Calgary man charged with human trafficking
CALGARY - Police say a woman claims she moved to Calgary and found herself trapped as a sex slave before she escaped by fleeing the northeast home where her alleged captor forced her to work.
Police charged a 25-year-old man with several criminal offences including human trafficking after the 18-year-old woman from Quebec fled the Falconridge home last month, Vice Staff Sgt. Don Coleman said Wednesday.
The woman and the accused knew one another.
"She was allegedly forced into prostitution for about a month," Coleman said.
"She had to turn money over to the accused."
He said the woman fled the home in August and phoned 911.
Eric Jean-Pierre Riendeau was charged on Aug. 9 with living off the avails of prostitution, assault and trafficking in persons.
Police could not elaborate on what led the woman to move to Calgary from Eastern Canada but said it wasn't to be an unwilling participant in the sex trade.
"I know she alleged she didn't come out here for prostitution," Coleman said.
This is believed to be the second case of human trafficking charges in Calgary, and the third in Alberta.
Last year charges were laid against a 52-year-old Calgary woman who allegedly offered to sell two women to undercover cops for $4,000 each.
Linh Quy To was originally charged with trafficking in persons and numerous other offences. That case is still before the courts.
In the second case, police said aspiring models were lured to Calgary using social networking websites, promised careers and forced into the sex trade.
"Human trafficking is modern-day slavery," Coleman said.
"The chains are financial deprivation, social isolation and psychological confinement."
Human trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar global industry with victims recruited and exploited for everything from slavery to sexual abuse.
RCMP said some 15,000 people are trafficked through Canada each year.
But the latest case in Calgary underscores the reality that many times it is not foreigners who are targeted as victims and smuggled into the country; predators often prey on people closer to home.
Of about 36 cases now before the Canadian courts, Coleman said the bulk involved victims who are either Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
Human trafficking legislation was introduced in this country in 2005.
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