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Human Trafficking Task Force

A task force was created to find ways to protect and empower survivors of human trafficking.

Overview

The Alberta Human Trafficking Task Force was appointed to provide recommendations on how to best implement our 9-point Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking.

The task force consisted of members dedicated to fighting human trafficking and empowering survivors. Their final report was submitted to government on August 31, 2021.

Human trafficking is a serious crime taking 3 forms: sexual exploitation, forced labour trafficking, and trafficking in human organs or tissues.

Timeline

  • Open

  • Results under review

  • Completed

Who is listening

Ministry of Justice and Solicitor General

Report and recommendations

The task forces' final report The Reading Stone – The Survivor’s Lens to Human Trafficking and all their recommendations have been accepted by government for further work and consideration as we implement the 9-point action plan.

Mandate

Alberta's human trafficking task force:

  • provided guidance and recommendations on supports for survivors
  • enhanced collaboration among all stakeholders and organizations that work with survivors of human trafficking in order to prevent, protect and ensure their safety
  • engaged experts to identify what actions are needed to bring transformational and sustainable change
  • provided recommendations to help government implement the nine-point action plan and lobby other levels of government to take coordinated action

Task force members

We thank the members of the Alberta human trafficking task force for their dedication and support to fight human trafficking.

Paul Brandt, chair

Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame artist Paul Brandt is an internationally recognized and awarded humanitarian, philanthropist, musician and performer. He is the founder of #NotInMyCity, a movement that is raising awareness and taking collective action to prevent and end sexual exploitation and trafficking of children and youth. In 2019, he received the Slaight Humanitarian Award at the CCMA Awards for his outstanding humanitarian contributions to #NotInMyCity. Later that year, to recognize his dedication to ending human trafficking and child sexual exploitation, he was honoured with a Blackfoot name: Buffalo Bull Shield.

Heather Forsyth

Throughout her political career, Heather Forsyth has served Albertans, including as the solicitor general and as the minister of Children’s Services. She launched the high risk offender website, established the first Amber Alert, which she took across the country, brought forward the Integrated Response to Organized Crime, and worked to pass several pieces of legislation to combat child pornography and protect youth involved in drug activity and prostitution.

Jan Fox

Jan Fox is the executive director for REACH Edmonton, a not-for-profit organization created to make Edmonton a safer place to live and work. She is also a consultant with the Robcan Group, which provides training and development services to business, industry, government and communities. She previously served as a district director with the Government of Canada managing labour relations issues and as a warden at the Edmonton Institution for Women.

Dale McFee

Edmonton chief of police Dale McFee has an extensive background in policing, including 26 years as an officer in Saskatchewan and six years as the deputy minister of corrections and policing for Saskatchewan. For four years, he co-chaired the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics and federal, provincial and territorial deputy ministers in partnership with Public Safety Canada, previously served as president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, and was a member of the Parkland Health Board for three years.

Douglas Reti

After a 27-year career with the RCMP in the Yukon, Douglas Reti went on to manage detachments in Indigenous communities throughout the north, as well as Alberta and Manitoba. He served as senior executive and director general of the RCMP Indigenous Relations Services and was responsible for the development of national policy and strategic direction of National Aboriginal Policing Services. Since his retirement from policing, he has worked in numerous consultative and collaborative roles with Indigenous communities, and is currently the director of security for Backwoods Energy, a company owned by the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation.

Patricia Vargas

Patricia Vargas is a director at Catholic Social Services where she oversees facilities for high-risk youth, second stage shelter and housing. She is a board member of the Global Network of Women’s Shelters and has been the architect of bringing 11 countries together to develop a protocol to transfer victims of human trafficking from shelter to shelter internationally. She has participated in various task forces, think tanks and round tables nationally on the issue of human trafficking.

Tyler White

Tyler White is an advocate provincially and nationally for First Nations’ People. He is the chief executive officer of Siksika Health Services, and he serves on the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta council as a public member. He was instrumental in bringing together Treaties 6, 7 and 8 in the formation of the Alberta Health Consortium in response to the Federal Action Plan on Jordan’s Principle, and was as a member of the Provincial Child Intervention Panel and the Provincial Mental Health Review.

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