Doug Schweitzer, Minister of Justice and Solicitor General

By Troy Gillard with files from Gov't of Alberta

Bill 8

Alberta government introduces bill to protect human trafficking survivors

Apr 8, 2020 | 2:29 PM

EDMONTON, AB. — The Alberta government introduced a new bill Tuesday aimed at empowering survivors of human trafficking.

If passed, the government says Bill 8, the Protecting Survivors of Human Trafficking Act, will:

– Extend the definition of sexual exploitation to persons of all ages

– Make it easier for survivors to get protection orders

– Enable police to take quicker action to rescue survivors

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– Allow survivors to sue traffickers

– Create an awareness day to make Albertans more aware of this important issue (Feb. 22).

“Survivors rely on a patchwork of existing remedies and statutory protections, and too many fall between the cracks in our system,” said Doug Schweitzer, Minister of Justice and Solicitor General. “We are strengthening a survivor’s ability to get away from this physically, emotionally and financially damaging abuse. We are taking action to be a leader in the country’s approach to protecting and empowering survivors.”

The province says human trafficking takes three forms: sexual exploitation, forced labour trafficking and trafficking in human organs or tissues.

In 2018, police reported 228 human trafficking incidents in Canada , 12 of which were in Alberta.

Government officials also say Alberta’s proposed legislation has innovations not found in other provinces, such as allowing violence or threats of violence of pets to be considered when determining whether the threshold of human trafficking has been met, and including the return of pets to a survivor as a condition of a human trafficking protection order.