Trafficking in persons in Canada, 2024

Trafficking in persons, also known as human trafficking, involves recruiting, transporting, sheltering or controlling the movements of a person for the purposes of exploitation, usually for sexual reasons or forced labour (Department of Justice Canada, 2024; Public Safety Canada, 2025c). Human trafficking does not require the crossing of international borders and can occur entirely within a single country, including within local communities, cities, and rural areas. It often relies on manipulation, coercion, deception, or abuse of power, making vulnerable individuals—such as migrants, youth in care, Indigenous women and girls, and those experiencing poverty—particularly at risk (Department of Justice Canada, 2024; Hodgins et al., 2023; MMIWG, 2019; Public Safety Canada, 2024).

Canada has legislation to combat human trafficking both domestically and transnationally, as outlined in the Criminal Code and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), respectively (see Text box 1). Further, the Government of Canada is renewing the National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking (Public Safety Canada, 2025b).^Note  By incorporating the voices of victims and survivors, Indigenous peoples, law enforcement agencies, frontline service providers, community advocates and other levels of government, the renewed National Strategy will ensure that Canada’s approach remains effective, modern, victim-centred, trauma-informed and culturally sensitive.  

The true extent of human trafficking, in Canada and internationally, is unknown. Despite having comprehensive legislation, human trafficking is difficult to detect and measure due to its hidden nature, where victims are frequently unrecognized or misidentified, and many are reluctant to report the crime to authorities. Victims may not disclose their situation to law enforcement due to safety concerns, fear of deportation, or fear of other legal or criminal repercussions—particularly if they were coerced into acts such as recruiting others into trafficking (Luz, 2020; Department of Justice Canada, 2024). Other deterrents to reporting include feelings of shame, a general distrust or lack of confidence in authorities, or because they do not view themselves as victims (Baird & Connolly, 2023; Beatson et al., 2017; Department of Justice Canada, 2024; Macy et al., 2021; Public Safety Canada, 2025c). Detection also depends in part on the number of resources, training and specialized units among police services. As such, the data presented in this Juristat article likely underestimate the true prevalence of human trafficking in Canada.  

This Juristat article uses data from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey to examine trends and characteristics in human trafficking incidents that were reported by police in Canada from 2014 to 2024.^Note  Data from the Integrated Criminal Court Survey (ICCS) are also presented to examine decisions and outcomes of human trafficking cases completed in the adult criminal courts between 2013/2014 and 2023/2024.

This article was produced with funding support from Public Safety Canada.

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Section 1: Police-reported human trafficking

Police-reported human trafficking has generally increased year-over-year since 2014

From 2014 to 2024, there were 5,070 human trafficking incidents reported by police services in Canada,^Note  representing an average annual rate of 1.2 incidents per 100,000 population.^Note  Of these incidents, most (75%) were for Criminal Code violations and the remainder (25%) involved Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) offences, which involve trafficking across international borders. In all, incidents of human trafficking accounted for 0.02% of all police-reported incidents of crime during this time.

In terms of year-over-year trends, the number of police-reported human trafficking incidents has increased steadily since 2014, apart from a decline noted in 2018 (Chart 1).^Note  The number of police-reported human trafficking incidents increased marginally in 2024 compared with 2023, from 605 to 608 incidents.

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It should be noted, however, that human trafficking is an especially complex crime, where some individual incidents only become apparent from their connection with other human trafficking incidents. As such, incident counts may shift following additional police investigation. For instance, there were initially 570 incidents of human trafficking reported in 2023 but, following annual revision, there are 605 incidents. As such, comparisons using the latest year of data should be avoided.^Note 

Rates of human trafficking in Nova Scotia and Ontario continue to exceed national average

Like previous human trafficking trends in Canada (Conroy, 2022; Heidinger, 2023; Statistics Canada, 2024), from 2014 to 2024, the highest average annual rates of police-reported human trafficking in the provinces were documented in Nova Scotia (4.1 incidents per 100,000 population) and Ontario (2.0) (Table 1). These were the only provinces whose rates exceeded the national annual average of 1.2.

