K.L. Ditmars's Blog

Shine a Light on Slavery

Today, 25 February, is Shine a Light on Slavery Day.

Over the last couple of month, I have made an effort to shine a light on slavery in our modern world. This is my second post on organizations who work to not only shine a light on slavery, but to end it. My post on the History of Abolition and modern-day Anti-Human Trafficking efforts discussed the Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. This Protocol came with the 4 P framework. I discussed the first three Ps, and now I am going to talk about the 4th P–Partnerships.

No one government or non-government organization can fight human trafficking alone. It takes partnerships within and across borders.

In my last post, I highlighted a few organizations that I have become aware of through the course of researching my novel All That it Takes. I focused on Canada, as it was Human Trafficking Awareness Day in Canada (22 February) when I published that post.

In this post, I will focus on a few organizations beyond Canada’s borders. Some of the organizations mentioned previously were international groups such as The Salvation Army, The International Justice Mission, and the SA Foundation, but the links provided in this post will go to the international headquarters rather than the Canadian division. On the international sites, you can find links to their work in other countries.

I want to share a TED Talk by the founder of International Justice Mission, Gary Haugen. It is about 20 minutes long and is so worth the investment of your time to watch it.

TED Talk with Gary Haugen – The hidden reason for poverty the world needs to address now.

Other International organizations with offices around the world:

Hope for Justice runs anti-trafficking projects all over the world and works directly with victims and survivors. Hope for Justice has an excellent website with many resources to help raise awareness. They have offices in USA, UK, and Norway.

Unitas partners with governments, NGOs, and experts in the field to develop collaborative solutions in the fight against human trafficking. They have offices in Belgrade, Serbia, and New York, USA. Unitas works to prevent human trafficking and support survivors.

Plan International works to advance children’s rights and equality for girls in over 75 countries. “Plan International is working with communities, leaders, and governments around the globe to prevent and ultimately put an end to trafficking, so that girls and young women can have the freedom and safety they rightly deserve.”

UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender quality and the empowerment of women throughout the UN member states. You can read their directive on human trafficking–Prevent, Combat, Protect: Human Trafficking.

LOVE146–has the vision to end child trafficking and exploitation and nothing less. They have prevention and survivor care programs in the USA, UK, and the Philippines.

Many Hopes provide immediate medical care for children rescued from slavery. They have programs in Malawi, Ghana, Kenya, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Peru. Headquarters are in the US.

A21–their only goal and mission is to end the illegal trade of human beings, aka slavery. They have a solution based on Reach, Rescue, and Restore. They have operations across the globe and here is a list of the countries.

United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking–“UN.GIFT works with all stakeholders – governments, business, academia, civil society, and the media – to support each other’s work, create new partnerships and develop effective tools to fight human trafficking.”

Here are a few international anti-human trafficking organizations I would like to highlight.

The U.S.A.

For my US readers, there are several human trafficking agencies that are doing tremendous work to bring awareness as well as combat modern-day slavery.

The #ENDITMovement is a “collective of everyday people united by the hope” that an end of slavery and human trafficking is possible in our lifetime. Ten years ago, 25 February in the USA became Shine a Light on Slavery Day, where across social media, you can see people posting an X in some form or fashion, most commonly on a hand. This red x is to bring awareness to the issue of slavery today. On their website is a page listing their coalition partners, which have established national and international efforts. The cover image of this article is from their website. Will you post on your social media, to help shine a light on slavery?

The Polaris Project operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline in the USA

 Call 1-888-373-7888 ( TTY: 711)|*Text 233733 |Live Chat

Shared Hope International has a three-pronged approach to its mission: prevention, restoration, and bringing justice. They have a Report Card on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking in the US. The report card’s aim is to develop an advanced legislative framework to take fighting sex trafficking and protecting victims to the next stage within each state of the US.

UK

Stop the Traffik – Using people and technology this organization works across borders and industries to stop human trafficking by using a unique intelligence-led approach. Stop the Traffik is all about information sharing since its founding in 2006. Their collaboration and partnerships with many local and international organizations are designed to “build resilience to human trafficking”. In addition to awareness campaigns, and training, they have embraced technology with The STOP APP and the Traffik Analysis Hub.

Unseen UK

Their work supports victims and survivors through safehouses, community support, and a resource for businesses to address modern slavery risks and related issues. They also have a UK modern slavery and exploitation helpline – 08000 121 700 or you can report concerns online.

AFRICA

Economic Community of West African States (ECWSA) – work together with a Plan of Action to win the war against human trafficking across their member states which include: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cote D’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. In their efforts to implement the Organized Crime: West Africa Response to Trafficking (OCWAR-T) project, the ECWSA is supported by European Union organizations and UN programs.  

