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A human trafficking case in Tisdale and Elrose has left many disturbed.
But a Saskatchewan advocate said that it’s likely more common than most people think.
“I think Saskatchewan people have to become aware that it is happening in our backyard,” Savelia Curniski told John Gormley on Friday.
Curniski is the founder of Nashi, a Saskatoon-based non-profit organization that works with trafficked and at-risk girls in Ukraine as well as in Canada.
She said the Tisdale and Elrose case might be indicative of a larger problem.
“It’s extremely disturbing, but how many more girls and women are being trafficked into Saskatchewan? I think people just have to become aware,” Curniski said.
“They don’t need to be worried about two potholes in front of their street; they need to know that children are being trafficked and they are being sold.”
Curniski said she feels traffickers should receive a minimum sentence of 15 years.
She said human trafficking extends to pornography, and many of the women and girls involved in that industry have been trafficked.
“It’s absolutely disturbing, and Canadians are responsible. We need to hit where the demand is,” she said.
Nashi operated a safe house for girls in Ukraine, but according to Curniski it has been moved to Poland since the beginning of the war.
Curniski said that while the children in their care are safe, others fleeing the war may not be so lucky. She said some women might find themselves at risk for trafficking while fleeing the violence of the war, creating a “crisis within a crisis.”
