• Vigorously investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes, including forced labor, and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms.
• Increase trauma-informed specialized services and provide shelter to all victims – including male victims, foreign national victims, and members of vulnerable communities throughout the country – in partnership with civil society.
• Increase training for criminal justice officials emphasizing the importance of ordering restitution to survivors upon trafficking convictions.
• Amend the criminal code and Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to include definitions of trafficking that are consistent with the international law definition.
• Enact a policy to ensure victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked.
• Establish a survivor-led advocacy council within the National Strategy governing framework to assist in policy development and ensure members are duly compensated for their work.
• Increase information sharing and cooperation with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Indigenous communities and NGOs to address the impact of trafficking on those communities.
• Improve nationwide trafficking data collection, including timely consolidation of data on investigations, prosecutions, and convictions disaggregated by type of exploitation, numbers of identified victims, and assistance provided.
• Strengthen enforcement of laws and policies to prevent the importation of goods made with forced labor.

The government increased law enforcement efforts.

Federal criminal code sections 279.01 and 279.011 criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking, prescribing penalties of four to 14 years’ imprisonment for trafficking adults and five to 14 years’ imprisonment for trafficking children; these penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with those for other grave crimes, such as rape. Inconsistent with the definition of trafficking under international law, the law did not establish the use of force, fraud, or coercion as an essential element of the crime. Section 279.02 also criminalized receiving financial or any other material benefit from trafficking and prescribed a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment for offenses involving adult victims and a mandatory minimum of two years to a maximum of 14 years’ imprisonment for offenses involving child victims. Section 279.03 criminalized withholding or destroying documents to facilitate trafficking and prescribed a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment in cases involving adult victims and a mandatory minimum of one year to a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment in cases involving child victims. Section 286.1 criminalized purchasing commercial sex acts from an individual younger than 18 years of age and prescribed a minimum penalty of six months and a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment. In 2024, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that evidence of intention to exploit is sufficient to satisfy the exploitation element of the offense under the criminal code. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) established a separate crime of “human smuggling and trafficking” to mean “no person shall knowingly organize the coming into Canada of one or more persons by means of abduction, fraud, deception or use or threat of force or coercion.” Inconsistent with the definition of trafficking under international law, this provision did not include exploitation as an essential element of the crime.

Government officials at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels investigated and prosecuted trafficking crimes, including criminal code offenses committed in their respective jurisdictions, but the federal government did not report comprehensive law enforcement data at each of these levels. Federal officials prosecuted suspects charged under the IRPA. The federal government did not maintain a national database. The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system included provincial and municipal police data, but did not disaggregate between sex and labor trafficking. UCR data was available in July 2024 for the 2023 calendar year, but the government did not report complete investigation data from police forces nationwide for the current reporting period. Additionally, the Integrated Criminal Court Survey administered by Statistics Canada collected provincial and territorial prosecution data but did not include superior court data from Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan; municipal court data from Quebec; or data on charges that are considered trafficking offenses as defined by international law, such as Section 286.1 of the Criminal Code. The government provided preliminary ICSS prosecution data from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, but did not report complete prosecution data from courts nationwide for the current reporting period.

According to UCR data, in 2024, police estimated investigating 632 incidents of trafficking offenses; this was an increase compared with 512 investigations in 2023. Federal officials from the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) opened investigations into 298 new cases between April 2024 and March 2025, compared with 133 reported cases during the previous reporting period; both agencies reported continuing to investigate 44 previous cases. Between April and December 2024, Employment and Social Development Canada identified 53 suspected forced labor cases within the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, a decrease from 168 suspected cases referred between April and November 2023.