Cambodia

Ratanak International has for over 30 years provided hope, freedom, and dignity for Cambodian trafficking survivors. Their headquarters are in Canada and they also have offices in the UK and Australia. Learn more about their projects here.

Further Reading:

In my previous post, I said there are many more anti-human trafficking organizations than I can name in just a couple of posted articles, so I won’t even try.

Here are a couple of Wikipedia articles that proved helpful on this topic. I am not saying Wikipedia is the only source of information and is never fully comprehensive, but it can be valuable as a good place to start.

A list of organizations that combat human trafficking around the world. Some of which I have highlighted in this article and the previous one.

Transnational efforts to prevent human trafficking

How you can help anti-human trafficking efforts:

PLEASE EDUCATE YOURSELF ON THE SIGNS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING.. PUT THE HUMAN TRAFFICKING HOTLINE NUMBER IN YOUR PHONE AND USE IT. I HAVE LISTED THE CANADIAN HUMAN TRAFFICKING HOTLINE IN MY PREVIOUS POST, AND THERE ARE MORE IN THIS POST.

Help be part of the solution.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”–Nelson Mandela

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Human Trafficking Awareness Day in Canada

On 22 February 2007, the Canadian House of Commons passed a motion condemning the trafficking of women and children across international borders for the purposes of sexual exploitation. It proclaimed, 22 February as Human Trafficking Awareness Day to help bring awareness to the magnitude of modern-day slavery in Canada and abroad.

My last blog post focused on the History of Abolition and modern-day Anti-Human Trafficking efforts.

In that post, I discussed the Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. This Protocol came with the 4 P framework. I discussed the first three Ps, and now I am going to talk about the 4th P – Partnerships.

No one government or non-government organization can fight human trafficking alone. It takes partnerships within and across borders.

I will highlight a few organizations that I have discovered through the course of researching my novel All That it Takes but see this Canadian National List of Organizations that help combat human trafficking and helping victims. There are many more Canadian organizations that do not appear on this list, but it is where I started my research. For the purposes of this post, I will post two in British Columbia and three that are national organizations.

In British Columbia:The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army International has worked with exploited and trafficked individuals for over 130 years. They are committed to fighting exploitation and human trafficking across the globe. In Canada, The Salvation Army continues to be a vital partner for community coalitions and victim service organizations. In Vancouver, B.C., it opened Deborah’s Gate in 2009, the first safe house and live-in program in Canada for survivors of human trafficking. Fight for Freedom is the Salvation Army’s International Modern slavery and Human trafficking Response.

Catherine Booth together with her husband, William Booth, founded The Christian Mission in 1865 which changed its name to The Salvation Army in 1878.

Here is a quote from Catherine Booth:

            “If we are to better the future, we must disturb the present.”

This quote speaks to me especially in facilitating the recovery of victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. To see a better future for the victims, the cycle of exploitation in their lives needs to be disrupted.

SA Foundation

The SA (Servants Anonymous) Foundation is dedicated to restoring hope, dignity and freedom to victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation by providing refuge in community homes, training and employment. SA Foundation has made a long-term commitment to renewing and rewriting the lives of victims. The Vancouver chapter has a skill development division which supports workmanship and education through production of and wide variety of products. Their online shop is Global Wonders – Products of Hope. I love their products and I have purchased gifts for friends and family.

Nationally in Canada:The Joy Smith Foundation

The Joy Smith Foundation is Canada’s leading authority on human trafficking prevention, intervention, and support for survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Joy Smith was a Member of Parliament in The House of Commons and was instrumental in seeing anti-human trafficking legislation enacted. She was able to pass both Bill C-268 which amended Canada’s Criminal Code to create a new offence for child trafficking with a five-year mandatory penalty, and Bill C-310, which now enables the Government of Canada to prosecute any Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada for trafficking in persons abroad.  

Today, human trafficking is an offence under the Criminal Code of Canada and the Immigration and Protections Act because of Joy Smith’s dedication to end human trafficking and enable victims to overcome the trauma and thrive.

In October 2021, the Joy Smith Foundation launched the National Human Trafficking Education Centre (NHTEC), an online education centre dedicated to comprehensively addressing human trafficking on a national scale. The NHTEC will provide free and fee-based courses for teachers, parents, front-line responders, and all Canadians who want to play a role in the prevention and intervention of human trafficking.

Watch the recorded launch event for the National Human Trafficking Education Centre.

You can read about Joy Smith’s fight to have the laws changed in the book The True Story of Canadian Human Trafficking.

International Justice Mission (IJM) – Canada

International Justice Mission (IJM) – Canada

IJM is a global organization which partners with local authorities in 24 program offices in 14 countries to combat slavery, violence against women and children, and police abuse of power against people who are poor.

Their solution to modern-day slavery is to rescue and restore victims, bring criminals to justice, and to strengthen justice systems.

The Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking

The Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking

Their mission statement reads:

To end human trafficking for the purpose of sexual and labour exploitation in Canada by providing strength and support to stakeholders. We will do this through collective action, by creating opportunities to connect and learn from each other and by building capacity, on all levels, to end this abhorrent crime in Canada.

View their Strategic Plan dated 2016-2019.

The Centre runs the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline – 1-833-900-1010

CanadianHumanTraffickingHotline.ca

Learn the signs of human trafficking and put this number on your phone to make a report.

Friday, February 25th is “Shine a Light on Slavery Day.” This is a day to bring awareness to the issue of modern-day slavery and is promoted by a coalition known as the END IT Movement. I will be posting on social media and doing one more post on international organizations involved in anti-human trafficking efforts.

Image by Simple-aign from Pixabay

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A Brief History of Abolition and Anti-Human Trafficking Efforts

For this last day of Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Month, I’m going to do another brief history that will follow the same format as my post on slavery.

Ancient History of anti-slavery Sentiments

As I mentioned in my previous post, an established system of slavery operated widely among ancient civilizations and religions.

Even though widely practiced and defended, there were restrictions and regulations around treatment of slaves and their ability to gain freedom.

Greece:

Late in the 4th-century BCE records show that some Athenian Greeks opposed slavery. The popular rhetorician in the 4th century, Alcidamas, held the sentiment that “God has left all men free; nature has made no man a slave”.  

Persia:

During the First Persian Empire (the Achaemenid Persians), founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BCE, banned most slavery of non-combatants within the empire. It is interesting to note, the labourers who build Persepolis, the ceremonial capital, were paid for their labour.

Middle Ages

In the areas of Europe where Christianity was the dominating force, slavery existed and there is no evidence the Church attempted to abolish slavery or serfdom. In fact, the Church approved.

There were letters of emancipation throughout this time written by church officials, such as Pope Gregory I in the 6th century CE, and an abbot of the abbey of St. Pere in Chartres, France in the 11th century. Despite the theological argument of prominent church leaders, it had little effect on the opinion of the majority who were too invested in the vast economic influence of slavery. Despite discussion and decrees on treatment of slaves in the Christian world, the owning of slaves abounded, even in the church.

France:

In 1315, Louis X published a decree stating that as France symbolized freedom, any slaves were to be freed, except in the colonies.

Under Louis XIV, the Code Noir (1685) regulated the slave trade in the colonies and gave unprecedented rights to slaves in the colonies.

Age of Enlightenment

On the heels of the Renaissance (15th & 16th centuries) and the Scientific Revolution (end of the 16th century through the 18th century) an intellectual and philosophical movement with roots in the intellectual and scholarly interests in science and humanism, dominated European society. It was called the Age of Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason.

Many of the ideas of the enlightenment–reason, evidence of the senses, liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity and separation of church and state–undermined the absolute authority of the Catholic Church.

With the rise of Christianity and belief in the authority of the scriptures, there have been many arguments for and against slavery using a scriptural context. As a strong Christian believer, a lover of Jesus, I find it interesting that genuine progress in the abolishment of slavery came when the absolute authority of the Catholic Church was challenged.

Great Britain and its Empire:

Having “never been officially established”, was the basis upon which an English court in 1569 ruled that English law did not recognize slavery. The Lord Chief Justice upheld this ruling – despite societal developments to the contrary in 1700, when he ruled a slave became free as soon as he arrived in England.

These anti-slavery laws were challenged and many radical groups used the ‘threat to personal freedom’ argument in defence of holding slaves or servants in law courts.

The Abolition movement to end the Atlantic Slave Trade started in the late 18th century, among Quakers in England and North America who had questioned the morality of slavery. It gained momentum, albeit gradually, and the cause was taken up by social reformers with strong roots in the Church of England and who held offices of state. One of these social reformers, and arguably the most well-known, was William Wilberforce. In 1772, a legal case (the Somerset Case) helped launch the British movement to abolish slavery. 

In 1787, the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade formed in London. It took 20 years, but in 1807, the United States and the United Kingdom (including Ireland) outlawed the international slave trade.

In Britain, the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 ended slavery across the British Empire, except for India.

Europe and Russian Empire

France:

It wasn’t until 1794 that slavery was abolished in law in Revolutionary France and its colonies.

Then, in 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte re-established slavery in the colonies under pressure from his slave holder family.

In 1848, the French colonies re-abolished slavery.

Eastern Europe:

In the historical territories we now know as Romania and the Republic of Moldova, enslavement of the Romani people–a traditionally nomadic ethnic group–was the target of abolition groups.

Russia:

A legal reform under the rule of Emperor Alexander II of Russia, – The Emancipation Reform of 1861 – abolished serfdom throughout the Russian Empire.

