Sisters target Pan Am human trafficking

TORONTO - The sisters know slavery is nothing new, and they want Toronto to open its eyes to human trafficking that’s wormed its way into the nooks and crannies of our economy before the Pan Am Games roll into town next year.

In January religious sisters from a wide range of orders met to discuss human trafficking and what they could do about it.

“There is interest in putting effort into the upcoming Pan Am Games in Toronto, to raise awareness that huge sports events like that can be a draw to human trafficking,” said Sr. Sue Wilson, who moderated the day-long meeting.

Too often people restrict their thinking about human trafficking to prostitution and the sex trade, said Wilson.

“Easier to ignore is the labour trafficking that’s going on,” said Wilson. “There’s a significant amount of it going on in Canada and there are loopholes or weaknesses in the temporary foreign work program that allow or that contribute to labour exploitation and human trafficking going on for labour exploitation.”

Within Canada the sisters wonder who is on the construction sites setting up venues and how they got there? Beyond Canada’s borders, where and how are the souvenirs and other games paraphernalia being produced?

A spokesperson for the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games organization told The Catholic Register the organization has a global ethical compliance policy for all procurement, which all official vendors must agree to.

Construction is in the hands of Infrastructure Ontario. In December the provincial government tabled new legislation to tighten loopholes in the federal temporary foreign worker program, which has increased the number of foreign workers on temporary work permits in Ontario from 91,000 in 2008 to 120,000 in 2012.

The bill proposes to stop employers who charge fees and seize passports from temporary foreign workers.

The Pan Am Games get underway in July and run for just over two weeks.