The government reported partial data on prosecutions and convictions. Between April and September 2024, authorities estimated prosecuting 43 cases (129 in 2023) and convicting 54 traffickers (24 in 2023); there were no ongoing prosecutions initiated in the prior reporting period. The government did not report sentencing data for convicted traffickers. The government reported courts may have acquitted some defendants of trafficking charges but convicted them under other sections of the criminal code. The government reported authorities prosecuted the majority of trafficking cases at the provincial level, although it did not provide complete data on provincial-level prosecutions and convictions. Some provinces and municipalities maintained specialized anti-trafficking law enforcement units and prosecutors. NGOs noted a continued imbalance in the government’s anti-trafficking efforts, with limited attention to and understanding of forced labor. Data collection, information sharing, and coordination challenges among federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal authorities continued to limit anti-trafficking law enforcement effectiveness.

The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, Canada’s financial intelligence unit, began developing a new Operational Alert to provide financial institutions with tools to detect and report suspicious financial transactions that may indicate forced labor. The government trained federal police on human trafficking detection and indicators, victim safety, and best practices in investigations, including the use of financial intelligence. At the provincial level, British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario reported training law enforcement on human trafficking issues. Police cooperated with foreign law enforcement officials on several open investigations and participated in the INTERPOL Human Trafficking Expert Group. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in trafficking crimes.

The government maintained protection efforts.

Similar to prior years, the government did not report data on the number of victims identified by provincial and municipal police in 2024. Federal government officials identified 219 victims of unspecified forms of trafficking in 2024, compared with 84 victims in 2023. Identified victims included 113 women, 70 men, 33 girls, and two boys. The government provided UCR data from 2023, showing federal, provincial, and municipal police identified a total of 452 victims, compared with 506 victims identified in 2022. Government-funded NGOs identified an estimated 1,888 trafficking victims in 2024, compared with 1,135 in 2023. The government continued to provide a handbook to criminal justice practitioners and front-line officials – including police and border officials – on proactively screening for trafficking indicators and best practices in trauma-informed victim assistance. RCMP and CBSA officers followed a procedure to refer trafficking victims to services, while referral procedures for other front-line institutions varied by jurisdiction, and the government maintained an online directory of services available to victims across Canada.

Provinces and territories were primarily responsible for the delivery of victim services, with the federal government providing funding to service providers. The government did not report complete data on victims receiving government-funded services. The federal government allocated 2.19 million Canadian dollars (CAD) ($1.5 million) to Justice Canada’s Victims Fund, an increase compared with 1.9 million CAD ($1.3 million) in 2023. Through this fund, the government provided funding to organizations implementing 16 projects to improve services for trafficking victims and to develop and deliver training for law enforcement officers and service providers in the provinces and territories; projects varied in duration and in range of objectives and types of victims served.

The government did not report the number of victims assisted by government-funded projects during the reporting period, compared with approximately 1,135 victims and vulnerable individuals assisted through government-funded projects in 2023. Under the National Strategy, the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality Canada continued implementing a 5.9 million CAD ($4.1 million) initiative funding 18 projects working to prevent and address trafficking and support victims and at-risk populations. Service provision models varied across the country depending on provincial demographics, priorities, and budgets. In some provinces, victims accessed government services through police or the courts, while other provinces offered victims more comprehensive individual support. Victims could typically access emergency housing, medical services, psychological care, safety planning, and court preparation and accompaniment. Some jurisdictions offered additional legal services to victims of sexual offenses, including sex trafficking; and many provinces and territories provided counseling services beyond the duration of a trial. Assistance was available for Canadian and foreign victims, as well as male and female victims, but service providers reported they primarily served Canadian women and girls.