Americas

Haiti:

Formerly known as Saint-Domingue, a former French colony declared independence from France in 1804, unconditionally abolished slavery. The first sovereign nation in the Western Hemisphere to do so in the modern era.

The United States:

One of the key political issues in the United States during the 19th century was the practice of slavery and was the principal cause of the Civil War (12 April 1861 to 9 May 1865). With his Emancipation Proclamation, 1 January 1863, Abraham Lincoln declared an end to slavery. Following the end of the Civil War, the 13th Amendment to the U.S Constitution – abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude, with the exception as punishment for a crime – was passed by Congress on 31 January 1865, then ratified on 6 December 1865 under the new U.S. President, Andrew Johnson. With the advancement of Union forces south, emancipation without compensation occurred. The final U.S. State reached by the Union forces was Texas, and on 19 June 1865, General Gordon Granger proclaimed the war and slavery were over.

Canada:

The Atlantic province of Nova Scotia (Latin for “New Scotland”) was a destination for black slave refugees from the U.S. During the American Revolution, many of the blacks were free, but not all. Some arrived as property of White American Loyalists. A legal case in Scotland (Knight v Wedderburn, 1774) in which a slave sued his owner for his freedom after being brought from Jamaica as a slave. It took 3 years and two appeals for Knight to win his case and, as a result, Scots law did not recognize slavery. This decision, in turn, influenced the colony of Nova Scotia. In 1788, the first anti-slavery literature published in Canada was by abolitionist James Drummond MacGregor, who also began purchasing slaves’ freedom. Despite attempts in 1787, 1789 and 1808, the Nova Scotian legislature refused to legalize slavery and by 1812, there were few slaves left in Nova Scotia.

Canada passed the first legislation against slavery in the British Empire. The last slaves in Canada gained their freedom in 1833, when slavery was abolished by the Slavery Abolition Act in the British Empire.

Latin America:

Slavery expanded through the U.S., Cuba and Brazil. So too did the abolition movement.

Brazil, the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery, did so in 1888.

Africa

Tunisia:

Tunisia completely abolished slavery in 1846.

Modern Era

In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, under which it declared slavery illegal.

Mauritania, in 1981, was the last country to abolish slavery by presidential decree.

Child and adult slavery and forced labour are illegal in almost all countries under international law, yet human trafficking for sexual and labour enslavement still exists.

As a result, modern day anti-human trafficking organizations carry forward the cry of freedom that has echoed down through the ages.

The United Nations

In November 2000, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) took place in Palermo, Sicily. One of three protocols adopted at that convention is The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. “This protocol is the world’s primary legal instrument to combat human trafficking. It is the first legally binding instrument with an internationally recognized definition of human trafficking. This definition provides a vital tool for the identification of victims, whether men, women, or children, and for the detection of all forms of exploitation that make up human trafficking. Countries that ratify this treaty must criminalize human trafficking and develop anti-trafficking laws in line with the Protocol’s legal provisions. They must provide protection and assistance to victims of human trafficking and ensure that their rights are fully respected.” (Quoted from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)

All nations who have ratified the Protocol use the 3P framework of the Protocol.

The 3 P’s are:

Prevention (article 9)–to prevent and combat trafficking in persons, paying particular attention to women and children
Protection (article 6)–to protect and assist the victims of such trafficking, with full respect for their human rights
Prosecution (article 5)–each state shall adopt such legislation and other measures as may be necessary to establish as criminal offences the conduct set forth in article 3 of this Protocol, when committed intentionally. (see full pdf of Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.)

A fourth P was adopted in 2009:
Partnership–working in partnership with others both domestically and internationally, to prevent trafficking in persons, protect victims of trafficking and prosecute those who engage in trafficking of persons are held accountable.

On February 25th, I will publish a new blog post that highlights a few organizations in partnership to end human trafficking.

(header image photo by Kate Oseen on Upsplash)

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A Brief History of Slavery

As part of January’s Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Month, I thought it would be fitting to discuss slavery in history and how it has evolved to modern-day human trafficking. This post is not designed to take a deep dive into the history but is designed as a stone skipping across the surface to touch on aspects that lead to modern concepts of slavery.

Ancient History of Slavery

Slavery has crossed time, cultures, religions, and borders. Depending on what period of history we examine, slavery existed in the earliest recorded civilizations up to today. The legal rights of slaves also varied depending on the different social and economic systems, time periods, and geographic location.

The exploitation of human life for financial gain existed in every society, which had social and economic layers. Whenever and wherever a civilization developed, so did slavery. For every layer of life in a civilized social context, there exists a place or job to exploit human labour and services.

