With a few pen strokes, the City of Prince George officially became the first local government to join the Human Trafficking Prevention Network of British Columbia on Friday, May 16.
Mayor Simon Yu and councillors Garth Frizzell, Trudy Klassen, Ron Polillo, Kyle Sampson and Susan Scott signed a statement of support denouncing trafficking as a human rights violation and committing to work towards ending it.
“As we recognize the victims and survivors of crime week, we take meaningful steps towards this very serious issue together,” Yu told a small crowd on the second floor of city hall.
The network was first formed in 2024, with former Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin serving as its honorary patron and Shell Canada serving as the body’s chair.
Other partners include the BC Lions football team, All Nations United, the BC Native Women’s Association, the Business Council of British Columbia, KPMG, the Royal Bank of Canada, the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking and more.
Prince George’s Standing Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs heard at its April 1 meeting that the city’s application to join the network had been accepted.
Last July, city council passed a motion declaring both intimate partner violence and human trafficking as local epidemics.
The statement of support signed on May 16 also said that as a member, the city will work to understand and collaborate to address human trafficking’s root causes.
It also noted that First Nation, Métis and Inuit people as well as two-spirit and gender diverse people are disproportionately victimized by human trafficking.
Before the signing, the mayor said that the city’s support for the network is more than just symbolic and it will partner with other governments, non-profits and people with lived experienced to work on the issue.
After the signing, Yu referenced the shooting of a 15-year-old girl at Moccasin Flats earlier in the week.
While he said he hadn’t heard that incident was connected to human trafficking, he doubts a teenager woke up one day and decided to live in a “random trailer down in the place where there’s no running water, no food.”
He said it’s a symbolic issue’s he’s using to make locals aware of people like immigrants, First Nations or other groups who can be placed into situations where they are exploited due to financial circumstances.
“As a city, as a part of the international community, we needed to get the work to prevent things like that from happening not just here but throughout the world,” Yu said.
“This signing is symbolic to make people aware that this sort of human trafficking issue is happening. It can happen in your neighbourhood as well.”
The first step, he said is to raise awareness and after that support groups need to be developed. Yu pointed to efforts against human trafficking launched by the Prince George International Airport earlier this year as one example of local work being done.
The mayor said he hoped Prince George would set an example for other local governments to follow and that the city had brought human trafficking up during last week’s North Central Local Government Association annual general meeting in Prince Rupert.
Those attending the signing included Prince George-Mackenzie Conservative MLA Kiel Giddens, Prince George and District Elizabeth Fry Society executive director Shannon Smith and Grace McLaughlin, the Indigenous-focused sexual assault response worker at the Prince George Sexual Assault Centre.
Speaking to reporters after the signing, Smith and McLaughlin said the city’s support was huge for both giving recognition to the work their organizations carry out and raising awareness about the challenges of dealing with human trafficking.
“We are hoping to have more of a community approach rather than just leaving it to the organizations,” McLaughlin said. “I think it’s important that the city gets involved.”
“And also to have the city to use their connections, right?” Smith added. “Because they are at many provincial (and federal) tables that we are not. If we can use all the strengths and the pieces that we have to bring this issue forward, I think the more that we can work together.”
They said the impacts of human trafficking are felt in Prince George by the survivors who visit them for support, but also by people who have been trafficked and may not even realize it.
“We need to be thoughtful of those folks and how can we best use our connections, use our voices to help support those people,” Smith said.
Following the signing, city representatives and representatives from the Association Advocating for Women and Community, the Elizabeth Fry Society, the Prince George Sexual Assault Centre, Violence Against Women in Relationships (VAWIR) Committee and Carrier Sekani Family Services Sexual Violence Survivor Support Program went into a conference room for a round table discussion on human trafficking.
