Fight

I think that many of my days lately have started out with the thought, "God, you are absolutely insane!" And he is! But that's obviously why I love him :)
My friend Julie and I have had the incredible opportunity to help some friends of ours out with a petition asking the Canadian government to create an action plan to combat human trafficking. I heard about the petition about 2 weeks ago, and a week and a half ago started working to get signatures. So far I have spoken to 3 high school classrooms, individuals and 6 grade 8 classrooms about human trafficking. WOW! God is crazy. Absolutely insane!!
"One who is the property of, and entirely subject to, another person, whether by capture, purchase, or birth; a servant completely divested of freedom and personal rights." This is the dictionary definition of human trafficking. So, in simple terms, people are bought and sold against their will, they have no rights and no freedom, they are treated horribly and forced to do work with no pay. These jobs can include working on farms, in factories, in the drug trade, in the sex trade, as housekeepers, in restaurants, etc. As you can see, there are both physical labor and sexual labor. Unfortunately, a large percentage of human trafficking is sex trafficking.
The thing that I hate about sexual abuse in general is that God created sex as a good thing. A really good thing! It's where two married people would become one, glorifying God, and be intimate. But go figure, Satan uses God's gifts and twists them to hurt and disgrace people.
Most people assume that human trafficking is not an issue in North America. We usually think that it's only an issue in India and other places overseas. But it's not. It is a very at home and real issue in Canada. In every single grade 8 classroom we went to, we asked the question, "Do you think that human trafficking is an issue in Canada?" and the majority of the answers were a very strong, "No." When we told them that people are trafficked into Canada from overseas, out of Canada to other parts of the world and that Canadians were trafficked inside of our own country, they were all absolutely shocked. They could not believe it.
The Canadian government has taken steps to combat human trafficking. They've signed a number of treaties with the UN. They have agreed to create a National Action Plan (NAP) to deal with human trafficking in 2007 and the House of Commons agreed. However, today, 5 years later, they still have not created an action plan. In fact, they don't plan to. The organization (IWGTIP) that they were working with to create this action plan no longer has orders to do so.
This is not okay. Canada made a promise to its citizens that they were going to combat human trafficking, and that they would create a national action plan to deal with it, but they have not followed through. By signing the petition, basically what you're saying is, "I'm a Canadian citizen who knows about and is concerned about human trafficking in our country. I want to help and protect the victims and see this form of modern day slavery abolished. As a citizen of Canada, I care about this issue and I want to see the government create an action plan as you promised." The approach that Canada would take is the 3 P's: Prevent [human trafficking from happening], Protect [the victims of human trafficking], and Prosecute [the traffickers].
I told the grade 8's about a specific story of human trafficking in Canada. A man trafficked a 15 year old girl for 2 years. He was caught and went through the courts. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison, however they reduced his sentence to 14 months. That is less time in jail than he spent trafficking this young girl. Another man trafficked a 17 year old girl for 2 years, got caught, went through the legal system and got sentenced to one week in jail. This is where the kid's jaws dropped. They know that this is not okay, that it is not acceptable, and that it needs to stop. This is where the "prosecution" part comes in.
The government must reply within 45 days of us sending the petition in. Since they have already signed treaties with the UN and have said they would create a NAP, it is likely that they will respond to the petition by following through with this promise after seeing that their citizens care about it.
Our goal is to get 100,000 signatures. So far, from 2 weeks, we have 1450 signatures! We have such power to create change in our world, you guys! Please, if you live in my area, ask me about this petition!! I would be more than happy to talk to you about it.
Stats:
27 million people are held in slavery world wide
Human trafficking is growing, faster than weapons or drugs
Every 30 seconds, another person becomes a victim of human trafficking
Children as young as 4 are sex slaves
This affects both men and women, boys and girls
They are forced to service up to 40 men a day
[Source: A21campaign.org]
We can be the change, you guys. We hold power.
God bless!
Ariel