An established system of slavery operated widely among Ancient civilizations and religions. The Roman empire gained slaves by conquering foreign lands and transporting them home. They were a vital part of trade, and the economy became dependent on the slaves who did most of the work, on the land, in trades, military service, temple prostitution, and sacrifice. Even highly educated captured slaves held positions of trust as traders, business managers, accountants, and intermediaries. Enslavement could result from enemy capture, criminal punishment, debt, abandonment of children, and children born to slaves.

MIDDLE AGES FORWARD

In the Early Middle Ages, established slavery institutions in Europe decreased but not completely in some regions.

During the centuries of Mediterranean warfare, Christians and Muslims captured each other as slaves.

Even though colonialism has existed since ancient history, our modern-day idea of colonialism finds its basis in the European Colonial period from the 15th century to the mid-19th century. Slave practices developed during the European Colonial period dominate modern concepts of slavery.  But most continents have pre-European colonial slave trade practices. Here are some examples:

Africa:

Islamic or Arab slavery was practiced in Asia, Africa, India, and Europe from the 7th to 20th centuries.

The Trans-Saharan slave trade operated within Africa, transporting slaves from Sub-Saharan regions across the Sahara to North African slave markets, where they passed into the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern slave markets. Written records show this slave trade existed as far back as the 5th century into the 21st century.

Indian Ocean slave trade, also known as East Africa or Arab slave trade, took slaves from Africa to the Middle East, the Indian Ocean, and Indian continent, and even to the Americas. It has existed as far back as 2500 BCE through the Muslim period (9th century to 20th century) and the European period (16th century to the 19th century).

In some African cultures, they still practice slavery today.

Middle East:

In the Middle East, slavery practices of the Ancient Near East. They differed depending on political and social circumstances and influences from the Islamic Slave Trade. Under Islamic law, only non-Muslims could become slaves. The increase in converts from the slave population resulted in a market for slaves from outside Muslim lands.

Americas:

In North America, indigenous tribes held captives through warfare as slaves before and during the European Colonial period. When colonists arrived, indigenous peoples became part of the slave economy along with the African slaves. Sometimes, where indigenous peoples adapted to white culture, some tribes even owned African slaves.

Slavery in Latin America existed within indigenous civilizations, including the Maya and Aztec.

European:

Since the European Colonial System began, Europeans dominated the international slave trade by surpassing the Arab world in slave traffic to the Americas.

 The Atlantic Slave trade which transported African people to the Americas existed from the 16th to 19th century.

In Australia, Aboriginal peoples lived a semi-nomadic life and did not have a system of slavery. However, since colonization began in 1788, slavery has existed in many forms. European settlement was based heavily on convicts from Britain and Ireland. Alongside the convict population, many Aboriginal Australians were forced into slave labour. Additionally, Australia also brought in unpaid labourers (another word for slaves) from the surrounding Pacific Islands, China, and India.

The 21st Century Slave Trade

As mentioned earlier in this article, some cultures still consider slavery legal and part of their cultural practice. For example, jihadist groups such as Boko Haram, and the Islamic State of Iraq, and the Levant (ISIL aka ISIS) have taken women and children into slavery. In 2015, the Islamic State posted a price list for women and children.

Too often in our Western mindset, we view slavery as a thing of the past. In too many cultures and countries, the practice of selling humans for financial gain is flourishing. Therefore, we cannot, and should not, consider for a moment that our country/culture/religion can point a finger to another country/culture/religion. Although it may not be obvious, but it still exists.

Slavery Today AKA Human Trafficking

The conversation around slavery today most often uses the term human trafficking, although some organizations use the term modern slavery. Because the result for those trafficked is enslavement.

Some definitions from Merriam-Webster Dictionary for comparison

Slavery – noun

A: the practice of slave holding

B: the state of a person who is held in forced servitude

C: a situation or practice in which people are entrapped (as by debt) and exploited

Human Trafficking – noun

Organized criminal activity in which human beings are treated as possessions to be controlled and exploited (as by being forced into prostitution or involuntary labour)

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit. Men, women, and children of all ages and from all backgrounds can become victims of this crime, which occurs in every region of the world. The traffickers often use violence or fraudulent employment agencies and fake promises of education and job opportunities to trick and coerce their victims.

In my next post, I will discuss abolition and modern-day anti-human trafficking efforts.

Image by Klaus Hausmann from Pixabay

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All That it Takes – 1 Year Anniversary

A year ago, today, I published my debut novel, All That it Takes.

How Do I Feel?

It was a day of joy and excitement as I launched my book and shared it live in an online format with friends and family. I am so grateful for those who attended and attempted to attend—yes, there were some technical issues—despite those issues, it was a special night of celebration.

Over the past year, it thrilled me to see the response from family and friends as they read, left reviews, told their friends, and bought my book to give away, sometimes repeatedly. Your supportive efforts make this journey more joyful, especially when I find myself discouraged along the way.

