Laws sought to protect trafficking survivors from fraudulent debts

An advocacy group for survivors of human trafficking is calling on the Ontario government to introduce a bill that would stop creditors from collecting debts fraudulently incurred while survivors were being trafficked by their captors. 

Project Recover Executive Director Richard Dunwoody — a native of Sault Ste. Marie who has worked with banks, telecommunication companies, car rental companies, property managers to create a process to get rid of the debts on behalf of Project Recover’s clients — told media outlets during a news conference Monday that Canada needs legislation similar to the Debt Bondage Repair Act which goes into effect in the United States July 25.  

Dunwoody says “adverse information” on a survivor’s credit report hinders their ability to access housing, pursue post-secondary education and gain employment.  

“Today, without similar legislation in Canada, Project Recover currently has 389 active cases related to the buying and selling of Canadian-born girls and boys,” Dunwoody said. 

Michelle Furgiuele is a peer advocate with Restoration Second Stage Homes, an organization dedicated to providing long-term residential housing to human trafficking survivors. A survivor of domestic human trafficking after groomed and exploited at the age of 15, she now works with survivors after they’ve escaped. 

Furgiuele says that without Project Recover advocating for her, she would have “fallen apart” trying to wipe out debts that were not her own. 

“I cannot begin to express the emotional turmoil these individuals face when they first discover the status of their credit and the financial burden they are left with out of no fault of their own,” she said. “I can share that I was one of these young, terrified and naive individuals. Upon exiting exploitation, I had zero financial literacy and it was not until I tried to find stable housing that I was made aware of debts that had been incurred by my traffickers.

“I believed I was responsible for these debts, causing me to experience anxiety, stress, financial hardship and further exploitation.”

Ottawa-Vanier MPP Lucille Collard worked on Bill 99 — a piece of provincial legislation that would’ve amended the Consumer Reporting Act and the Prevention of and Remedies for Human Trafficking Act to include fraudulent debt incurred by human trafficking victims — in consultation with Spadina-Fort York MPP Chris Glover and with help from Dunwoody. 

The first reading of the bill was carried in March, but the Ontario election stalled Collard’s efforts. The Liberal MPP told members of the media Monday that she intends on tabling Bill 99 again and working with members of all parties in order to pass it despite not seeing any “real interest from the government.”  

“A lot more needs to be done about human trafficking, but the debt forgiveness bill is a simple way to help survivors,” said Collard. “The fact that the United States adopted the same bill [there] without opposition is very telling, and we should take notice of that.

“It’s not a partisan issue and it doesn’t require the government to invest money. The fact that it passed in the U.S., I don’t understand why the Ontario government is just not paying more attention.”

Glover, who put forth a private members motion in December 2020 that would allow for provincial fines and outstanding Ontario Student Assistance Program debts to be forgiven for survivors of human trafficking, is also calling on the Ontario government to give the same debt relief that’s now available in the United States through its Debt Bondage Repair Act.

“We need to do this because we’ve heard so many stories of people being exploited,” he said. 

According to Project Recover, human trafficking survivors possess an average debt load of about $28,000 that has been fraudulently obtained by their traffickers.