Several provincial governments funded or implemented trafficking-specific programming. The Government of Alberta funded the new Alberta Centre to End Trafficking in Persons, which would coordinate the province’s anti-trafficking efforts once established. Nova Scotia continued funding counseling services for victims and maintained four full-time staff members in its Department of Justice dedicated to providing support, referrals, and resources to trafficking victims. The Government of Ontario continued implementing its five-year, 307 million CAD ($213.5 million) strategy to combat trafficking that included clinical, therapeutic, and culturally responsive services to child sex trafficking victims, including Indigenous children; survivor-led programming and services for sex trafficking victims and vulnerable communities; and free legal services for trafficking survivors of all ages. Ontario also expanded a program that paired child protection workers with police officers to collaborate on victim identification, referral and assistance, and investigations. The Government of Québec continued implementing its 2021-2026 action plan against sexual exploitation, including sex trafficking, allocating 150 million CAD ($104.3 million) to 37 measures over five years. In Manitoba, police and NGOs continued to assist victims through a collaborative response team and to implement prevention strategies. In 2024, the government announced that it would cut funding to a Manitoba-based NGO providing counseling services to victims; however, after civil society expressed concern about the impact of a reduction in already-limited victim services in Manitoba, the government committed to providing funding for three more years. The Government of British Columbia continued a grant program using civil forfeiture proceeds to support community-led projects on crime prevention and victim assistance, including organizations working on trafficking.

NGOs operated shelters nationwide for survivors of violence, mostly for women and their accompanying children; only two provinces funded shelters, and only one of these provided accommodations exclusively for trafficking victims. Service providers reported an insufficient supply of emergency shelters, medium- to long-term housing, and specialized medical and psychological services to meet the needs of trafficking victims; they also reported some available shelter options were not adequate for victims to receive appropriate, trauma-informed care. As part of the national strategy, Public Safety Canada (PSC) funded several projects aiming to increase victims’ access to trauma-informed care and provided services such as counseling and housing to more than 3,000 participants. Canadians who were victims of trafficking crimes that occurred outside Canada were eligible to receive financial assistance for travel, psychological services, and other expenses through the Victims Fund, as well as assistance from Canadian consular officials abroad, although the government did not report providing this assistance to any victims. Global Affairs Canada (GAC) officials had procedures to proactively identify potential trafficking victims working in diplomatic households in Canada, including through verifying payroll records and conducting random and systematic interviews with domestic workers in diplomatic households, and did not report identifying any victims during the year.

The government provided alternatives to removal for foreign trafficking victims who faced retribution or hardship in their home countries. Immigration officials could issue foreign trafficking victims and their dependents a temporary resident permit (TRP) allowing them to remain in Canada under regularized immigration status, receive access to healthcare, including psychological services, and apply for a work and study permit. Officials issued short-term TRPs for up to 180 days or long-term TRPs for three years. Authorities did not require victims to participate in an investigation or prosecution to be eligible for a TRP, victims could apply directly without a referral from law enforcement or service providers, and immigration authorities reviewed trafficking-related TRP applications on a priority basis. The government did not report the number of TRPs or work permits issued to foreign victims during the reporting period but stated that TRPs were mostly issued to male Mexican nationals.

Canadian federal law provided victims and other witnesses participating in trials various protections, many of which were mandatory for children or people with disabilities and at a judge’s discretion for other populations. These protections included video testimony, the presence of a support person during testimony, a ban on publishing names of or releasing identifying information about witnesses, and the closing of courtrooms to the public. Authorities did not report how frequently courts afforded these protections to trafficking victims during trials. The Canadian Victims Bill of Rights guaranteed access to a complaint mechanism for victims whose rights may have been denied by a federal institution. NGOs reported the lack of victim-centered methods retraumatized some victims during court proceedings. Courts could order traffickers to pay restitution to victims under Canadian criminal law, and the provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario had laws allowing trafficking victims to seek civil redress. Some provinces had compensation or financial benefits programs for victims of crime, including trafficking. The government did not report whether any victims received restitution, sought civil redress, or were awarded compensation through provincial programs in 2024. The government did not have a law or policy protecting all victims from being inappropriately penalized for offenses committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Authorities reported making such charging decisions on a case-by-case basis considering the severity of the alleged crime and possible harm to the provision of victim support; trust between victim and authorities; or efforts to hold traffickers accountable. Justice Canada’s handbook outlined these considerations in cases where trafficking victims commit unlawful acts in the context of being trafficked. Canada’s 2014 Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act – which criminalized the purchase of commercial sex acts, profiting from sex acts provided by another person, and other related crimes – gave immunity from criminal liability to individuals who provided commercial sex acts.