Writing a book is a solitary task. Making that book fit for a reader brings more people into the process to share the burden of the work, and once the completed book made its way into the world, there are even more people involved. That solitary task eventually becomes a team effort. Even when it is just me and my pen/paper/computer, I certainly do not feel alone on this journey at any stage.

I am part of a wonderful community of fellow writers, authors, and readers. It is not a competitive endeavour. Instead, it is an undertaking to serve the readers of the world. An undertaking in which others who have gone before will help others along the way. Authors started out as readers, in love with stories, who wanted more and more until stories poured out of them. The authors they read and reread fueled that outpouring. As I continue to read the work of other storytellers, especially those works that are exceptionally well written, it gives me the desire to improve constantly, my own literary projects.

What I Have Learned

I learned so much from the process, what I did right, and what I did wrong, and what I need to change from now on. The beauty of independently publishing my book is I can fix errors along the way, and I have. All That it Takes will have one more major change in the coming weeks, which will improve the reading experience for all.

I so appreciate all who have given me feedback. I heard you, and All That it Takes is better for it.

As I write the second book in the Where Can I Go? Series, I am encouraged by all my readers who have expressed their desire for more.

It has taken me so much longer to write than I expected. But, book 2 – What Justice Requires is getting closer to a finished manuscript. Then it will be off to an editor and the revision stage will begin.

I am humbled and so appreciative of your patience as I continue this literary journey.

 I am not alone.  

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JANUARY IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING AWARENESS MONTH

If You or Someone you Know is a Victim of Human Trafficking please contact:

In Canada: The Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-833-900-1010 24/7 or use the chat function on their website.

Or in the United States contact: The National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or use the chat function on their website.

For Human Trafficking Awareness month, I will be posting a series of articles on human trafficking. In 2021 to commemorate this month of awareness, I posted a series of tips on identifying a person who may be trafficked, which I have listed below. I would like to start my series with some basic information on what human trafficking is.

What is Human Trafficking?

Definition – noun – The unlawful act of transporting or coercing people in order to benefit from their work or service, typically in the form of forced labour or sexual exploitation.

In a nutshell, human trafficking is the exploitation of human beings for financial gain.

Humans + exploitation for financial gain = human beings who are physically, emotionally and psychologically traumatized

Signs of Human TraffickingA person may be trafficked if they:Cannot leave their job to find another oneDo not have control over their wages or moneyWork but do not get paid normal wagesHave no choice about hours worked or other working conditionsWork long hours, lives at a work site, or is picked up and driven to and from workShow signs of physical abuse or injuryAre accompanied everywhere by someone who speaks for him/herAppear to be fearful of and or under the control of another personMay have health issues that have not been attended toOwe money to their employer or another person who they feel honour bound to repayMay describe moving or changing jobs suddenly and oftenAre unfamiliar with the neighbourhood where they live or workAre not working in the job originally promised to themAre travelling with minimal or inappropriate luggage/belongingsLack identification, passport, or other travel documentsAre forced to provide sexual services in a strip club, massage parlour, brothel, or other locationsMay appear to be malnourishedSigns YOU might be a victim of human trafficking:

Ask yourself these questions:

Are you in a new relationship with someone older or richer, perhaps online? Does the relationship seem to involve manipulation and control?Do you receive gifts or cash from your partner for no reason?Has the relationship you are in taken a sudden negative turn?Have intimate images of you been shared by someone online with/without your consent?Do you feel intimidated or controlled? Does your partner often control your phone, where you go, who you see, or even withhold your personal identifidation?Are you living and working in harsh conditions?Here are some online training links and resources to educate yourself on human trafficking:

Canada:

BC Government Human Trafficking Online Training Course

The Joy Smith Foundation – National Human Trafficking Education Centre

For more resources see:

Deborah’s Gate – Anti-Human Trafficking Programs  (Salvation Army)

USA:

US Government Office on Trafficking in Persons

International:

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime – Trafficking in Persons

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Lest We Forget

As I sit and write this post on this day of remembrance, I see military vehicles passing by my window. People will shortly gather in Memorial Park, at the heart of my neighbourhood.

I live in Victoria, British Columbia, the home of Canada’s Pacific Naval Fleet and the distinguished infantry regiment: The Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary’s).

The Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt dominates my neighbourhood, Esquimalt. I am surrounded by historic Navy and Army sites. Every day I see uniformed servicemen and women. They are a major part of my community. I have friends who serve and family who have served.

Forgetting is not possible for me.

I had plans to attend Services today, unfortunately; I am in the midst of a move and will pick my sister up at the airport this afternoon. There is too much to do to prepare for her arrival.

