True Patriot Love - Canada’s Human Trafficking Crisis Is on Our Highways

00:00:00.240 the reason we're talking about signs you might think oh okay you saw a sign big deal no no we

00:00:05.440 saw a sign every 500 meters for kilometers with this topic this singular topic being hammered home

00:00:13.200 right along the trans canada highway yeah and so you have to understand this is a trade route for

00:00:22.720 human trafficking the stats for human trafficking in canada are nothing short of shocking alarming

00:00:33.760 and disgusting 96 of trafficking victims in this country are female 71 of the trafficking victims

00:00:40.960 in canada are under the age of 25 and even worse indigenous women and girls are severely over

00:00:47.680 represented in these huge numbers now indigenous women make up only five percent of the general 0.99

00:00:53.200 canadian population but they account for over 50 percent 50 are the trafficking and sexual

00:00:59.200 exploitation victims in canada and someone who had a first row seat across this country

00:01:04.560 of the plea for help from everyone at all levels is mike wixon joins me today mike how are you oh

00:01:10.160 good jim thanks for having me and this is a tough topic it is uh but like you point out it's

00:01:15.120 obviously bubbling to the surface uh in certain parts of canada um and the stats that you just

00:01:21.520 shared you know alongside uh the statistical data that tells us worldwide canada has more missing

00:01:30.480 persons than any other country per capita uh unsolved cases uh and you just have to think

00:01:38.320 there's a dovetailing between these two stats that we're sharing um today and as you point out

00:01:44.800 yeah i just i just arrived back from across canada trip yeah which was in many ways and of course

00:01:51.360 most ways really beautiful but you do start to see some of the fissures in society in certain areas

00:01:58.240 that you don't think about when you're in uh you know in ontario in the southern part of ontario

00:02:03.840 certainly in the major cities and for that point you were seeing signs through northern ontario

00:02:10.720 in western canada and not just a few but dozens and dozens of sign of missing women yeah a

00:02:18.080 combination of missing individuals and i don't know uh if they have found the the young lady

00:02:23.760 but i i think you probably saw the sign on the post outside our studio right here in toronto

00:02:28.880 yeah uh you know there's a young lady uh her family playing for her return or to to get some

00:02:35.520 insight this is on billboards uh in northern ontario as you make your way through sous saint

00:02:43.040 marie up into thunder bay thunder bay into uh manitoba and even in manitoba the theme continues

00:02:50.480 that there is a problem billboards telling us that there is a human trafficking problem how

00:02:55.840 to identify if you're being human trafficked because frankly often it seems that these come

00:03:02.000 from abusive relationships in the beginning and turn into crime over time and they're so young

00:03:08.240 they're saying the majority of the victims are young teenage girls some as young as 13 who were

00:03:13.600 recruited in various ways and it's it's this is one thing i think i don't care what where you lie

00:03:20.720 in the political spectrum and how are your feelings about law and order i can't imagine any canadian

00:03:27.440 watching this wouldn't think we need to stiffen the laws to protect the youth and women of this

00:03:32.800 country and men who are being trafficked but mainly women but more importantly when those are caught

00:03:39.280 they actually do real time to deter and discourage anyone do it in the future there's too many

00:03:45.520 victims there's too many missing you know and they're from all races and religions and cultures 0.99

00:03:51.760 but so many indigenous women it's it's a national emergency and and i know we have priorities in 1.00

00:03:57.440 this country mike when it comes to law and order and spending money but the police departments

00:04:03.840 across the country are so you know understaffed and overwhelmed they need help they need the

00:04:08.560 government's help to give them more resources and more officers to try to put a stop to this

00:04:13.680 it's uh interesting and and of course that's true and i think that there is a challenge

00:04:19.280 around the crime of human trafficking not only is it one of the most dire horrible crimes that

00:04:26.480 society has to deal with but it's also very hard to detect it's very hard to get the police to

00:04:34.240 the resources that they have as you point out very difficult to get those but then the process

00:04:38.880 the the means by which human trafficking is executed is really difficult to pin down

00:04:45.520 criminally and then of course as you point out again jim that was a really good point once these

00:04:50.320 people are convicted it needs to be a hard conviction for a long period of time it needs