The government maintained prevention efforts.

PSC continued to lead the government’s federal interagency task force to combat trafficking, which oversaw implementation of federal anti-trafficking measures under the strategic framework of the government’s National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking 2019-2024. The National Strategy included 57.22 million CAD ($39.79 million) in funding over five years and 10.28 million CAD ($7.15 million) annually after 2024. The government initiated efforts to renew the National Strategy in 2024 but did not finalize it by the end of the reporting period. All three of the National Strategy governing bodies convened at least once during the reporting period to discuss the plan’s effectiveness. The Federal, Provincial, and Territorial Trafficking in Persons Working Group also convened to facilitate coordination and intragovernmental collaboration. As part of the National Strategy, in January 2025, the government appointed its first Chief Advisor on Human Trafficking, who will serve a term of three years and make recommendations to the Minister of Public Safety on anti-trafficking efforts.

Through the Migrant Worker Support Program, the government provided two-year funding in the amount of 41 million CAD ($28.5 million) to 10 community organizations to help foreign workers learn and exercise their rights while living and working in Canada; this compared with providing one-year funding in the amount of 16.6 million Canadian dollars under the program in 2023. Through this funding, the government supported activities tailored to the needs and experiences of this population vulnerable to trafficking, including provision of services and information in workers’ first language; events and services during hours workers were likely to be available; free transportation or virtual or phone-based options; outreach visits to workers in isolated locations; and legal services. According to an observer, civil society was primarily responsible for identifying and informing workers of their rights, and an employer could easily prevent them from doing so. The government permitted temporary foreign workers – on valid employer-specific work permits and who experienced abuse or were at risk of abuse in the context of their employment in Canada – to apply for an open work permit; such permits allowed a worker to leave an abusive situation and change employers without losing status to work in Canada. The government reported immigration officials had guidelines for processing potential trafficking victims who sought open work permits.

The government provided funding to an NGO to operate a national human trafficking hotline, available through telephone and online formats nationwide in more than 200 languages. Hotline staff maintained a national referral directory to connect victims to more than 1,000 local service providers for emergency, transition, or long-term support services. In 2024, the hotline received thousands of contacts and provided service referrals to at least 342 trafficking victims (296 in 2023). The hotline connected some callers to law enforcement, but the government did not report the number of investigations initiated from calls to the hotline. The government continued funding support services for young adults aging out of the child welfare system through the First Nations Child and Family Services Program; these services included activities to provide access to financial support, education, safe and stable housing, and physical and mental wellness. Ontario’s provincial government continued funding 12 “youth in transition” personnel who offered specialized support for trafficking survivors and at-risk persons between 16 and 24 years old, who were in or leaving care facilities. Under the National Strategy, PSC invested 2.2 million CAD ($1.53 million) in 15 different organizations providing trauma-informed, culturally relevant support services for at-risk youth and survivors, compared with 2.3 million CAD ($1.60 million) invested in 17 organizations the prior year.

The Fighting Against Forced Labor and Child Labor in Supply Chains Act required any government institution that produced, purchased, or distributed goods, as well as some private corporations, to report the steps taken to prevent forced labor and child labor in its supply chains. Responsible entities were required to submit their annual reports to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness through a publicly-accessible electronic registry. Entities or persons failing to comply faced fines up to 250,000 CAD ($173,853). The UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery expressed concern about the limited enforcement of Canada’s forced labor import ban; as of December 2023, only one shipment had been seized under the ban and was later released. In December 2024, the government stated its intention to introduce new legislation that would strengthen its existing forced labor import ban and create a new oversight agency to prevent forced labor in supply chains; it had not introduced such legislation by the end of the reporting period.

