Investigators say human trafficking is rampant in the region – North Bay News

The human trafficking business is not isolated to big cities. That's something members of the Community Drug Strategy want to try and get out to the public.

“Quite likely we have dozens of occurrences that are happening daily within our community,” said Sergeant Brad Reaume of the North Bay Police Service and a member of the Community Drug Strategy program for 10 years.

“Anybody can go online on the internet and look at the websites that are available and involved with human trafficking and there are dozens of advertisements in North Bay, every day.”

The Community Drug Strategy is trying to bring more awareness to the issue of human trafficking. Last summer they revealed a sticker and brochure initiative they had created to try and bring more awareness to human trafficking in areas where it is happening locally.

“The idea is to target the areas where human trafficking occurs the most which are our hotel industries,” said Reaume.

“The idea is that we can stimulate conversation from maybe a neighbour that is observing a room next door to them that is seeing signs of human trafficking. These calls could come in from people that are basically acting as eyes and ears and are able to try to stop that behaviour or allow us the opportunity to interfere with that behaviour.”

Matti Primeau is a detective constable with the Anishinabek Police Service. She is also a human trafficking investigator. She says the problem is real in the North Bay area.

“I do know that it is very underreported and the statistics do not show the true number of human trafficking in our area,” she said.

Primeau says the most vulnerable are the biggest target.

“We have a lot of youth from 13 years old and maybe even younger,” she said.

“They are a higher target and more likely to be trafficked into the sex trade as well as our indigenous women.

However, human trafficking does break through the stereotypes.

“Any age, any race, it could happen to anybody but mostly youth and indigenous women,” she added.

Primeau hopes the pamphlet and sticker campaign will be a good tool to bring awareness to the situation.

“I certainly do hope it will be effective,” she said.

“A lot of people don't know this is happening right here in our city and our communities and this is a way of showing people these are the cues to look for, these are the things we need to look for, this is what human trafficking is. Hopefully, we are able to get more people reporting it and so we know ahead of time and we are able to intervene and hopefully help a survivor come out of her situation.”

However, trying to promote that human trafficking is happening inside a hotel is not an easy sell to some hotel owners. That's why the campaign has not officially launched yet after being introduced in the summer of 2022.

“We were hoping to have it done a lot sooner than later,” said Primeau.

“We are getting a little bit of pushback. Some hotels are very willing to participate and see the benefit of it. Other hotels may be afraid that business might go somewhere else, which is a terrible business to have in your hotel so but we are hoping to get it out sooner than later. Little hurdles we have to overcome first.”

Reaume believes that's understandable.

“There is that first step in the road because it is new,” said Reaume.

“When you get on a plane the first thing the pilot does is give you instructions on what to do if you crash, we have fire alarm postings so we know what to do when the building is on fire, so I think we need to be a little bit more frank in an effort to combat this. We need to be open and we need to be able to be realistic and realize that it does happen and it is happening.”

However, Reaume notes that human trafficking can lead to tragedy just like it did for Leah St. Jean, who passed away in January 2021. Back then, the Toronto Police Service informed the North Bay Police Service that the 32-year-old North Bay woman had been shot and killed and that a man had been arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

They hope more awareness of the problem will help prevent future tragedies like this one.