00:04:55.920 to set a standard for what we will and will not tolerate the other thing is jim i don't know if

00:05:00.880 you recall uh you and i worked at a radio station uh that you still work at um and we had york

00:05:07.680 regional police and to talk about human trafficking at one point and they talked about how difficult

00:05:12.640 it is to get somebody to come to them who's being human trafficked uh how hard it is to get them

00:05:20.640 extracted from that scenario so i think resources and expertise in this uh is probably on the

00:05:28.240 horizon i hope now i spoke into a few officers ranking officers senior officers and they often

00:05:34.960 talk you know we did a show last week paul and i about a crime in small town canada and they talk

00:05:41.360 about that their big concern is um the bedroom communities the small towns when those vulnerable

00:05:48.320 teens those young women get to downtown toronto montreal vancouver there's often they lose them

00:05:54.080 they're lost in sort of the vortex of crime and you know sickness that is the people who traffic

00:06:00.240 these young girls and as you say getting them out is very difficult and i mean they're recruited

00:06:05.200 through being groomed at shopping malls and schools but social media is a big tool being used

00:06:11.440 for evil and and i know there's talk that mark carney and the liberals are looking at banning

00:06:17.280 social media for kids under the age of 16 and i know there's a lot of people with very um you know

00:06:22.880 emotional opinions about this but if this is a way to prevent prevent some of these young women and

00:06:28.080 young canadians from being trafficked then maybe it's not a bad thing i i have to ask you know my

00:06:33.360 my own opinion of that is um yes i feel it might not be a bad idea the only problem with it jim is

00:06:40.800 if we take social media away from the kids who's going to tell me what's ai and what's not because

00:06:45.200 i can't i can't tell uh that's true you know one of the things that i saw in a sign that really i

00:06:50.320 found most disturbing was uh first of all when you the reason we're talking about signs you might

00:06:56.320 think oh okay he saw a sign big deal no no we saw a sign every 500 meters for kilometers

00:07:03.040 with this topic this singular topic being hammered home right along the trans canada highway

00:07:10.880 yeah and so you have to understand this is a trade route for human trafficking correct

00:07:19.200 and we're talking about communities in this country as small as 5 000 people to 50 150 000

00:07:25.280 people it's little villages to towns to small and medium-sized cities and if they're being

00:07:32.640 trafficked there into other communities into the big cities as you said for the police services

00:07:38.000 to extract these people from the grips of human trafficking is such a massive undertaking one of

00:07:44.960 the signs that i saw said is your child being human trafficked another one that i saw said

00:07:50.960 are you being human trafficked do you feel safe enough to get out at the next stop

00:07:55.840 oh really so really addressing the audience the driver the potential trafficker the potential

00:08:04.000 victim right there at the side of the highway both girls both our daughters went to university

00:08:09.920 in canada and they were taught when they started about hand signals i don't know if you heard about

00:08:15.760 that there's a secret hand signal that you give if you're walking with an adult or someone that

00:08:20.640 you feel you're you're in trouble to signal to someone else i need help and it's little things

00:08:25.760 like that we're educating the public and educating people um hey this is wrong and we're i'm seeing 0.95

00:08:32.000 some videos now on social media where uh unfortunately it's almost always women young

00:08:37.360 women who feel like they're being intimidated by men older men and to go to a group of other men

00:08:44.560 and start a conversation and that will deter them you know things like that like if i'm trying to

00:08:49.200 stalk someone and all of a sudden you're talking to a group of construction workers or you know you

00:08:54.960 know guys playing basketball or people in a restaurant all of a sudden they're in a group and

00:08:59.520 maybe just maybe that gets you out of it but yeah it's it's become such an epidemic and you think

00:09:05.520 20 years ago you used to see in the back of a tractor trailer missing person stuff like that

00:09:10.720 now we're at the point in canada as you said where there's signs every 500 700 meters on the trans

00:09:16.000 canada highway highlighting the issue human trafficking you know jim i think that one of

00:09:20.960 the other elements that and and we saw this i should point this out you know we heard that the

00:09:25.280 rcmp is hiring um i will tell you this uh and and i do not want to uh jinx myself for future trips

00:09:33.360 to the west yeah but i got away with just one speeding ticket and aside from that i saw very