The government continued implementing a five-year national awareness campaign to educate the public on misperceptions surrounding human trafficking, identifying warning signs, and reporting suspected cases to the appropriate authorities. The government continued to refine its methods for targeting outreach to match the media consumption patterns of children and young adults, parents, and Indigenous women. Additionally, the government expanded its in-person campaign efforts, targeting geographic regions that were impacted the most and promoting its message at a major sporting event. The government conducted outreach to new immigrants and non-English speakers through advertising on websites in a variety of languages. The RCMP continued online nationwide training on human trafficking to school resource officers and distributed presentations for use in local communities. The government continued building awareness to prevent trafficking among IDPs in and through cooperation with the Government of Ukraine by continuing funding to organizations servicing displaced populations. Despite these efforts, civil society reported that many migrant workers, especially in the trucking industry, were not aware of their rights, making them more vulnerable to labor trafficking.

GAC continued efforts to prevent sexual exploitation through the delivery of foreign assistance, including by funding an initiative to strengthen the capacity of Canadian civil society organizations to prevent and respond to abuses abroad; incorporating relevant funding clauses in financial arrangements throughout the department; and training staff on preventing sexual exploitation within the delivery of foreign assistance and responding to abuses if they arose. Canada continued funding a UN entity to mainstream a set of principles on preventing the recruitment and use of child soldiers throughout UN peacekeeping policy, guidance, and training. Through its foreign assistance, Canada continued supporting numerous governments and civil society organizations in South and Central America, with projects aimed at strengthening anti-trafficking capacity among law enforcement and judiciary institutions. The government made limited efforts to combat extraterritorial child sexual exploitation perpetrated by its citizens; some efforts included distributing publications warning Canadians traveling abroad about penalties under Canadian law for engaging in extraterritorial child sexual exploitation and directing personnel in its overseas diplomatic missions to report suspected cases to local law enforcement and INTERPOL. The government made efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts, including by enforcing its law criminalizing the purchase of commercial sex.

Trafficking affects all communities. This section summarizes government and civil society reporting on the nature and scope of trafficking over the past five years. Human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Canada, and traffickers exploit Canadian victims abroad. Government entities and media report that women and children from Indigenous communities; migrants and new immigrants; persons who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual; persons with disabilities; at-risk youth; runaway youth; and youth in the child welfare system are at high-risk for trafficking. Indigenous women and girls are disproportionately represented among trafficking victims. Traffickers lure girls and young women, including some who are not socially or economically disadvantaged, into deceptive romantic relationships or through offers of economic opportunity, and exploit them in sex trafficking. Traffickers exploit Canadian victims within and across the country and sometimes abroad, mainly in the United States. Traffickers exploit foreign women, primarily from Asia and Eastern Europe, in sex trafficking in Canada. Sex traffickers exploit victims in hotels and short stay rentals; illicit storefronts disguised as spas, massage parlors, and strip clubs; and private residences. Trafficking operations increasingly use online payment methods and investment tools, such as cryptocurrency, to conceal financial transactions. Traffickers in Canada frequently force victims to incur debts that are placed under victims’ names, which sometimes prevents victims from being able to afford long-term housing and increases traffickers’ ability to maintain control over victims and potentially avoid law enforcement proceedings. The government reported traffickers increasingly use various forms of technology, including artificial intelligence, to exploit victims, widen their reach, and connect with other perpetrators. Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russia-Ukraine war are vulnerable to trafficking in Canada. Traffickers exploit legal foreign workers, primarily from Mexico, China, India, and the Philippines, in forced labor in a variety of sectors, including agriculture, construction, food processing, restaurants, trucking, hospitality, and domestic service. Truck drivers are often recruited by unregulated brokers in India and are vulnerable to forced labor through debt bondage by employers in Canada. Migrant workers in the caregiving and agricultural sectors are at the highest risk of forced labor due to language barriers, isolated worksites, and limited access to protections. Some foreign nationals are exploited by traffickers with ties to organized crime networks in victims’ home countries. Canadians travel abroad to purchase sex acts from child victims in other countries, and foreign nationals purchase sex acts from child victims in Canada. Traffickers in Canada operate individually and via family-based connections; some are affiliated with street gangs and transnational organized crime.