Human Trafficking Perrin Summary

This leads to the primary arguments Perrin makes in his book. Perrin emphasizes that human trafficking is persistent around the world. Even a first-world, respected country such as Canada is complicit. Another argument Perrin discusses throughout his book surrounds the victims- profiling the types of women and girls who are most frequently targeted. However the most important argument that Perrin makes is how all levels of government should address this travesty and what steps should be taken to eliminate it (xvi). He is very direct in his criticism of Canadian processes or lack thereof, surrounding trafficking and sexual exploitation. Perrin’s preface describes the moment he realized that not only were Canadians contributing to sexual exploitation
He admits in the preface that he wasn’t aware that this type of crime took place in Canada (xvi). Crimes of this nature seem foreign to Canadians since movies such as Taken are often set in trendy parts of the world. Victims in films and television are not typical in how glamorous they appear and the criminals involved are depicted as well-travelled, well-spoken and tech-savvy. The unfortunate truth of the matter as seen in Perrin’s book is that this type of operation is often very low-tech, with victims being vulnerable as well as impoverished and happening in many types of neighbourhoods across Canada. In researching human trafficking in Canada since the publication of Perrin’s book in 2010, there appear to have been no major developments in how this problem is handled. The majority of the resources researched reference Perrin’s book as a major source on information on the topic. In March 2014 CBC.ca posted a story titled Human Traffickers going unpunished in Canada, Experts Say. This headline is very discouraging on its own and the article does little to feel any kind of hope. A short video clip summarizing the story of “Christine” a former sex trade worker who was rescued, essentially offers a three-minute summary of all of the points Perrin makes in his book. Joy Smith, Winnipeg Conservative MP puts it very directly by saying “Too many are getting away with it” (Moore & Levasseur). They go on to describe, like Perrin did, how Human Trafficking goes under-reported. Perrin himself was interviewed for the article where he commented on the fact that not enough questions are being asked when it comes to sexual exploitation. The lack of progress on this front is indicative of a systemic issue within Canadian government and law enforcement. The old adage “out of sight out of mind” seems to apply to these crimes: They are under-reported, this results in