Indigenous People and Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking

There are two important days of remembrance and action this month: the Salvation Army's International Day of Prayer for Victims of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking on September 22, and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30.

These two issues are not unrelated. Indigenous women and girls make up about 50 percent of trafficking victims in Canada, despite only being about 5% of the country’s population. Why is this happening? And how can we stop it?

In this episode, Major Ray Lamont (territorial modern slavery and human trafficking response co-ordinator for Canada and Bermuda) and Captain Crystal Porter (territorial Indigenous ministries consultant) talk about the why behind this staggering statistic. And we look at how the Army is currently fighting modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT) in our territory, and how Salvationists can walk the road of justice and reconciliation year round.

MSHT Info and Resources

Salvation Army MSHT Response Website
Resources for the Day of Prayer for Victims of MSHT
MSHT Training

Indigenous Ministries

Salvation Army Indigenous Ministries Website
Resources for Truth and Reconciliation Sunday (Orange Shirt Day)
General Resources

Transcript

Kristin Ostensen

This is the Salvationist podcast. I’m Kristin Ostensen. This month, The Salvation Army will participate in two important days of remembrance and action: the International Day of Prayer for Victims of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, which is on September 22, and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which falls on September 30. At first glance, it might not seem like these two issues have much overlap. But in fact, Indigenous women and girls make up about 50 percent of trafficking victims in Canada, despite only being about 5% of the country’s population. So what is going on here? And how can we stop it? In this episode, Major Ray Lamont and Captain Crystal Porter talk about why the why behind this staggering statistic. And we look at how the Army is currently fighting modern slavery and human trafficking in our territory, and how Salvationists can walk the road of justice and reconciliation year round.

Ray Lamont

Hi. My name is Major Ray Lamont, and I am the territorial, the national modern slavery and human trafficking response co-ordinator for Canada and Bermuda. And then I'm also what you call the zonal modern slavery and human trafficking response co-ordinator for the Caribbean and North America.

Crystal Porter

And I'm Captain Crystal, the territorial Indigenous ministries consultant.

Kristin Ostensen

Wonderful. Thank you so much for being here. So, we're here today to talk about MSHT in Canada and Bermuda, and how MSHT specifically impacts indigenous peoples a very fitting topic given the important days of observance that we have happening this month. So before we dive into that specific aspect of MSHT, major Ray, can you give us an overview of what MSHT looks like in Canada and Bermuda?

Ray Lamont

Yeah. Thanks. That's a great question. It's a great place to start. Modern slavery and human trafficking is happening all around us. So, it could look like the women who gets into a romantic relationship, and there's, you know, tons of love bombing that's happening at the beginning, and things are being purchased, and just these great experiences. And then all of a sudden, the switch is flipped, and that person, the romantic partner, is now putting them in a situation where they're being sexually exploited. It could look like somebody coming into our country legally through our temporary foreign workers program. So, coming in as a seasonal agricultural worker, and even though they're coming in legally to pick blueberries or strawberries or tomatoes or whatever that looks like, all of a sudden, their situation is sliding into a labour exploitation situation because they don't have protection in our country, or their work permit is tied to their employer, or just a whole bunch of stuff around that. It can look like a kid who meets somebody online, who's pretending to be a person, a child their age, but it's somebody older, and they're using that interaction online to groom them to create a relationship, and then to get them to a place where they're going to meet. And then it goes into either a labour or a sexual exploitation situation. We see MSHT in our supply chain. So, the things that we're buying, the food, the clothing, the electronics, the merchandise. We see at different places in the supply chain that there is slavery, there is human trafficking, there is exploitation. We see child marriages happening. We see organ trafficking happening. So, it is happening. It looks a wide variety of way. It takes a wide variety of forms. But again, no matter where we live in Canada, it's all around us.

Kristin Ostensen

Thanks for that overview and some pretty sobering examples, you know, things that I think a lot of us actually have seen in the news and maybe don't always register as human trafficking, but it is. So, research shows that more than half of the people who are trafficked in Canada are actually Indigenous. Can you tell us a bit of background on that? Why that's actually the case?

Crystal Porter

I think it's important for us to understand that when talking about exploitation and trafficking of Indigenous women and girls, it's essential to talk about the historical and ongoing impacts of colonization. Since early colonization, Indigenous women and their bodies have actually been viewed as less valuable than non-Indigenous and non-racialized bodies. This idea disrupted traditional roles within our communities. We value and hold much respect for our grandmothers, our matriarchs. Many of our communities are actually matrilineal, meaning that our clans and our family connections are passed through the mother. Women are leaders. They are healers, nurturers and teachers, and often within community, they are the ones who make the final decisions. However, these matriarchal or egalitarian ways of leading were actually dismissed as they did not align with Eurocentric society. Assimilation policies such as the Indian Act continued to reinforce this idea that Indigenous women were less than or unworthy or unimportant, and it's actually a thread of belief that continues to weave its way through society today.

