minors, he often saw young men, some with maple-leaf flags on their backpacks, openly bragging about going to brothels.
While such exploitation might be open in Cambodia, it’s more hidden in Canada, Perrin said.
But a U.S. State Department report released Tuesday shows the problem persists in Canada.
At the same time, for his help in fighting human trafficking, Perrin was named by the state department one of nine “heroes in the fight against modern-day slavery.”
Perrin, the first Canadian to win the award, is one of the important success stories in the fight against human trafficking, said Kathleen Hill, deputy consul general for the U.S.
Perrin has testified before Parliament about human trafficking and in 2000 founded The Future Group, an organization that helps combat human trafficking and the child sex trade.
The state department said Perrin’s report on human trafficking in 2006 pushed Canada to issue temporary residence permits and medical assistance to victims of trafficking.
The anti-trafficking activist also helped negotiate agreements at a conference of 150 countries, which agreed to appoint a lead agency to combat human trafficking. Interpol, the international police organization, agreed to help countries notify each other when people convicted of human trafficking are travelling.
Perrin also wrote, Journey of Injustice: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking,” which will be published by Penguin Canada in October 2010.
The annual U.S. report on human trafficking in 175 countries says Canadians travel abroad to sexually exploit minors and foreigners come to Canada for sex with minors. The report cites Vancouver, saying traffickers often bring Asian victims to the city and other parts of Western Canada.
Canada also has become a destination for U.S. residents seeking sex with minors, the report says. But raising the age of consent to 16 from 14 has helped cut back on some of the exploitation, Perrin said.
The report notes that Canada secured its first convictions for human trafficking last year and urges Canada to strengthen the investigation and prosecution of human traffickers.
Perrin has long agreed Canada needs to step up prosecutions.
“There’s really no evidence that Canada is pulling its weight in the prosecution of child sex offenders,” he said in an interview following a news conference Tuesday.
Perrin said traffickers have plans — even manuals — to help them recruit victims. But Canada still has no overall plan to combat sex trafficking.
“You can’t fight a plan with no plan,” he said.
rdalton@vancouversun.com
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