Next year, I hope to attend services with my sister, who served in the Royal Canadian Air Force. When my mom was still living, and no longer able to attend outside services. We were content to sit together and watch the televised broadcast from our nation’s capital, Ottawa. My mother passed in the spring of 2019. The reason why I didn’t attend in person that year eludes me. I think grief still had a grip on me and I watched the televised ceremony alone, thinking of my mom who is no longer siting with me and watching.

I would watch the emotion pass across her face. My mother married and gave birth to her first two children during WWII. Her first husband fought on the beaches of Normandy, and died in 1947 of a brain tumor that resulted from a head wound he received on D-Day. I wrote about her experience here.

I did not attend last year, as the Covid-19 pandemic limited services. We are still in the midst of the pandemic, but the availability of a safe and effective vaccination makes gathering possible once again.

For most, it is a day of gratitude for the previous sacrifices and ongoing service of our military community. It is a gratitude that was born in grief and continues to reside there. I cannot experience a Remembrance Day without gratitude and tears.

Every other day of the year, I am thankful for the service of the active members of the military who live in my community, and I try to remember to thank them when I see them. But today, is a day for grief over the loss of life and the ongoing wounds suffered because of active service.

I have not and will not forget.

I see you, and I am so grateful.

Here are some previous Remembrance Day posts if you are interested in reading more:

The 100th Anniversary of WWI Armistice

 My earliest memories of Remembrance Day

A memory of my mom’s during a friendly shooting competition with soldiers before they shipped out during WWII

As I did in my grade school days, I will stand, and listen to Taps, the bugler’s cry, and have a moment of silence, at the 11th hour, of this 11th day of the 11th month.

How do you pass this day of Rememberance?

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Canada’s National Day of Truth and Reconciliation

30 September was a momentous day in Canada. 

We have a new Federal Holiday in Canada starting this year. September 30 is now recognized as:

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation 

How did this come about? Here is a very brief and abbreviated timeline:

In 2007, the largest legal class-action lawsuit in Canadian history resulted in The Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) which came into effect in September 2007.

One element of that agreement was the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to bring to light the facts behind the Residential School system (1870’s to 1996).

In March 2008, a tour titled Remembering the Children traveled to various cities in Canada where Indigenous leaders and Church officials promoted activities of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

On 11 June 2008, on behalf of the Government of Canada, the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, stood in parliament in our nation’s capital and gave an official apology to the Indigenous People for the Indian Residential School System. You can read the entire apology here.

Orange Shirt Day began in a school in Williams Lake, B.C., Canada, 30 September 2013. Its aim was to raise awareness and honour the Indigenous children that were taken from their families by the Canadian government and forced to attend Residential Schools. Far from home, the Residential schools separated them from their family structure, language and culture to force assimilation into European-dominated society and culture.

The original ‘orange shirt’, for Orange Shirt Day, belonged to Phyllis Webstad, who attended the St. Joseph’s Residential School near Williams Lake. Like Phyllis, I grew up getting a new outfit for the first day of school. I felt excited and special. Phyllis’s grandmother gave her a new orange shirt for her first day of school as well. But that’s where the similarity in our story ends. Read Phyllis’s story here.

The first Orange Shirt Day in 2013 in that school in Williams Lake, started a movement that spread across the entire province of British Columbia and then Canada. 

In June 2015, the TRC released a summary report of its findings and 94 Calls to Action. As of 2020, only 8 calls to action have been completed. Items 71-76 of the Calls to Action deal with cemeteries and burial grounds of children from former residential schools.

Then on 27 May this year, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation near Kamloops, BC announced they had found 215 graves of children at the former Kamloops Residential School using ground-penetrating radar.

By August, over 1300 unmarked graves had been discovered in western Canada.

Why 30 September? 

The end of September was the usual time when Indigenous children were removed from their families and home communities and taken to residential schools.

A number of years ago, I attended a weekend writing conference in Nanaimo, BC hosted by the Federation of BC Writers. On the second evening there was an event at which Indigenous writers and traditional storytellers gave a presentation and answered questions. 

Regarding reconciliation, someone in the audience asked the question: What can I as an individual do?

I will never forget the answer:

We ask that you listen.

As a Canadian, and a member of the privileged European community, I have decided to listen and learn. Listen to the stories and history of the Indigenous peoples of Canada.

I live and work on the traditional unceded territory of the Lekwugen Peoples, which includes the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations. 

 

 

 

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The Alice Network by Kate Quinn – Book Review

I am not usually a fan of a story that jumps back and forth in time. Mostly because it can become an exercise in frustration and confusion. But, in The Alice Network, Kate Quinn has woven the two time periods together like a master weaver. Two women and two world wars. One, a scarred and damaged spy from the First World War; the second, a young American in France looking for a childhood friend shortly after the Second World War.

France and its people are a distinct character in this book. A nation that endured a devastating and brutal occupation twice in a generation. The Alice Network is more than a story about spies. It is a story of the hearts of courage that faced evil and emerged unconquered.

