It is my pleasure to speak on the third reading of Bill 41, An Act to amend the Consumer Reporting Act and the Prevention of and Remedies for Human Trafficking Act, 2017 with respect to certain debts incurred in relation to human trafficking, along with my fellow co-sponsors, the MPP from Ottawa–Vanier, the MPP from Spadina–Fort York and the MPP from Guelph.

Human trafficking is a horrific crime that shatters the lives of victims and has rippling consequences for survivors and their loved ones. Sex trafficking is not a foreign crime; it is here in our neighbourhoods, cities and rural communities. From what we can glean in Canada, 93% were Canadian and 60% of Canada’s human sex trafficking occurs in the province of Ontario, with the majority happening along Highway 401. However, unfortunately, victims are all across the province: in rural communities and northern communities as well as big cities.

It is a crime that targets the most vulnerable among us. In statistics from a few years ago, 95% of the sex-trafficked persons are women, teenagers and marginalized groups; 45% are between the ages of 18 to 24; 24% of the victims police reported were aged 17 and younger; and, Mr. Speaker, sadly to say, some as young as 10 and 11 years old. And they are getting younger.

They are often lured and groomed by people posing as boyfriends and are forced to hand over money associated with their exploitation. Various tactics and strategies are used to lure the victims, sometimes within five minutes or less from a park, a university campus or even a grocery store, and some from our elementary schoolyards—a horrific scenario to envision, yet a dark reality that needs to be addressed. Violence, threats of violence and debt bondage are often used as a means of control to force victims to perform sexual services.

Mr. Speaker, this government has not been idle in its commitment to protect Ontarians from this heinous crime. The Attorney General; Solicitor General; and ministers for labour; finance; health; children, community and social services; tourism, culture and sport; colleges and universities; and education have been active partners in advocacy and procuring vital funding and resources for survivors. And the work continues.

As many of my colleagues in the Legislature know, I have been working on raising awareness and prevention of human trafficking—human sex trafficking, especially—for a very long time. That’s why I’m happy to see such a large interest by members in the Legislature across all political aisles, and especially the new members who have joined the Legislature.

We are here today to take another step towards helping victims who have gone through traumatic experiences and horrible crimes to become survivors and to rebuild their lives. Bill 41 seeks to make sure that once a survivor escapes their abuser, they are not revictimized and obstacles in reclaiming their lives are overcome—which is what this bill aims to do.

Financial burdens associated with escaping their abusers affect every aspect of a survivor’s healing journey. The debts incurred by the abuser in the survivor’s name prevent them from getting an apartment, being approved for a loan, or even procuring a vehicle or an education. In some instances, victims feel safer to return to their trafficker rather than navigate the financial bureaucracy in erasing their fraudulent debt and beginning their new lives. This is a horrible thing to say.

I want to tell you a story told by Carly Kalish, executive director of Victim Services Toronto, who is a specialist in human trafficking and trauma-informed care. They had a young woman call their crisis line in the middle of the night. She told them that she was being forcibly confined in an apartment by her boyfriend. She wasn’t allowed to go out on her own or be in contact with any friends or family, and she was forced and exploited in the sex trade. Finally, one night, when he was sleeping, she gathered the courage to break the door and ran barefoot to the nearest Tim Hortons. Once she was there, she googled “Help 24 hours a day” and called for help. Victim Services Toronto sent her a cab that minute to Tims and Ubered her to the office. They set her up with safe accommodation, but she was so emotionally exhausted that she simply slept on their couch.

In the morning, she was confused. She had trouble remembering her own name and disclosed that she was pregnant. She could not decide whether to go back to her trafficker or start to rebuild her own life. This is the question all survivors ask themselves. One of the big concerns for this person was obviously her lack of resources. She had no home, no money, and every time she had considered leaving her trafficker in the past, he threatened her and told her that she would be in extreme debt without him. It turns out that he had used her name to open a credit card and to also apply for a car loan, such that she would be responsible for all the debt if she ever tried to leave him. This is a common story Victim Services Toronto hears daily. We know her name is Jessica, and she is a proud mother to a healthy baby girl now.

But the question of whether a victim of human trafficking is well-resourced enough to leave their trafficker is never one that a victim should ever have to face.

In November 2022, Victim Services Toronto acquired an organization called Project Recover, created by Richard Dunwoody—and we thank him for that. It is dedicated to supporting survivors of human trafficking by working with Canadian creditors, banks, telecom companies, car rental companies and property managers to remove fraudulent and coercive debt in the victim’s name. The program aims to ensure that survivors are not revictimized in the process of rebuilding their lives. The current challenge is that not all creditors and property managers are equally inclined to take the action necessary to cancel the debt owing in the name of the victim. Even if they are willing—and many are willing once they are made aware of the situation—it takes a long time and a lot of effort to ensure that credit bureaus remove the fraudulent debt that drags down the creditworthiness of the survivors. The process of cancelling fraudulent debt must be streamlined so that it’s easy for creditors while also collaborating with advocacy agencies who are well-versed in the trauma effects of human trafficking and financial advocacy in banks, which is why this bill is so important and we are here today.

It is a continuation of the work we have already done to protect survivors of human trafficking in Ontario. Through this legislation, we are committing our focus on the fight against human trafficking by creating a path forward where coerced debts for survivors can be relieved. As the multi-party co-sponsors for this bill already know, this legislation spans multiple ministries; and we have consulted experts, hearing testimonies from advocates and, of course, the brave survivors themselves who came forward to share their stories. This is not a partisan piece of legislation. We all agree that survivors should not have to finance the debt incurred while they were trafficked.

