Boom Times could bring Bad Times

Social agencies and Police services in Prince Rupert are already in the planning mode when it comes to dealing with the social negatives of fast growth, boom times and the dark side of the pending economic expansion.

With the Container Port Project moving along its path, there could be other elements of society looking to not only cash in on the growth in the city, but prey on those who live here as well.

The Daily News examined the more unseemly possibilities of life in Prince Rupert once the boom comes with a front page story in Friday’s paper.

Sadly it’s not really a recent issue, nor is it limited to a future problem. It was some twenty years ago that another Daily News reporter, Kim Pemberton - now of the Vancouver Sun, reported on the hidden sex trade in the city. The arrangements made with visiting ships and the repercussions to the city that flowed from that economy.

Now over twenty years later, the issue is still part of the underside of Prince Rupert’s society that doesn’t get discussed much. The advent of the container port only makes the story more worrisome as the operational years approach.

Keeping a handle on things will prove to be a daunting process not only for the local RCMP, but for the various social agencies that are left to deal with the fallout from the part of fabric of Prince Rupert that nobody wants to know about.

BOOMING TOWN EXPECTED TO HAVE BOOMING ‘DARK SIDE’
Groups warn that human traffickers and sex trade gangs may proliferate
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Friday, September 29, 2006
Pages One and Two

A woman is kidnapped off the street and lost to the brothels of Southeast Asia. A young girl is lured by the promise of ‘the good life’ from a small town to turn tricks in a Vancouver apartment. A would-be refugee flees deplorable conditions overseas and finds a worse world of sadistic sexual slavery.

These are not the fictional plots of weekend made for TV movies, but the grim world of human sexual trafficking. And these all-too-true stories are expected to become more common as Prince Rupert’s container port develops.

“Human trafficking is already happening right here in Rupert,” said Capt. Nancy Sheils, who is hosting a public ‘First Annual Weekend of Prayer and Fasting for the Victims of Human Trafficking’ on Saturday at 12:30 p. m. in the Salvation Army.

‘I’m concerned as our container unit comes in – which we’re all excited about it, and is a good thing – that it also brings the dark element as well.”

While prostitution may not be in the face of many in the community, Sheils notes that women have been taken out to ships in the harbour to perform sexual services. The issue is simply one of volume: as more ships are in the harbour, the potential for illegal activities simply increases – and when it comes to sexual services, much of it can be coerced.

“There was a young girl in Prince Rupert, 14 going on 15, who got involved with a group of men in their early 20’s that were promising the world to her,” she said. They were going to set her up in an apartment in Vancouver, she’ll have a good job, and when she turns 16 she’ll have a car – all this grandeur.

“Her parents called me because she disappeared – I was able to get some relevant information that helped the police find her and her parents were able to get her out of town.”

The girl was headed south as a recruit for the sex trade. In Canada, police estimate some 16,000 people- mostly women and children although young boys as well – are trafficked through Canada on a yearly basis. First Nations people from the rural north are particularly susceptible to being trafficked to urban centres in the south according to the 2006 report Release the Captives.

Marlene Swift, of the RCMP based North Coast Victim Support Services, sits on a broad-based committee spearheaded by the Salvation Army that was set up because of the port development.

“I’ve been getting the information and trying to learn what I need to for the North as well looking at the aboriginal communities and how many are actually being taken out,” she said.

It’s a scary issue, but I think as a community we need to be aware of it – whether we want to acknowledge it or not.”

As part of that work, Swift recently met with a Prince Rupert woman living in Vancouver who had escaped the sex trade.

“It was an eye opener… as a young girl, she was lured into this sexual exploitation… by two very lovely ladies,” she said.

“It’s just very interesting how people can be brought into the sex trade.”

Included in the B. C, strategy to tackle the problem members of the Integrated Border Enforcement Team (IBET) are being trained province-wide.

Swift said Victim’s Services will also be brought on-side and she is attempting to bring a video on the issue into the community.

“I think it’s important that our community as a whole sees this,” she said.

“It’s definitely something that I can see is going to occur.”

Along with the event Saturday, the Salvation Army around the world prays for those involved with human trafficking every Friday.

The group is also advocating for legislative changes, including raising the age of consent from 14 to 16 and allowing a 45 days grace period where human trafficking victims rescued in Canada would not have to fear deportation.