While the rate of police-reported human trafficking has declined (-44%) in Nova Scotia since its peak in 2020, the rate in 2024 (4.5 per 100,000 population) was triple the national rate (1.5). Of note, in 2024, there were more IRPA than Criminal Code offences reported by police in Nova Scotia (60% versus 40%); this ratio has not been observed since 2017, when 66% of Nova Scotia’s human trafficking incidents were IRPA offences.

The high rate of human trafficking in Nova Scotia has been attributed in part to its coastal location, with its ports and transportation links. Specifically, Nova Scotia serves as a key node in a human trafficking corridor that facilitates the movement of victims, either originating from, or passing through Atlantic Canada to other parts of the country (CCTEHT, 2021). The high rate in Ontario, on the other hand, is better explained by being Canada’s most populous province, having multiple international border crossings including Canada’s busiest airport, and being home to the Highway 401—a major trafficking route that connects multiple urban centres and facilitates rapid movement of victims between cities and across the U.S. border (CCTEHT, 2021).

When looking at 2024 alone, four other provinces—Prince Edward Island (2.8 incidents per 100,000 population, with 5 total incidents), Ontario (2.3, 374 incidents), New Brunswick (2.0, 17 incidents) and Saskatchewan (1.9, 23 incidents)—exceeded the national rate of human trafficking, but to a smaller extent.  

Number and rate of police-reported human trafficking incidents higher in census metropolitan areas

From 2014 to 2024, the vast majority (85%) of human trafficking incidents were reported by police in Canada’s largest urban centres, referred to as census metropolitan areas (CMAs),^Note  a finding which held true in 2024 (83%) (Table 2).

Generally consistent with previous years (Conroy, 2022; Heidinger, 2023; Statistics Canada, 2024), from 2014 to 2024, close to half (45%) of all human trafficking incidents were reported by police in five CMAs: Toronto (1,038 incidents, 20% of all incidents in Canada), Ottawa (416, 8.2% of all incidents),^Note  Halifax (326, 6.4% of all incidents), Montréal (272, 5.4% of all incidents) and London (217, 4.3% of all incidents). During this time, police services in Thunder Bay and Halifax reported the highest average annual rate of human trafficking incidents (8.0 and 6.4 per 100,000 population, respectively).

It follows then, that the average annual rate of human trafficking incidents reported by police between 2014 and 2024 was twice as high in CMAs compared with non-CMAs (1.4 versus 0.7 incidents per 100,000 population).

In 2024 specifically, the highest rate of human trafficking was reported by police services in Guelph (11 per 100,000 population),^Note  followed by Halifax (7.5)^Note  and Thunder Bay (6.1). These rates were much higher than the overall rate of human trafficking incidents for the CMAs in Canada, which was 1.6 incidents per 100,000 population.

About two in five human trafficking incidents contain multiple violations, more than half of which are related to the sex trade

A human trafficking offence—under the Criminal Code or IRPA—was listed as the most serious offence in the vast majority (96%) of human trafficking incidents reported by police from 2014 to 2024.^Note  Of all human trafficking incidents reported during this period, three in five (61%) involved human trafficking as the only violation, whereas the remaining 39% had at least one other type of violation.^Note 

Of the human trafficking incidents with at least one additional violation, about half (53%) had an additional violation related to the sex trade.^Note  While it is not possible to determine the type of human trafficking with available data—whether it was sexual exploitation, forced labour, another type of trafficking or a combination of multiple types— the high proportion of associated offences related to the sex trade could signal the presence of sex trafficking in these cases. Sex trafficking and sex work are often conflated; however, sex trafficking is unique as persons are forced, deceived or coerced into participating in sexual activity—without true consent—for the purposes of exploitation.

