Miss Canada Inspires RDHS Students to Action
Through Speech about Modern Slave Trade

(Pictured above: Miss Canada 2011 Tara Teng talks to Rideau District High School
students Thursday about the tragic realities of the modern-day slave trade.)

(Elgin) – Nearly $32 billion is earned worldwide each year by organized crime through the modern slave trade – more than the combined annual income of Nike, Google and Starbucks combined.

Every 30 seconds, another child somewhere in the world is sold into that trade, often to become sex slaves to men who believe their youth means there is little danger of exposure to sexually transmitted diseases.

And most shocking of all, often the person who sells these young girls into the trade is a family member or other loved one.

Tara Teng, Miss Canada 2011, brought those shocking statistics to a hushed crowd of students Thursday during a lecture on modern slavery at Rideau District High School (RDHS). During the speech, sponsored by the school’s REACT (Rideau Engaged in Activism and Change Today) Club, she called on the students to sign three petitions destined for Parliament. The first seeks a national action plan to combat human trafficking; the second seeks a law declaring sex with prostitutes illegal “rape for profit” since women are forced into the profession; and the third petition calls for a law allowing Canada to convict its citizens for involvement in human trafficking abroad.

“We put people on the moon,” she said. “We have dolphin-friendly tuna. Why can’t we do something for these kids?”

The problem is immense, she said. It is estimated slavery exists in 161 countries in the world – including Canada.

Teng lamented that many young girls are lured into prostitution here from former Eastern Block countries such as Russia and Hungary in search of a better life. They come here under the promise of modeling jobs or other employment. When they arrive they are forced into prostitution because they are desperate and have no money to survive or repay the pimps who paid to bring them over.

A 2003 police investigation into Toronto’s “massage parlour” industry showed that many women were forced into the trade and never received a penny, said Teng. Their lives were literally controlled by their human traffickers, she said.

The 23-year-old also talked of the case of 47-year-old Jian Feng “Michael” Li of Burnaby, BC, who allegedly sponsored women from Hong Kong to come to Canada. After they arrived, he allegedly forced them to work the sex trade in brothels that he owned. Police estimate he earned up to $40,000 a week off the women he allegedly exploited.

Perhaps one of the saddest parts of the presentation was when Teng talked of recent trips to countries where the trade is prevalent such as Thailand. She spoke of how desperate poverty had forced families to sell girls aged 12-14 into the sex trade.  Some victims she has seen are as young as 18 months old, she added.

Teng encouraged the students to take action by signing the petitions, but also to combat slavery and the attitudes that lead to it in their daily lives. She called on the students to support movements to abolish slavery, to write their MP about the issue asking them to support tougher legislation against human trafficking, and even to donate used cell phones to a charity that recycles them to support its work to combat human trafficking.

“Be part of the movement to end modern-day slavery …” she told the students.

“Every 30 seconds a child is sold into slavery. Every 30 seconds … so we don’t have a minute to lose.”

Students such as Grade 12 student Rebecca Nentel said that the presentation had an impact.

“It affected me a lot,” she said. “It made me really upset. It makes you want to make a change right away.”

Nentel signed all three petitions that Teng brought to the event and said she plans to join REACT.



 

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For more information, please call:

Christopher Sleeth
Teacher
Rideau District High School
613-359-5391

Posted December 5, 2011