The Alice Network was real, and the author has given us an intimate look into the lives of women who risked their lives to help the allied forces against German invaders. The author changed no names in this fictionalized account of actual people and actual events.

This is historical fiction from the pen of a master, who wastes not a detail of history nor a word in its retelling.

Here is an excerpt that so speaks to the brilliance of the author in its depiction of the childhood of a woman who would one day become a member of a network of spies which two nations later decorated and lauded.

“You were asking about my parents? My father lived and worked in Nancy; my mother kept house.”

“And you?”

“I went to school, home for tea every afternoon. My mother taught me French and embroidery, and my father taught me English and duck hunting.”

“How very civilized.”

Eve smiled sweetly, remembering the roaring behind the lace curtains, the course slurs and vicious arguments. She might have learned to put on gentility, but she’d come from something far less refined: the constant shrieking and throwing of china, her father roaring at her mother for frittering away money, her mother’s nipping at her father for being seen with yet another barmaid. The kind of home where a child learned quickly to slide unseen around the edges of rooms, to vanish like a shadow in a black night at the first rumble on the domestic horizon. To listen to everything, weigh everything, all the while remaining unnoticed. “Yes, it was a very instructive childhood.”

And here is a quote from the actual Queen of Spies, Louise de Bettingnies, the leader of the Alice Network:

When urged to be more careful, she laughed, “Bah! I know I’ll be caught one day, but I shall have served. Let us hurry, and do great things while there is yet time.”

In my novel, All That it Takes, the first book in the Where Can I Go? Series, I desire to bring awareness to the devastating occupation of human traffickers in today’s world. That desire continues as I write the second book in the series, What Justice Requires.

So, I say to you, dear reader; let us hurry and do great things while there is yet time.

Will you educate yourself on human trafficking in your community? Please go to my resources page for more information.

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Book Review – This Is The Fire by Don Lemon, Anchor of CNN Tonight

This week I finished reading, This is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism by Don Lemon, Anchor of CNN Tonight.

Don Lemon has given this reader a clear and concise look at racism in America, with a focus on major events in 2020: the Covid-19 crisis, disastrously mismanaged by the administration of the 45th president; the Black Lives Matter movement which gained fresh breath by the dying words, “I can’t breathe” of George Floyd, and the 2020 Presidential election, in which the American people limited Donald Trump’s presidency to a single term.

Through his lived experience as a Black man in the United States of America, he allows the reader to gain a measure of understanding of the microaggressions and the not so micro acts of discrimination all members of the Black community continue to experience daily.

Through his eyes as a journalist, he gives the reader an unobstructed view of the continuing legacy of an “irredeemable past.”

As a journalist, Don Lemon has a wealth of experience interviewing scientists, authors, historians, other members of the journalistic community, and the everyman/woman trying to live their lives on the streets of America.

This background has resulted in a well written, clear, and concise overview of historical events that created the environment for all that occurred in 2020. It also addresses how a society can change if—and that’s a big if—that society can put the heartbreaking work into facing the issues we as individuals carry.

You don’t have to be an American to learn something from this book. I copied the Appendix lists of further reading and listening suggestions at the back of the book. My education will continue. I also found This is the Fire to be an excellent companion to another book I am currently reading: How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi.

I think of every individual citizen—myself included — who makes up the social fabric of a nation which says in its anthem:

“Oh, Canada, . . . with glowing hearts we see the rise, the True north, Strong and free. From far and wide, Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee.”

Can we say as a nation and as individuals that our hearts are glowing when we see all that is happening in our nation? Is our nation strong, and free for all of its citizens?  I am proud to be Canadian. But, there is room for improvement, as any democratic nation will tell you. As one citizen of Canada, I want to be part of the health of our nation going forward. It starts with me. It starts by listening to the voices silenced for so long, listening to opinions I may not agree with, open my heart and attempt to understand where possible.

I look at events in my own country of Canada, especially around the issue of colonialism and its ongoing destructive effect on the Indigenous community, the health crisis of Covid-19, and a federal election which many say is unnecessary during a pandemic.

Here are two quotes—from so many I could have chosen—that I feel speak to me in my life and this time in the history of humanity.

“I’m asking you to open your mind and allow space for potentially uncomfortable ideas. . . . Folks of all races, ages and persuasions will have to turn toward those with whom we disagree, those who fear change, and we must challenge ourselves to listen to their concerns before we attempt to exorcise their dread.”

“. . . being aware of who you are and your own privilege . . . its exhausting. But there’s no other way, because to give up, to just embrace ignorance leads to some really dark places.”

I have been taking the time over the past few years to read and listen to the experience of all my citizens of this planet we live on. Yes, it has been exhausting and overwhelming, but I will not give up.

Where are you on this journey?

Please leave a comment.

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