Approximately one-third (34%) of human trafficking incidents with multiple violations included a physical assault offence, 30% included a sexual offence (e.g., sexual assault), and 10% included a deprivation of freedom offence (e.g., kidnapping, forcible confinement).^Note 

Most detected victims of human trafficking are women and girls

From 2014 to 2024, there were 3,429 incidents of police-reported human trafficking in which victims were identified, representing a total of 4,075 detected victims.^Note  Overall, during this period, and in 2024 specifically, the vast majority of human trafficking victims (93%) were women and girls, while the remaining 7% were men and boys.^Note  These proportions have remained relatively stable over time, with the exception of 2022, where 80% of detected victims were women and girls and the remaining 20% were men and boys (Chart 2). 

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While the Criminal Code and the UCR Survey do not distinguish human trafficking incidents by the type of exploitation, the spike in men and boys as victims in 2022 likely reflects an increase in police-reported labour trafficking in that year. Of the 97 men and boys who were victims of human trafficking in 2022, three-quarters (75%) were detected in multiple victim incidents,^Note  and among these men and boys, 85% reportedly shared a business relationship with their accused.^Note  These findings lend support to other data which consistently show that types of human trafficking are often gendered, with women and girls comprising most sex trafficking victims and men and boys predominating as victims of labour trafficking (Beatson et al., 2017; Department of Justice Canada, 2024; UNODC., 2024).  

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One in ten incidents of police-reported human trafficking has multiple victims

From 2014 to 2024, 1 in 10 (10%) police-reported incidents of human trafficking involved multiple victims. Of these incidents, the number of victims ranged from two to 49, with an average of 2.9 victims per incident, most (82%) of whom were women and girls and the remaining 18% were men and boys.

Among victims who are women and girls, 22% were involved in incidents with multiple victims, while for men and boys, nearly two-thirds (64%) were involved in multiple victim incidents. The latter proportion, however, is influenced by the spike of men and boy victims detected in 2022. When 2022 victims are excluded, the figure for women and girls remains the same, whereas 59% of all men and boys were involved in multi-victim incidents. These findings lend support to prior research showing that the number of victims per incident differs by the type of human trafficking where labour trafficking cases average more victims than cases of sexual exploitation (UNODC., 2024).  

Nearly two-thirds of human trafficking victims are younger than 25

Of the 3,954 detected victims of police-reported human trafficking between 2014 and 2024 where victim age was known, the largest proportion (41%) were aged 18 to 24, followed by those aged 25 to 34 (24%) and younger than 18 (22%) (Chart 3). In all, close to two-thirds (63%) of human trafficking victims were younger than 25.

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Different age patterns exist by gender. For instance, twice as many women and girl victims of human trafficking were between the ages of 18 and 24 compared with men and boy victims (43% versus 21%). Likewise, the proportion of girls younger than 18 outnumber similarly aged boys (23% versus 12%). The largest proportion of men and boy victims, on the other hand, were between the ages of 25 and 34 years (33%).

In terms of year-over-year patterns, victims aged 24 and younger consistently outnumbered victims aged 25 and older. However, the magnitude of difference has decreased over time (Chart 4). It is possible these changing trends are due to shifts in traffickers targeting older individuals, improved identification of older victims, and social or economic factors making certain adults more vulnerable. Additionally, victims who were trafficked at younger ages may remain under the control of a trafficker as they grow older, and broader demographic trends like an aging population increase the number of adults at risk.

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Majority of persons accused of human trafficking are men and boys

From 2014 to 2024, there were 2,838 persons accused of police-reported human trafficking. Of these accused, most (82%) were men and boys while about one-fifth (18%) were women and girls. This gender ratio has remained generally consistent year over year.

Research shows that the roles of women and girls in human trafficking cases are often complex and blurred. For example, women and girls accused of human trafficking may have once been victims themselves, could remain under the control of traffickers, and may have limited roles in the enterprise, such as recruiting other women and girls (Baird & Connolly, 2023; Department of Justice Canada, 2024; Millar & O’Doherty, 2020; UNODC., 2024). Moreover, women and girls may be perceived as better positioned to appear trustworthy during the early stages of recruitment and are thus tasked with luring other girls (Broad, 2015; Kiensat et al., 2014).

