Colonial exploitation: the Canadian state and the trafficking of indigenous women and girls in

Canada is an article that looks at how the settler and justice system has changed the culture of

Indigenous women in society. Canadian laws continue to prosecute the victims of sex

trafficking, while the perpetrators usually do not suffer from any serious criminal charges. A way

that settlers have gained and remained their control is through violence, abuse, and the ability to

get away with their own crimes.

25 percent experiencing this violence before age seven. (Bourgeois, 2015), which

makes them vulnerable to be sex trafficked. When the settlers established their presence in

Canada, sexual abuse was established as a cultural norm leading into years of damage

implemented into First Nations culture. Many lost their identities through the Residential School

Systems. Although certain laws were made, only since 2000, the living conditions and human

rights of Indigenous girls continues to be ignored. The suicide rate is three times the rate of those

who are living.

Views and stereotypes of First Nations people continue to affect them on a daily basis, as

well as in the court system. The courts fail to always consider the affect of colonialism and the

identity crisis that they face compared to other people. Judgments of being lazy, dirty, drunk, and

uneducated hinder opportunities for community growth or reconciliation.

Native youth continue to live in fear as they try to pursue their own goals,

achievements, and dreams. They way they are perceived by the general public puts an extra

burden on their shoulders while trying to keep their own traditions alive. Still, the promises of

the Canadian government is what they hold onto, in hopes that one day they will have the same

rights as any other Canadian citizen. Changes are made, new laws are being passed, and funding

is being distributed. Political figures are quick to announce such promises. By the time that those
expectations are delivered, it is too little too late. The demand of resources and support continues

to grow leaving communities exposed to poverty. Sex traffickers continue to prey upon

Indigenous girls and they make up much of the population directly involved with sex trafficking

statistics.

The article Domestic Sex Trafficking of Aboriginal Girls in Canada: Issues and

Implications, written by Anupriya Sethi, identifies the underlining issues that make aboriginal

girls more at risk for domestic sex trafficking. The participants of the study have worked with

sexually exploited girls and been involved with sex trafficking before. Experiences when

working within this population, root causes and policies are addressed. This article discusses the

hypothesis that allow young Aboriginal girls in Canada to resort to sex trafficking and provides

reasoning for the cause.

Family members are a form of sex trafficking as they enforce relatives to get involved.

First Nations girls are instigated by their brothers, fathers, grandfathers and uncles (Sethi, 2007).

It is reported by many informants that this issue is due to poverty. Another form of sex

trafficking is organizational trafficking that lures females in by changing the name to make it

sound more appealing. Sex traffickers recruit victims through persuasion. Airports are a common

recruitment method as girls move to a big city where they need somewhere to stay. Another

method is schools, as traffickers will use this place to find vulnerable girls. Bars and lounges are

also reported to be frequent places where traffickers will act as victims boyfriends. Once victims

are trafficked for many years, they can be used as recruiters to find other girls in the community.

The root causes that the informants discuss throughout the article have altered female

adolescents prosperity, increasing their risk to sex trafficking. Factors such as poverty, violence

and racism that link to sexual exploitation have not been fully explored (Sethi, 2007).
Colonization has also played a major part in the causes of these young girls being targeted.

Policy recommendations that acknowledge Aboriginal girls have been addressed. These

recommendations involve acknowledgement, honour and recognition, which provide these girls

with a healthier life.

The article Article: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman Crisis: Technological

Dimensions by Jane Bailey and Sara Shayan is about missing and murdered indigenous

females, and how technology today can help catch the marketers that are trying to lure them into

sex trafficking, prostitution, or any kind of sexual exploitation. There are more than 1,100

missing and murdered indigenous woman and girls in Canada (Bailey, Shayan, 2016, p.322).

Not only are the indigenous females missing, they are also being exploited sexually by

prostitution, human trafficking, and sex trade. In this article it states 60 percent of sexually

exploited youths are aboriginals (Bailey, Shayan, 2016, p.328). These indigenous woman and

girls get promised to a better life, good career, benefits and different adventures (Bailey, Shayan,

2016, p.328). These women and girls get eager about a new career opportunity and do not realize

it is a trap. They start sex trafficking and prostituting themselves, to only end up dead

somewhere. These women are vulnerable to human trafficking, because of their lifestyle and how

the indigenous families are living in today society (Bailey, Shayan, 2016, p.329). Today, because

of science, we have new technology; some is good and some is bad. Technology is considered a

bad thing when marketers can access social sites like Facebook or Craigslist to interact with

these females. The marketers use these sites to bribe the indigenous woman, and girls, and form a

friendship to gain their trust and hope. The good part about technology that science has

discovered, is that now there is new technology that help catch people by new DNA mechanics,

but also because of the internet, you are able to get access to the IP address. IP address identify
computers while on the internet, which help detectives locate where they are sending a message

from which helps catch the marketers. Lastly, the indigenous population is lacking a lot of

necessity and we would like to see change and justice; they need to be heard. The Indigenous

families need more resources for their community. They need proper living so they dont have to

sex traffic themselves or their children. They need centers for indigenous females, which have

suffered or experienced any traumatic pain or females looking for help to change their lifestyle.

The article Trafficking of Aboriginal Women and Girls in Canada by Anette Sikka

addresses how sex trafficking affects the Aboriginal women and girls. Sikka states that when it

comes to the Aboriginal community, they are labeled as sex trade workers instead of trafficked

victims and that they chose to be in this situation. Research was done over 10 months with

twenty-five informants in the Prairies; due to high Aboriginal occupant numbers.

Sikka points out that attempts at defining trafficking have thus far been unsuccessful due

to inconsistency in its use. Being trafficked is seen as being controlled by their captor and not

having any choices. The problem however, is that the victim has to be foreign, subdued, weak,

have physical marks, etc. in order to really be a victim otherwise, they are a prostitute. Ever since

colonization, Aboriginal girls and women have been seen as sexually available and that men can

use them. This is where the prostitution started within the Aboriginal people.

Things such as poverty, physical and sexual abuse, homelessness, racism, low self-

esteem, and being in the child welfare system are big factors that contribute to Aboriginal people

being in the sex trade. Many times, men will play on women and girls vulnerabilities and make

fake promises and appealing offers in order to lure them in. Other recruitment ways include girls

being rewarded for successfully luring other girls, being asked to make money for things like

rent, family-based recruitment, gangs, drugs, etc.

 Sikka states that determining whether or not somebody has been trafficked should be

specific to how they were exploited and how much control she had in regards to her decisions.

Family relationship is also important as many girls are scared to be ostracized and so they oblige

to whatever their family asks them to do. Knowing if an individual has a history of being in a

care facility is important because they are more vulnerable to being exploited. exploited. Drugs

are also an important sign because they work to keep up the addiction. The Canadian justice

system does not see Aboriginal women as victims, instead they group them as prostitutes who

made a choice to do it and this adds to the reason why there have been no criminal charges in

Aboriginal sex trafficking.

While trafficking is becoming more recognized, Aboriginal people are still not being seen as

victims. There have been attempts to include them in the category of victims, it has not been as

successful as intended. The problem with trying to include them is that it is hard to integrate the

Aboriginal victims without it changing everything; this continues to be their biggest struggle.

The author states that in order to see a difference, Canada needs to forget about what they think a

victim of trafficking should look like and rather take into consideration all of the factors that

people such as the Aboriginals go and have gone through before dismissing them.