Over the next two years, the Alberta government will be funding an office with $4 million to help bring awareness and fight human trafficking in the province.
The office, named “The Alberta Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons,” was announced on Friday July 28th. It will be run by Native Counselling Services of Alberta, #NotInMyCity, and REACH Edmonton Council for Safer Communities. Its purpose is to help connect survivors with the resources they need, according to the Alberta government, as well as create awareness of the issue that lies on our doorstep.
According to Statistics Canada, human trafficking cases in Alberta have been steeply rising over the past decade. From 2011-2021, reported trafficking cases rose from two to 38, respectively. In Canada as a whole, Trafficking cases from the same time period rose from 60 to 386, respectively.
Mike Ellis, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services, spoke about the issue of trafficking in the province at a press conference.
“Often times, this isn’t an issue that’s thought about in places like Alberta. We need to understand that trafficking happens, and it happens here in many forms,” Ellis said.
Ellis has a personal connection with trafficking issues himself. He briefly told the story of his time with the Calgary Police Service as a police officer, and how “the cases involving human trafficking are some of the worst” that he witnessed during his career.
April Eve Wiberg, founder of the Stolen Sisters and Brothers Action Movement, is a survivor of human trafficking herself. At the press conference, she described how she was sold by pimps in cities across Canada and U.S. for almost a decade before escaping, all while being told to keep her Indigenous identity a secret.
“It was just a few years ago that I thought I was not even worthy of wearing a ribbon skirt because of what had happened to me. Today, however, I know that I am sacred, and I now know my true worth,” Wiberg said while wearing a purple ribbon skirt.