Most persons accused of police-reported human trafficking are between the ages of 18 and 34

Persons accused of human trafficking varied in age, with the youngest being 14 and the oldest 80 years old. The median age of these accused was 27 years old. Overall, about three-quarters (73%) were between the ages of 18 and 34. Fewer persons accused of human trafficking were aged 35 to 44 (14%), 45 and older (9%), or between the ages of 12 and 17 (4%)^Note  (Chart 5).

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These patterns, however, were driven largely by the predominance of men and boys as accused persons. Women and girls accused of human trafficking were younger, with a median age of 23 years, compared to men and boy accused (median age 27 years). More specifically, close to half of women and girls accused of human trafficking were between the ages of 18 and 24 (43% versus 35% of men and boys) and 12 to 17 (11% versus 2% of men and boys).

When an accused is identified, most human trafficking incidents are cleared by charge

From 2014 to 2024, a large proportion (59%) of police-reported incidents of human trafficking were not cleared,^Note  due largely to there being insufficient evidence to proceed with a charge. Of the incidents that were cleared, the vast majority (90%) were cleared by the laying or recommendation of charges and the remaining 10% were cleared otherwise.^Note  The proportion of accused cleared by charge remained relatively consistent year over year, with a low of 85% in 2015 to a high of 93% reported in 2016 and 2017. 

Overall, from 2014 to 2024, a slightly higher proportion of women and girl accused were cleared by the laying or recommendation of a charge compared with men and boy accused (92% versus 90%).

Intimate partner relationships most common among victims and persons accused of human trafficking

Consistent with prior trends, from 2014 to 2024, police-reported human trafficking most often involved victims and accused persons who were intimate partners (34%),^Note  acquaintances (22%),^Note  or were criminal (12%)^Note  or business (12%)^Note  associates.

These patterns were driven largely by findings for victims who were women and girls. For example, from 2014 to 2024, the largest proportion of women and girls were trafficked by an intimate partner (36%), followed by an acquaintance (22%) and by someone with whom they shared a criminal association (13%). Men and boys, on the other hand, were most often trafficked by someone with whom they shared a business relationship (46%), followed by acquaintances (13%) and strangers (13%).

When the type of relationship was examined over time for all victims, the proportion who were trafficked by an intimate partner has generally increased, especially during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, while those involving acquaintances have declined (Chart 6).

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Section 2: Human trafficking in adult criminal court

The Integrated Criminal Court Survey (ICCS) provides administrative data on Criminal Code and other federal statute offences that are processed in Canadian adult criminal and youth courts. The ICCS collects information on court processing times, charge and case decisions, and sentencing outcomes. This section uses ICCS data to present information on cases with at least one human trafficking charge completed between 2013/2014 and 2023/2024 in adult criminal courts (for information about youth court, see Text box 4).

It is important to note that police-reported data and criminal court data on human trafficking may not align since charges differing from those laid by police may be pursued in court following Crown review or within the plea-bargaining process. Furthermore, since court cases enter the ICCS database only when cases are complete or deemed complete,^Note  timelines for court data will often not mirror police-reported data.

Over past decade, increase in charges and cases of human trafficking completed in court

From 2013/2014 to 2023/2024, there were 1,281 cases involving 4,464 human trafficking charges completed in adult criminal courts in Canada.^Note   In general, the number of human trafficking cases has increased over this time (Chart 7). In 2013/2014, there were 46 completed cases that involved at least one human trafficking charge, with a total of 142 human trafficking charges. In comparison, there were 112 human trafficking cases with 484 human trafficking charges completed in 2023/2024. In total, there were more than twice as many human trafficking cases and three times as many completed charges in 2023/2024 compared with 2013/2014.

