"I know because it happened to me. I was a small-town country girl living in Grey-Bruce in my early teen years. I had been introduced to a girl at a party on the outskirts of Owen Sound who offered me a better life, and said that she could help me find a job and an apartment in Toronto. It wasn’t hard to convince me then, as I was in a vulnerable period of my life and wanted to escape all of my problems. She bought me a bus ticket. I remember sitting on that bus as it was dri

Mental health problems are prevalent among trafficked individuals and survivors are known to experience post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, dissociation, self-hatred, and more. A trafficked person will often need emotional support or clinical counselling to help them recover from the psychological impact of their experiences. As a part of Ontario's Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy 2020 - 2025, the government pledged to provide $7.65 million dollars to front-

"Traffickers are manipulative and systematically erode other social contacts until the trafficked person is entirely dependant on them. For the trafficking survivor, the thought of leaving without knowing where they’ll stay, how they’ll eat, or what they’ll do is terrifying. Our service systems must be prepared to meet every one of the trafficking survivor’s basic needs from food and shelter to trust and connection before asking them to leave. Fortunately, our local services