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Distributed for University of British Columbia Press

Canada’s Anti–Human Trafficking Measures

Origins, Impact, Trends

Critically assesses the scope and impact of federal and provincial anti–human trafficking measures in Canada over the past twenty years.

In 2000, the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons established an international framework for anti–human trafficking action. As a party to the protocol, Canada implemented an array of legislative and policy measures, including action plans, awareness campaigns, personnel training, and other anti–human trafficking initiatives.

In Canada’s Anti–Human Trafficking Measures, a diverse group of contributors collaborates to critically examine these measures from multidisciplinary perspectives. They consistently demonstrate that a focus on criminalization overshadows the structural drivers of exploitation, including colonialism and discriminatory immigration policies. Prevailing implementation methods often leave survivors in precarious situations.

The bookadvances a transformative approach grounded in human rights and survivor empowerment. It calls for greater transparency, community-led initiatives, and comprehensive models to address the complexities of human trafficking.


288 pages | 4 Charts and 4 Tables | 6 x 9 | © 2026

Law and Legal Studies: Law and Society

Political Science: Public Policy

Sociology: Criminology, Delinquency, Social Control


Reviews

"Much of the critical anti-trafficking scholarship in Canada focuses on domestic sex trafficking in the context of commercial sex work. Canada’s Anti–Human Trafficking Measures not only includes and challenges this discursive framework but also demonstrates the ongoing harms of settler colonial laws and policies for Indigenous peoples, while also adding to the extant scholarship on the many invisibilized forms of migrant labour exploitation."

Hayli Millar, School of Criminology and Criminal Jus

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