Dealing with human trafficking and child sexual exploitation is not for the faint of heart, but it may be for the big-hearted..The Sound of Freedom introduced many Canadian moviegoers to the issue, perhaps raising questions on how bad the problem is in Canada, how law enforcement handles it, and what toll such work might take on officers personally..The Western Standard interviewed Winnipeg RCMP Sgt., Tara Clelland, for answers. The Mountie of nearly 25 years said as difficult as the work can be, it is the kind that has always interested her..“I have always been somewhere in the lane of crimes against persons, whether that was domestic violence, child abuse, sex crimes, investigations,” Clelland said..“It's always been where my passion is, and I naturally gravitated towards that very, very early on.”.Policing human trafficking first became Clelland’s “sole job” in 2015. She has seen how the internet has brought new risks to remote, somewhat isolated communities under the RCMP’s mandate..“Our biggest focus, in recent years especially, has been the prevention and awareness, just with the ease of reaching multiple people online with social media platforms, just how vulnerable youth are,” she said..“Because of the internet and all of these online platforms, the recruitment has taken on a whole new [level]. If it just doesn't happen together, and we can keep kids free from that, that's always the ultimate goal.”.Clelland said RCMP cooperation with other law enforcement agencies happens when called for. Recently, she and her colleagues did a training event with Canada Border Services and the US Department of Homeland Security..“It brought investigators from multiple agencies together to talk about trends. A lot of it is the networking too, so that in the event that we’re encountered with something and it's two o'clock in the morning, we're not scrambling to find out who we call and what should we do,” she said..“In that type of work, everything's approached through a team lens. Nobody is left [as] just one person on their own. That definitely helps when you have a group of like-minded people with the same focus and the same vision. And a lot of support comes in that too.”.Criminal enterprises have networks of their own..In Manitoba, Clelland says, trafficked persons may travel along north-south or east-west routes, usually by vehicle, but sometimes by air. Most of the victims are female and many are indigenous..“Indigenous women and girls are definitely at a higher risk for violence, sexual violence included, and trafficking and exploitation. We do know that that population is definitely over represented,” she said..The RCMP liaise with community groups, such as the Winnipeg-based Joy Smith Foundation, whose See the Signs campaign aims to help Canadians recognize when human trafficking may be happening. Sometimes those tell-tale signs get law enforcement looking further..“If we have frontline members that have encountered something that either just seems suspicious or doesn't quite look right, or that they sense that there might be something more going on as far as exploitation or trafficking is concerned, then they'll typically call for advice and guidance, and then we proceed that way,” she said..How cases are handled depends on their scope. If investigations prove something large and complex, the major crimes unit gets involved. If an identified victim is a child, then child protection agencies get involved..“One that we have before the courts right now was initiated in the rural area, but because of the scope of it, it was taken over by the major crimes unit,” Clelland explained..Human traffickers are much harder to put behind bars than those who buy sex, according to Clelland..“To prove a human trafficking offence is extremely difficult and there's a lot of barriers. The system is very reliant on the victim or survivor themselves. And, given the trauma that they've potentially experienced, the violence, the fear, the threats, they're very reluctant to proceed. So there's a lot of challenges with trying to get to the top, so to speak, of who would be leading an organized human trafficking [ring],” she said..“If we can hit the people that are buying, and where that demand is coming from to have these people exploited, those charges don't have the same level of difficulty to be able to prosecute.”.The human toll suffered by the exploited is often felt by the law enforcement personnel who deal with it..“Anytime that you're dealing with offences that involve children or young people, vulnerable people, and whenever there is a sexual component to it, yeah, it definitely is gut wrenching. And listening to the stories of what some survivors have lived through, it is horrific,” Clelland said..“The compassion and the empathy that the officers investigate these types of crimes have, what makes them very good at their job, is also what can potentially impact them personally, with just listening to, and being involved in, surrounded in the most horrific things that humans didn't want.”.Helping people get out of trafficking situations and then recover from them can be “a very long, sometimes years long process,” Clelland said. Even so, she said there are “a lot of wins” possible along the way..“Typically, you will see people that have not had a very easy life or have had trauma after trauma after trauma. And because of a certain life path that they're on, they're seen as throwaway people by society, or not believed, or if there's a history of things happening, there's a lot of victim-blaming that happens in our society. So, being in a position to validate victims, to make them feel worthy and important, those wins happen all the time,” she said..“We have a lot of survivor experts that are on our working groups and panels and advisory committees. We really listen to the people who have lived experience and like to treat them as consultants. And that's why we use the word ‘survivor' too because they're victimized for a period of time, but they're not always a victim.”.Clelland says this human side of law enforcement leaves her measuring the difference she makes in ways statistics could never reflect..“How I measure success is maybe different than how others would. I don't measure success in, 'Do we have charges? Do we have convictions?' I measure success in, 'Has this victim's needs been met, and have they gained humanity? Have they regained who they were?' .“It's happened several times where there's been emotion expressed: 'Thank you for seeing me as a person. Society has discarded me. You're the first person that's made me feel valued. You're the first person that's told me that I matter. Thank you for believing me.' To me, there's been a lot of wins.”