Kristin Ostensen

So how does that history make Indigenous women especially vulnerable to trafficking?

Crystal Porter  

Because of Canada's colonial legacy, it's forced Indigenous women and girls into dangerous social and economic conditions, which in turn has made them more vulnerable to different kinds of violence. And it's also enabled traffickers to take advantage of these social and economic situations that many Indigenous women and girls and other genders or marginalized people find themselves into. So it's important for us to understand that there was an interim report and a National Inquiry that happened, that talked about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. It's actually a response to the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action. And when they did this study, they sat with survivors, they listened to their stories, they listened to family members, and they gathered those stories, understanding that violence was happening within Indigenous communities, directed towards Indigenous women and girls. And so as we sit and we read this study, as we become familiar with the study and the calls for justice, we understand that there is a significant barrier that is addressing the root causes of violence. This study looks at those pieces, and it also maintains the proper prioritization and resourcing of solutions for the Canadian government, for individuals, for us to look at—that it must come with real partnerships with Indigenous peoples that support self-determination in a decolonizing way. And so it's actually asking us to look at the root causes of violence, which is really connected to that colonization, which is connected to assimilation, to residential schools, to the reserve system, to the Indian Act—all of these pieces that are a part of Canadian history. It's asking us to look at it from a different perspective, and asking us to walk then in a different way. How do we address the things that are happening within our communities, within our society, so that we can move together in a different way?

Kristin Ostensen

Well, that's a really good lead into my next question, which is about how our territory is responding to modern slavery and human trafficking, specifically in relation to Indigenous peoples. How are we trying to respond and move forward?

Ray Lamont

Yeah, so we have what we call our territorial Fight for Freedom strategy, and so in that strategy, we're looking at four goals. We want to build awareness, education and training, so every person in our territory and in the country of Canada and in Bermuda, that they are aware of what is MSHT, that they understand what it looks like. They can see those signs, those risk factors, those methods of recruitment, that they understand that intersect with Indigenous communities and that they not only understand, but they see it, they know it, and they can be part of the solution, to ending it. We're also engaged in prevention as one of our goals. We believe that The Salvation Army is very strategically positioned across the countries, Canada and Bermuda, in local communities to help prevent it from happening. And so, when you look at our thrift stores and our food banks and our community and family services and our churches—they are right in those communities, they are connecting with people. They're connecting with Indigenous populations to help stand, to support, to advocate, to amplify, to help prevent what is going on. Another focus we have is support services. So, we have, you know, Illuminate, and we have Sarah's Place in London correctional and justice services. We have Brampton Family Life Resource Centre. We have Woven in North York Temple or Community Church. We have all of these programmings going on across the country, where we see many Canadians coming in for support as they exit situations of MSHT, as they're looking for those programmings and supports to help them journey towards their wellbeing as they define it. And included within that is we have a lot of people coming from Indigenous communities because they're exiting those situations as well. And then we have advocacy and collaboration as our fourth focus for our Fight for Freedom strategy. And so we want to advocate for change within the government. We want to advocate for change in our provinces, within our organization, and we want to do that collaboratively. So we want to be working with other NGOs, other organizations, other Indigenous communities, as they speak into what needs to be the solution to see this ended across the country.

Crystal Porter

So, each reconciliation journey looks a little bit different, and really it goes beyond one or two ways of how to do it. It's no right way for reconciliation, it's no right way for partnering. But we're so thankful to find various ways to work together in our departments and collaborate on different projects, whether it's consulting on video series or speaking about the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls crisis on Parliament—our teams are finding ways to work together. But we also see this happening more with resources for ministry units and how they are responding as well. So we've seen thrift stores set up red dress displays with missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls Calls for Justice. And we've seen other ministries partner with Indigenous organizations to provide ribbon skirts for a local community march. Again, there isn't a one-size-fits-all response. We are in different stages of reconciliation work, but what's most important is taking the time to develop the relationship. So, I remember sitting with an elder at one point in time, and he talked about how we need to talk about Indigenous brilliance as much as we talk about Indigenous trauma. And sometimes when we look at the Canadian history with Indigenous peoples, it's really easy for us to get into this trauma mindset, and it's important for us to actually reverse that view and see about the healing work that's happening within Indigenous communities. It's important for us to see it actually as a movement forward, a movement from the trauma into the brilliance part, and looking to Indigenous people for all of these other ways that we can work together, how we can learn from Indigenous people.

Kristin Ostensen  

Thanks for that. And of course, human trafficking is not just of concern to our territory and The Salvation Army globally sets aside a day each year to pray for victims of human trafficking. So why would you say this is important? 