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In 2023/2024, there was an overall decrease in the number of completed human trafficking charges and cases compared to the previous year. More specifically, there was a 17% decrease (112 versus 135) in the number of cases and a 2.6% decrease (484 versus 497) in the number of charges in 2023/2024 compared with 2022/2023.^Note 

Most persons accused in human trafficking cases completed in adult court are men

Aligned with police-reported patterns, from 2013/2014 to 2023/2024, the majority (84%) of persons accused in cases with at least one human trafficking charge completed in adult criminal courts were men, while 16% were women.^Note  Similar patterns were found for sex trade cases (85% of accused were men)^Note  and other violent offence cases (82%).^Note 

Among men accused in cases with at least one human trafficking charge, near equal proportions were between the ages of 18 to 24 (41.4%) and 25 to 34 (40.6%). Likewise, the largest proportion of women accused in these cases were aged 18 to 24 (47%), followed by women aged 25 to 34 (35%). Overall, regardless of gender, these accused were younger than persons accused in sex trade cases (53% were between the ages of 18 and 34) and other violent offence cases (54% were aged 18 to 34).

Human trafficking cases average more charges and take longer to complete than other violent offence cases

Of the 1,281 cases with at least one human trafficking charge completed in adult criminal courts from 2013/2014 to 2023/2024, there was an average of 18 charges per case. This was substantially higher than what was found for sex trade cases, which averaged 7 charges per case, and for those involving at least one other violent offence (average of 4 charges per case).

In all, 2% of the human trafficking cases completed during this time involved a single charge and the remaining 98% had multiple charges. More than three-quarters (77%) of the 1,253 multi-charge human trafficking cases also included a sex trade offence, and about three in ten included a charge of kidnapping or forcible confinement (27%), or a sexual offence charge (31%).^Note 

Between 2013/2014 and 2023/2024, human trafficking cases took a median of 418 days to complete, almost twice as long as sex trade cases (219 days) or other violent offence cases (200 days).^Note 

One in 10 completed human trafficking cases result in a finding of guilt

Between 2013/2014 and 2023/2024, for the large majority (84%) of completed adult criminal court cases involving at least one human trafficking charge was a stay, a withdrawal, a dismissal, or a discharge (Chart 8).^Note   In comparison, 71% of sex trade cases and 49% of other violent offence cases resulted in either a stay, withdrawal, dismissal or discharge.

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While it is possible many human trafficking cases resulted in a stay, withdrawal, dismissal or discharge due to Crown diversion practices, court backlogs, and resource constraints intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic (Department of Justice Canada, 2022), the successful prosecution of human trafficking cases can also carry unique challenges. For example, human trafficking cases require demonstrating evidence of control, coercion, or exploitation, which may be difficult to prove in court (Farrell et al., 2019; UNODC., 2020). Unlike other crimes, much of the evidence presented relies heavily on victim testimony, which can be inconsistent due to trauma, fear of retaliation, or distrust of authorities (Department of Justice Canada, 2024; Public Safety Canada, 2019), and these inconsistencies are strategically used by defense attorneys to undermine the Crown’s case (Department of Justice Canada, 2024; Millar & O’Doherty, 2020). Other challenges to securing a conviction include defense attempts to undermine the victim’s credibility by highlighting their immigration status, prior involvement in criminal activity or relationship with the accused (Department of Justice Canada, 2024).

A small proportion of human trafficking cases resulted in a guilty decision (10%).^Note  Of human trafficking cases with a guilty decision, most (91%) involved a man as the accused.^Note  Fewer human trafficking cases resulted in an acquittal (4%), or another type of decision (2%).^Note   In contrast, a larger proportion of cases with a sex trade charge (25%) and cases with a violent offence charge (44%) resulted in a guilty decision.

Custodial sentence common among human trafficking cases with a guilty outcome

Since 2013/2014, most (78%) human trafficking cases with a guilty outcome for a human trafficking charge resulted in custody as the most serious sentence.^Note  In comparison, cases involving a sex trade charge or a violent offence charge with a guilty decision less commonly resulted in a custodial sentence (46% and 41%, respectively).

Similar proportions of human trafficking cases with a guilty outcome for a human trafficking charge resulted in a sentence of probation (9%) or another type of sentence (12%).^Note  Probation was more common for cases involving a sex trade charge or a violent offence charge with a guilty outcome (19% and 42%, respectively) than what was observed in human trafficking cases.

