Today is the first day of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) five-day annual awareness and outreach effort in Canada to educate commercial motor vehicle drivers, motor carriers, law enforcement officers and the general public about the crime of human trafficking, the signs to look for and what to do if you suspect someone is being trafficked.
This week, law enforcement jurisdictions, companies with trucks and motorcoaches, and transportation safety organizations in Canada will conduct human trafficking awareness and outreach activities and submit data about those activities to the Alliance. CVSA will gather and analyze the data and report the results this summer.
Leading up to this week’s initiative, CVSA educated its membership and the public on human trafficking through webinars, social media, articles, training sessions, radio appearances and online resources. CVSA also offers 30-second and five-minute public service announcement videos for download, along with a Spanish version. In addition, the Alliance and TAT (formerly Truckers Against Trafficking) have been distributing wallet cards, posters and window decals, which may be ordered at any time.
Human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons, involves the recruitment, transportation, harboring and/or exercising control, direction or influence over the movements of a person in order to exploit that person, typically through sexual exploitation or forced labor.
Accurately tracking and reporting human trafficking is difficult due to its hidden and underreported nature. Interactions are kept secret, traffickers don’t keep records, and many victims never report their exploitation due to fear, stigma, shame or lack of resources. However, some verifiable data is available. From 2014 to 2024, there were 5,070 human trafficking incidents reported by police services in Canada, and there were 1,281 cases with at least one human trafficking charge in adult criminal courts in Canada.
The Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline, operated by the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, provides localized support to anyone impacted by trafficking and other forms of exploitation. In 2024, the hotline identified 466 cases of human trafficking involving 579 victims/survivors. Forty-four percent of all individuals who contacted the hotline were victims/survivors, while another 22% were family or friends of victims/survivors.
If you suspect someone is being trafficked or you are the victim of human trafficking, call 911. The Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 833-900-1010. All calls are confidential, and the hotline offers support in more than 200 languages (including 27 Indigenous languages) and through TTY relay services for people who are deaf or hearing impaired.
To find out what your local jurisdiction is doing to increase human trafficking awareness, contact the agency or department responsible for overseeing commercial motor vehicle safety within your province or territory.
CVSA’s members are commercial motor vehicle safety officials and motor carrier industry representatives in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. As a North American organization, Mexico and the U.S. are also a part of CVSA’s Human Trafficking Awareness Initiative, with each country having its own dates. In Mexico, the initiative is scheduled for March 16-20. The U.S. initiative was last month, Jan. 12-16.
The annual Human Trafficking Awareness Initiative is part of CVSA’s Human Trafficking Prevention Program. The program seeks to reduce human trafficking throughout North America through coordinated enforcement and investigative and educational awareness measures within the commercial motor vehicle industry.