The Security Canada Isn’t Talking About

Canada is spending billions to strengthen its military, modernize the Canadian Armed Forces, and meet its NATO 2 per cent GDP commitments. Yet while debates about national security increasingly focus on geopolitical competition, border security, and defence spending, a serious threat to public safety persists within Canada’s borders: human trafficking. 

The protective measures in place are regionally organized in the form of women’s health networks, special investigation units, women’s shelters, and call centres, all of which have received budget cuts in the past year. If security is ultimately about protecting Canadians from harm, these services deserve a place in the national security conversation. 

Sex trafficking remains one of the country’s most pervasive forms of exploitation, disproportionately affecting women, girls, Indigenous communities, and other vulnerable populations. Any serious conversation about Canadian security should include the safety of those most vulnerable to abuse and coercion.

The scale of the problem is difficult to ignore. In 2025, the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline reported a record 5,900 calls from across the country, a 14 per cent increase from the previous year’s all-time high. Most identified trafficking victims in Canada are Canadian citizens, and the overwhelming majority are women and girls. Indigenous women and girls remain disproportionately affected. 

Despite these realities, human trafficking rarely occupies the same place in national conversations about security as military readiness, border protection, and geopolitical competition. Human trafficking is often viewed in Canada as obscure or foreign, detracting from the urgency that Canadians should be placing upon the issue.

The truth about human trafficking in Canada

When most Canadians think about human trafficking, they approach the topic with a degree of geographical and social distance. According to a 2021 survey conducted by the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, only 15 per cent of respondents believed it possible that Canadian citizens are victims of human and sex trafficking. More than half of the respondents were in disbelief or wholly unaware that trafficking could exist in their own communities. In truth, 93 percent of identified trafficking victims in Canada are Canadian citizens. Nearly all of the Canadian trafficking victims are female, over 70 percent of victims are under the age of 25, and 91 percent of trafficking victims (incidents recorded from 2011 to 2021) knew their trafficker prior to their exploitation. 

To add to the severity, vulnerable populations such as Indigenous, First Nations, BIPOC, and queer youth are at the greatest risk of human trafficking. In 2014, 50 per cent of trafficked girls and women in Canada were Indigenous, with numbers rising over the last decade. 

The disparity is striking given that Indigenous women and girls account for roughly five per cent of Canada’s population. According to Thomson Reuters, the major hotspots of human trafficking with disproportionate crimes targeting Indigenous women and girls include Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan. Ontario remains a major trafficking corridor, with traffickers often moving victims between cities along major highway routes.

Despite growing global awareness of human trafficking, many anti-trafficking organizations argue that prevention, victim services, and investigative resources remain insufficient relative to the scale of the problem.

Canada’s Response

How does Canada respond to a home-grown humanitarian crisis? Recent spending reviews and program reductions have raised concerns about the long-term capacity of prevention programs, victim services, and investigative efforts. The legislative reform of Bill C-16, or the Protecting Victims Act, of 2025 enshrined a duty to support initiatives battling against gender-based violence and abuse, which encapsulates human trafficking. 

Ontario plays a central role in Canada’s anti-trafficking efforts, with roughly two-thirds of reported cases occurring within the province due to population size. While Premier Doug Ford’s government has committed $345 million to Ontario’s anti-human trafficking strategy between 2025 and 2030, several organizations supporting vulnerable populations continue to face funding pressures and operational challenges.

Access to legal support remains another challenge. Although Legal Aid Ontario has expanded eligibility in recent years, advocates continue to raise concerns about barriers to representation for vulnerable populations. For trafficking victims navigating complex criminal proceedings, limited access to legal assistance can create additional obstacles to seeking justice and support.

Shifting the responsibility of human-trafficking prevention onto individual provinces cannot adequately support and rescue victims of abuse and exploitation. Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) is a federal department that funds women’s shelters, crisis hotlines, transition houses, and sexual assault support centres. When the federal government retreats, the physical and organizational infrastructure recedes.