I want to thank several people and bodies for their assistance and devotion in seeing this bill come to life. I want to give a special thank you to the member from Ottawa–Vanier for her introduction of this bill, for working across all party lines to make this bill a reality. I want to thank the Ministry of Finance; the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services; the Ministry of the Attorney General; and the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery. I’ve said the bill was complicated, and it was complicated. But I also want to thank the Canadian Bankers Association; Nick Colosimo was in many times to help us. I also want to thank: from Equifax, Julie Kuzmic; Clarke Cross from TransUnion; and the support of the Canadian Credit Union Association—their support, their guidance, their dedication and their passion. Collectively we all want to try to make this path better for survivors to move on with their lives. And, as I said, a special thank you to all the parties that were involved and the dedication of the many ministries.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s been a pleasure to be here for third reading of this bill, and I now hand it over to the other co-sponsors to speak.

It’s an honour today to rise to speak to Bill 41. It’s an even deeper honour to be one of the co-sponsors of this bill. I want to thank my colleague from Haliburton–Kawartha Lakes–Brock, my colleague from Spadina–Fort York, and I’m most thankful to my colleague from Ottawa–Vanier for taking the lead on bringing this legislation forward.

If passed, Bill 41 would be the second bill in Ontario’s history to be sponsored by all four political parties here in the Legislature. This bill is especially important, Speaker, because it will make a huge concrete, practical difference in the lives of survivors of human trafficking.

I want to, as my colleagues have mentioned, give a shout-out to Richard Dunwoody, who first brought to my attention the issue and the financial challenges that survivors of human trafficking face. I want to thank everybody who has provided input on this bill, provided feedback on this bill and has worked hard throughout the process of this bill; getting it to the place it is this morning. I know the details of this bill—we’ve had some long conversations about it, some conversations in committee about how it would be implemented, but I want to say that what has been unequivocally clear to me throughout all those conversations is the unanimous support for this bill and what this bill intends to accomplish.

If passed, Bill 41 will provide great relief to the survivors of human trafficking from incurred fraudulent debt and, in doing so, allow them to move one step closer to reclaiming their freedom and their lives as survivors of human trafficking. Speaker, 65% of police-reported human trafficking cases in Canada in the last decade were right here in Ontario, with 95% of those cases affecting women, teenagers and marginalized groups in our society. In most of these cases, survivors were unaware of the accumulating fraudulent debt that they were accumulating because of their trafficking situation.

If you think about it—think about the trauma, think about what it has done to your life, and think about the courage it takes to survive and remove yourself from human trafficking. And then think about how you must feel when you realize that the debt that has nothing to do with you but is fraudulently in your name is preventing you from getting a student loan or applying for a car loan, applying for a mortgage, possibly renting an apartment, securing a credit card. So many of the things and the financial tools and instruments that so many people just take for granted as part of everyday life—imagine that being denied to you. That’s what’s so important about this bill.

But I will say, in my conversations with survivors of human trafficking, there’s even a deeper importance to this bill. I had one survivor tell me that every time she heard the phone ring, it retriggered her trauma. Most of the times when that phone rang, it was a debt collector trying to collect the debt that her trafficker incurred in her name. She said to me, “Yes, I want my financial life back. I want the independence and freedom that brings. But what I want as much or more than that is just for the phone to stop ringing, so I don’t have to relive that trauma each and every time I hear it.”

When we talk about what we can do and what a difference this bill is going to make in somebody’s life, I think of those stories. I think of those stories, Speaker. This bill will open doors of financial opportunity that will allow survivors to move forward.

I want to say to my colleagues on all sides of the House that by coming together today and—I’m hoping—unanimously voting in support of this bill, we are enabling survivors to move past a dark chapter of their life.

I want to echo my colleague from Spadina–Fort York’s comments about some of the other things we can do, because we know that while this is a vital step, there are more steps to take. Today, Ontario interval and transitional housing supporters are here as part of the Wrapped in Courage Campaign. We know that a number of survivors of human trafficking end up in shelters, and those shelters are underfunded. Those shelters need support. We need support for victim compensation. We need to ensure we address the housing affordability crisis so those survivors have a safe, affordable home to go to.

Speaker, I’m proud of the work that we’ve all done together across party lines to bring this bill forward. It’s a positive step. It’s a step I believe we can all be proud of. Once again, I want to thank my colleague from Haliburton–Kawartha Lakes–Brock, not only for your advocacy on this bill but for your advocacy on human trafficking. My colleague from Spadina–Fort York, thank you for standing up and bringing Richard Dunwoody’s vision to reality through this bill. And my colleague from Ottawa–Vanier, thank you for having the insight to say, “You know what? Let’s bring all parties together to sponsor this bill, to not make it just in my name, but to make it in the name of all four parties.” Because I think it is so important, Speaker, to send a direct message to the survivors of human trafficking that this is a bill, and you as a survivor—we see you, we hear you, we’re going to act for you and we’re going to do it in a way that brings everybody in this Legislature together, to say that all Ontarians have your back. And we’re going to give you the tools to have financial freedom.

Thank you, Speaker, and thank you all for your participation in today’s debate.