Ray Lamont

We, as a global organization, we're deeply committed to fighting and responding to modern slavery and human trafficking. We have a theological and historical mandate. We believe prayer is foundational and it's an essential, powerful tool to fight for freedom and to work towards a world free from exploitation, free from human trafficking, free from slavery. And so part of that commitment every year, that fourth Sunday of September, is set aside as that International Day of Prayer for Victims of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking. So, the International Day of Prayer provides a really important focal point for prayer to support people experiencing modern slavery and human trafficking, but also people who have experienced it as well. It's a day for the Salvation Army and friends around the world to really lift up their voices and corporately cry out for justice and freedom.

Kristin Ostensen  

So, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a relatively new day of observance in Canada. Why is it important for us as The Salvation Army and as individuals to observe this day?

Crystal Porter 

Throughout the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we listened to the stories of residential school survivors and their families share in their experiences. One of the recommendations was Call to Action 80 which says, We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with Indigenous peoples, to establish as a statutory holiday a national day for truth and reconciliation, to honour survivors their families and communities and ensure that public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools remains a vital component of the reconciliation process. This is actually a day to sit and learn. It's a day to listen to the stories, but also learn how each of us have a role in the journey of reconciliation. It's a community thing, and that's why it's so important for us, both collectively as The Salvation Army, but also as individuals, to learn about, how do we move forward? What does that look like in the context of The Salvation Army. But what does that also look like in the context of my own personal life?

Kristin Ostensen

So how can Salvationists and ministry units participate in each of these days, the International Day of Prayer and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation? What resources are available? Maybe Major Ray, you can talk about the Day of Prayer first.

Ray Lamont

We have a section on our website specifically for the International Day of Prayer, where you can find resources in English, French and Spanish. We have a preach for that Sunday, to help educate and to go back into the Word, to learn more about what human trafficking is in Scripture, but also how it plays out in this day and age. We've also created specifically for our territory, it has a Scripture verses that you can use for a call to worship, and then different songs, whether it's contemporary songs, or from the song book, to help plan your order of service for that Sunday. We have an adult Bible study. We have a youth Bible study. We also have a child Sunday school program. We have prayer stations. And our prayer stations are very similar to the stations we used last year, except this year we did add on one. So, we have a sixth, which looks at modern slavery and human trafficking and this connection with missing and murdered Indigenous person. We have a global prayer guide as well, to look at prayers that come from all over The Salvation Army international world. And then we have a five-day devotional, a lead up to the International Day of Prayer that you can look more at kind of past, present and our response to slavery, human trafficking and exploitation from a biblical perspective.

Kristin Ostensen  

Thanks, Major Ray. And Captain Crystal, how can we participate in the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation?

Crystal Porter

It's so important to see what's happening in community. Are there powwows or community gatherings that are happening? Are there online events that you can attend that support your local Indigenous community? The Salvation Army has also actually made September 29 as Truth and Reconciliation Sunday, so there will be resources available to help in the preparation for this Sunday for your ministry unit, on the Indigenous Ministries website. And we're really thankful that The Salvation Army has recognized this as an important date for us to honour in our Sunday services. It's important to see this day as a moment to remember and learn. 

Kristin Ostensen  

Yeah. And, of course, observing these days is such an important action for us as individuals and churches. But what can we do on an ongoing basis, so that it's not just a once-a-year thing?

Crystal Porter

These are important days, but reconciliation work is a journey. It takes intentionality, it takes relationship. It's learning to walk together in a new way. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission explained that reconciliation will take many heads, many hands and many hearts, working together at all levels of society to maintain momentum in the years ahead. So I guess that's our invitation as well—to continue to learn, to find ways that we can walk together in reconciliation.

Kristin Ostensen 

And how about you, Major Ray, on the MSHT front?

Ray Lamont

We have a whole bunch of opportunities and ideas for people to continue to engage past the International Day of Prayer in this fight to end modern slavery and human trafficking completely. So one is our introduction to modern slavery and human trafficking certificate. This is available in English and French. It takes about six, maybe just a bit over six hours. It's online, self-paced. Once you do our introduction to MSHT certificate, we have what we call our deep and wide training platform, which is really meant to equip people where they're at and to go deeper into this topic. We also have free monthly webinars going deeper into other topics, where you can learn and share. But one of the other resources that I would really encourage people to engage with is what we call our global toolkit. And our global toolkit really looks at providing practical examples on how to get involved, whether that's based on partnership or prevention or protection work or prosecution work—it's things that you could do where you're at, either, you know, with your ministry unit or with your women's group or your men's group or your youth group. It gives really good examples of what to do.

Kristin Ostensen  

Thank you so much for being on the Salvationist podcast today. I found this truly informative, and really look forward to participating in these days and making this a part of my own journey.

Ray Lamont

Thank you so much for allowing us to be in this space and just allowing for the time for us to talk more about this.

Crystal Porter

Thank you so much for having us, and look forward to being able to have these conversations again at another time.