00:09:39.280 few police on the trans canada highway except at the hotels where we were staying at i i don't want

00:09:44.800 want to come off like a big shot but we stay at the Holiday Inn nice big budget give me some of

00:09:51.480 that I'm a silver member but what we did notice along the way is that the RCMP is in training

00:09:59.980 mode there were large groups of RCMP officers going to training facilities throughout the

00:10:05.800 the country into different provinces and that is the primary you know police force along the

00:10:12.380 trans absolutely these remote areas yeah and certainly operating the trans canada highway

00:10:17.420 uh on a policing front we did notice an increase in the number of officers or that they were

00:10:24.340 actually executing this training with young officers brand new officers at the hotels and

00:10:29.460 well they that's where they stay at night and then they go to the training facility during the day

00:10:33.320 um not even not even just um also recruitment we noticed military recruitment traveling across

00:10:42.380 country as well of course uh also staying at our illustrious hotel you know what i think all the

00:10:48.620 big companies like the police and the military tpl media media yeah we all stay there good luck

00:10:53.980 getting a reservation but having said that it did it was interesting to see okay there's obviously

00:11:00.220 this problem the rcmp is dealing with it we're seeing it on the roadsides it's part of the

00:11:04.940 discussion and the culture here they're trying to handle it along the highway and now they're also

00:11:09.500 also making the hires that they they said they were going and the presence mike the presence of

00:11:14.640 some rcmp cruisers and officers in a hotel like if you're a criminal wouldn't you think twice

00:11:20.440 before you bring a girl you're trying to traffic into a hotel that is the rcmp there jim if you've

00:11:25.560 never been pulled over by the rcmp if you're like a local toronto guy and you get pulled over by

00:11:29.940 you know what the deal is right but when the rcmp pulls you now you've done it this is the first

00:11:37.900 time i've been pulled over in my life jam where you could i turned to brady and went oh i think

00:11:43.260 that's a is so far in the distance in the prairies i saw him make the u-turn in the distance

00:11:49.460 pit the cherries i looked in the rearview mirror nothing behind us nothing in front of us and just

00:11:55.140 that guy waiting a minute and a half later i caught up to him so he could give us a ticket

00:11:59.980 and because it's the rcmp and they come to the the you know the rcmp vehicle and stuff like that

00:12:06.420 I'm so freaked out.

00:12:07.420 I practically jumped out onto the road.

00:12:10.240 You really played it cool there.

00:12:11.440 And just like laid on my head and said, okay, I got nothing.

00:12:13.700 I got nothing.

00:12:14.400 Nice one, Magnum.

00:12:15.520 But what they did do, and I found this amazing,

00:12:18.880 as a rule of thumb in Saskatchewan, you get pulled over,

00:12:23.200 you do a breathalyzer test.

00:12:24.640 Oh, cool.

00:12:25.320 That's not just to find alcohol.

00:12:27.020 It gives the police, as he explained to me,

00:12:31.040 just cause to ask questions in the car.

00:12:34.860 Nice.

00:12:35.380 all of the passengers it gives them reason to investigate further is there guns is there drugs

00:12:41.060 is there a person yeah now i got the driver out of the car i can start to interview who's in the

00:12:45.060 car okay this is obviously a tactic being used to try to reduce uh human trafficking i would love to

00:12:51.140 know if that's correct but that was the connection i never heard of that before mike so uh it was

00:12:55.460 very interesting i i blew a zero and he said oh good boy let me go get you a ticket and off i went

00:13:00.980 So, but it was obvious that this is real.

00:13:05.680 We talk about it here on the network.

00:13:07.840 As you get north and across the country into more rural areas, it's a real going concern.

00:13:14.240 And that Trans-Canada Highway is obviously the root of concern.

00:13:19.640 But Mike, how can we as a nation be serious about truth and reconciliation with the Indigenous population 0.96

00:13:25.780 when over 50% of trafficking and sexual exploitation victims are Indigenous?

00:13:32.480 Well, these are the areas that we were visiting, right?

00:13:34.840 And so that was obvious.

00:13:36.620 Somebody is stepping up saying this has to stop.

00:13:39.480 It has to stop.

00:13:40.160 But we're not hearing about it, really, Jim.