 Beyond how integral federal funding is to Canada’s support network for victims, major human trafficking rings in Canada often transport victims across interprovincial “trafficking corridors”, whether it be to avoid suspicion or to completely isolate their captives. These aforementioned trafficking rings are exceedingly dangerous for undocumented or foreign nationals, violating Canada’s commitment to protecting vulnerable demographics and immigrants. 

Canada needs to maintain a strong federal position, not only to ensure that trafficking victims may find adequate support, but to also stay vigilant of expanding trafficking networks that stretch across the North’s densely populated regions.

Competing Security Priorities

Canada’s rapidly changing security environment has understandably prompted greater investment in defence, military modernization, and border security. Yet, as security funding continues to rise, programmes providing support against human trafficking are facing consistent budgetary cuts. 

The federal government has pledged $81.8 billion to the Canadian Armed Forces and military technology over the course of five years, redirecting funding from what is on the surface viewed as unnecessary or obsolete military projects and funds. However, in 2025, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne made the decision to cut 7.5 per cent from non-military budgets, continuing cuts amounting to 15 per cent in the current day. 

Federal departments that were not directly affected are subject to “sun-setting” tactics that reprioritize funding by non-renewal. The trickle-down consequences have forced an estimated 43 per cent reduction in full-time gender-equality and care workers, especially those on the frontlines. When funding is reduced for anti-trafficking programs and victim services, fewer resources are available to prevent exploitation, support survivors, and pursue investigations. 

One way to address this gap would be to formally recognize human trafficking as a national security concern within Canada’s security and defence planning documents, requiring regular reporting on trafficking trends alongside other threats to Canada. 

Budgetary choices inevitably involve trade-offs. As defence spending rises and governments seek savings elsewhere, organizations providing victim services, legal assistance, and community support worry that domestic priorities may face increasing pressure. Canadian organizations advocating for women’s rights, including the Canadian Federation of University Women, have warned that spending decisions should not come at the expense of crisis hotlines, shelters, and victim support services. 

The debate surrounding Bill C-22 illustrates how Canada’s security priorities are increasingly focused on surveillance and emerging national security threats. Supporters argue the legislation will provide law enforcement and CSIS with important tools to investigate serious crimes, while critics warn of privacy and civil liberties concerns. 

Yet amid this debate, far less attention has been paid to Bill C-16 commitments and the organizations responsible for preventing human trafficking, supporting victims, and investigating exploitation within Canada’s borders. Regardless of where one stands on Bill C-22, the discussion highlights a broader question: what threats does Canada choose to prioritize?

Ensuring that anti-trafficking efforts remain adequately funded should therefore be part of any broader discussion about Canadian security. This could include sustained funding for specialized investigative units, victim services, legal aid programs, and Indigenous-led anti-trafficking initiatives. The main concern is not that Canada should neglect defence, but that domestic security challenges receive the same level of attention and commitment.

Human Rights and Global Messaging

Canada’s claim to democratic leadership and international credibility rings hollow if funding for the prevention and investigation of human trafficking continues to be reduced. Canada must balance its commitments to defence spending with the country’s humanitarian obligations, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the UN Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW), if it aims to emerge as a strong international player on the new world stage.

Canada’s signatory obligations to CEDAW require action against exploitation of and violence towards women through systemic, institutional means. Human trafficking, whether sex trafficking or labour exploitation, disproportionately affects women and girls, especially those from vulnerable and underrepresented demographics. Inadequate funding for human trafficking investigation and victim services shows institutional neglect and undermines the country’s credibility in upholding human rights. 

Human trafficking is not simply a criminal justice issue, nor is it foreign to our soil. It is a challenge to the security and humanitarianism promised by Canada’s borders, and a test of Canada’s commitment to protecting its most vulnerable citizens within its fortress. As Ottawa invests in military readiness and international commitments, it should ensure that domestic security challenges do not become an afterthought. A secure Canada is measured not only by its ability to deter threats abroad, but also by its ability to protect people from exploitation and violence at home.