The Fisher Branch Women’s Institute (WI) brought the Joy Smith Foundation to Fisher Branch a few weeks ago in order to raise awareness among students and parents of sex trafficking and help prevent it from impacting their community.
Debra Barrett, who is a member of the Fisher Branch WI and president of the Manitoba Women’s Institute, prepared a backgrounder on behalf of the Fisher Branch WI about the presentations and information about sex trafficking. She also spoke to the Express about the event.
Students were taught to recognize manipulative techniques sex traffickers use to lure them into the sex trade, including excessive flattery, things being too good to be true, and being isolated from friends and family
Joy Smith’s daughter, Janet Campbell, presented informative and eye-opening education sessions in late October to Fisher Branch’s school students and community members.
Sex trafficking, which is sometimes referred to more broadly as human trafficking, forces children of various ages, women and men into sexual slavery. It’s defined as the buying and selling of another human being for sex. Joy Smith established her foundation in 2011 to teach kids, parents and society about the exploitative and criminal activity, which can have devastating physical and mental impacts on its victims. Youth can live with their families and be attending school while being forced into sex trafficking.
The level of knowledge about sex trafficking among Fisher Branch students varied.
“Some of the students were aware of it and some, frighteningly, were unaware. A lot of students had a minute grasp of the issue,” said Barrett. “That’s why our WI felt this was something that’s really necessary. We wanted to reach at least one group of students this year, especially those who will be graduating, and provide them with knowledge before they go off to the city or beyond our community.”
The average age of a child lured into sex trafficking – providing sex, working in massage parlours and/or stripping – is 13 years old, according the Joy Smith Foundation, which not only educates people on sex trafficking, but also on other human trafficking crimes such as forced labour. Ninety-three per cent of Canadian sex-trafficking victims are Canadian-born.
And it’s a lucrative crime with traffickers making, on average per year, $280,000 from a single victim. Traffickers use a variety of sophisticated manipulation techniques – including gifts, flattery, coercion, blackmail, threats of harm and so forth – to lure then force their victims into the sex trade. And they work on their victims online and/or in person. They search for victims in both urban and rural communities across Canada.
The Manitoba Women’s Institute and its branches promote the wellbeing of women regardless of their ethnic, educational or political backgrounds, as well as families and communities.
Campbell presented three education sessions in total, tailored to different age levels. One session was for grades 7, 8 and 9 students (53 students), and another for grades 11 and 12 students (40 students) at the collegiate, said Barrett. Campbell also presented an evening session to parents and other members of the community at the Ukrainian Hall community centre.
“During the presentation to the students, there was a lot of dialogue back and forth where the students could ask questions,” said Barrett. “But Janet would also ask them questions to elicit responses. In that way we were able to figure students’ level of sophistication and knowledge of the issue.”
Campbell also spoke about how perpetrators will search for children online to lure them into sex trafficking.
“The students who have public [social media] profiles were amazed that within two minutes of putting their profiles online a perpetrator somewhere else in the world could find them and use their photos and [unique details from items] in their bedrooms to figure out within a matter of minutes where the child is located,” said Barrett. “They were absolutely shocked by that.”
With the growing recognition of the harmful impact of social media on children and teens – including the ease with which they can be lured and exploited sexually – some countries around the world are starting to ban social media for certain age groups.
Australia recently passed a law banning children under 16 from social media sites including Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Snapchat, and Threads. It will take effect on Dec. 10. The move was deemed necessary in order to “protect” children and make social media companies responsible for verifying ages and blocking users under 16. And Denmark announced on Nov. 7 that it plans to ban access to social media for children under 15 years of age.
The third sex-trafficking education session Campbell provided at the Ukrainian Hall had over three dozen parrents attend.
“I think a lot of people were quite frightened. There’s a core group of us that work with children so we were more knowledgeable, but some parents went home absolutely shocked at how easily a child can be groomed,” said Barrett.
In Barrett’s backgrounder she provides tips from the session on how to recognize manipulative techniques used by sex traffickers. They include strangers making contact with you, people promising things that are too good to be true, people who are angry and threatening you or your loved ones, people encouraging you to keep secrets from your family and friends, people who are trying to isolate you from your family and friends both socially and/or emotionally, people you feel uncomfortable being around, people who use excessive flattery, and people who try to push you to break rules.
The Fisher Branch WI is planning to bring the sex-trafficking education sessions back to Fisher Branch in future.
“We are hoping to continue. We’re working with the school counsellor. We want to continue to prepare our children and educate them about sex trafficking,” said Barrett.
In addition, Barrett said the Manitoba Women’s Institute plans to pass a resolution and send it to Manitoba’s families minister, requesting formal education about sex-trafficking in Manitoba schools so that children can be armed with the knowledge and skills to avoid becoming victims of sexual exploitation.