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Summary

From 2014 to 2024, there has been an observed increase in police-reported human trafficking, defined as the recruitment, transportation, sheltering or controlling the movement of someone for the purposes of exploitation. While comprising about 0.02% of all police-reported crime in Canada, research shows human trafficking disproportionately affects those who are socially, economically and politically marginalized.

From 2014 to 2024, there were 5,070 police-reported incidents of human trafficking in Canada, representing an average annual rate of 1.2 incidents per 100,000 population. Consistent with previous patterns, the highest average rate was reported by police in Nova Scotia (4.1), followed by Ontario (2.0). Most (85%) incidents were reported by police in Canada’s largest urban centres. 

While women and girls comprise the vast majority of detected victims of police-reported human trafficking, incident characteristics differ from those of men and boy victims. Namely, women and girls tend to be younger, be involved in single-victim incidents and share an intimate relationship with their trafficker.

About three in five police-reported incidents of human trafficking were not cleared, but of those that were, nine in ten were cleared by the laying or recommendation of charges. Most (82%) accused persons were men and boys, a finding that has remained consistent over time.

The number of human trafficking cases and charges completed in adult criminal courts in Canada increased from 2013/2014 to 2023/2024. More specifically, there were about twice as many cases and three times as many charges completed in 2023/2024 compared with 2013/2014.

Human trafficking cases average more charges per case and take longer to complete in court than cases involving a sex trade offence and other violent offence cases. Few human trafficking cases result in a guilty decision, but of those that do, most accused are sentenced to custody.

Detailed data tables

Table 1 Police-reported human trafficking, by statute and province or territory, Canada, 2014 to 2024

Table 2 Police-reported human trafficking, by statute and census metropolitan area, Canada 2014 to 2024

Survey description

Uniform Crime Reporting Survey

The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey was established in 1962 with the co-operation and assistance of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. The UCR Survey is a compilation of police-reported crimes that have been reported to federal, provincial or territorial, and municipal police services in Canada.

One incident can involve multiple offences. In order to ensure comparability, aggregate counts are presented based on the most serious offence in the incident as determined by a standard classification rule used by all police services. For human trafficking, Criminal Code offences reflect the most serious violation against the victim and Immigration and Refugee Protection Act offences reflect the most serious violation in the incident. Where further detail is provided—such as characteristics of incidents, victims and accused persons—microdata from the Incident-based UCR are used, for which police services can report up to four violations for each incident. As such, the human trafficking-related offence may or may not be the most serious violation reported by police for the incident.

The option for police to code victims and accused persons as “non-binary” in the UCR Survey was implemented in 2018. In the context of the UCR Survey, the term “non-binary” refers to a person who publicly expresses themselves as neither exclusively male nor exclusively female. Given that small counts of non-binary victims and accused persons may exist, the UCR Survey data available to the public have been recoded with these victims and accused persons distributed in the “men and boys” or “women and girls” categories based on the regional distribution of victims’ and accused persons’ gender. This recoding ensures the protection of the confidentiality and privacy of victims and accused persons.

Integrated Criminal Court Survey

The Integrated Criminal Court Survey collects statistical information on adult and youth court cases involving Criminal Code and other federal statute offences.

All adult courts have reported to the adult component of the survey since the 2005/2006 fiscal year, with the exception of superior courts in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, as well as municipal courts in Quebec. These data were not available for extraction from the provinces' electronic reporting systems and therefore, were not reported to the survey. Superior court data for Prince Edward Island was included as of 2018/2019.

The primary unit of analysis is a case. For this analysis, a human trafficking case requires at least one human trafficking charge and can include one or more charges (related or unrelated) against an accused person or company that were processed by the courts at the same time and received a final decision. A case combines all charges against the same person having one or more key overlapping dates (date of offence, date of initiation, date of first appearance, date of decision or date of sentencing) into a single case.

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