00:13:42.580 No, not at all.

00:13:42.980 How often do you hear this?

00:13:44.120 There's billboards along the highway.

00:13:45.980 The stats are out there.

00:13:47.300 It's been in the news.

00:13:48.220 That's someone else's problem.

00:13:49.420 That's not a problem in downtown Montreal or Vancouver or Toronto.

00:13:53.740 we're worried about the world cup and transit yeah no it's a problem everywhere yeah and and that's

00:13:58.780 what i experienced jim that the problem there was you know if you ask somebody in sault st marie

00:14:02.860 what's your biggest concern they'll tell you potholes right it's different than what we think

00:14:07.260 here exactly but this is another real issue that is plaguing these communities outside of the major

00:14:13.420 areas that obviously is bad enough that they're taking steps along the highways and this is where

00:14:20.860 our government funding and our tax dollars the rcmp the opp local police services local social

00:14:28.460 services local organizations to help young people who feel they might get sucked into this world

00:14:34.700 can keep them out of it and that's that's where you know instead of spending 200 grand on gourmet

00:14:39.980 food and wine for three flights let's spend some money to hire some you know social sociologist and

00:14:46.460 some therapists and people helping these young teens to stay out of that life

00:14:50.540 yeah right i mean i mean as a canadian that that's what we're signing up for now by the way

00:14:56.380 i just want to point out that there is a canadian human trafficking hotline you can call them 24 7

00:15:03.580 1-833-900-1010 that's 1-833-900-1010 and that's 24 7 a canadian human trafficking hotline so if

00:15:17.980 you think about something if you have a sneaky suspicion is something doesn't feel right if

00:15:22.780 you're traveling you're like i'm not sure about this situation just call them if there's nothing

00:15:27.740 wrong there's nothing wrong if there's nothing wrong everything goes on as normal exactly yeah

00:15:32.140 but if there's something wrong then maybe you just save someone yeah because you made me think

00:15:37.260 here's me driving across the country with little brady wedham beside me yeah and the police pulled

00:15:41.260 me over i wonder if just for a second he was like whose kid is that oh no that's a man yeah

00:15:48.220 uh a little man a wee little man but uh but yes no listen we'll include this number yes uh in the

00:15:54.700 description so if you're listening or watching this take a look in the description you can take

00:15:58.700 that number right there and be a part of the solution that apparently is desperately needed

00:16:03.420 and so difficult to nail down you know mike i'm not going to be naive enough to say that you know

00:16:08.140 when we were younger back in the 80s this thing didn't happen it happened but a much smaller scale

00:16:14.060 but now the numbers are at the point now the national police service local police provincial

00:16:20.060 police they're all overwhelmed their technology on their side to make it happen you as you point

00:16:26.460 out social media email even just texting and and all of that the means of communication that help

00:16:33.180 execute this and even drive the business let's be honest exactly right and they're ending up in

00:16:39.420 prostitution and porn and whatnot and we have to save these mainly young women we have a moral

00:16:46.620 obligation as canadians to do something and when we complain as canadians about the price of stuff 0.93

00:16:51.980 and taxes this is something i will not complain about my tax money going to help stop this and

00:16:57.180 help fund the resources whether it's crown attorneys or more investigators right more more

00:17:02.380 more people to help the society there's more than just one uh element required for this solution

00:17:08.540 you're right the entire handling of this from policing through the courts even through uh the

00:17:15.740 the the prison system exactly all needs to be put in check for this it's a tough topic i appreciate

00:17:21.340 it is but when they actually get to the court and if they are convicted that the judges do the right

00:17:27.340 thing and give them a stiff sentence so that they know word gets out to anyone thinking about doing

00:17:32.460 this you're going to do some serious hard time not in jail but in prison yeah and you you know

00:17:37.900 i've seen enough documentaries no prison's no joke and if you're doing hard time at a prison

00:17:42.700 you might think twice about doing this again i think there's a stigma attached with doing this

00:17:46.940 that once you get to prison,

00:17:48.220 your life is even harder

00:17:49.580 than you ever imagined it would be.

00:17:51.600 Let's put the criminals in that position.

00:17:53.820 Absolutely. Thanks, Mike.

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True Patriot Love - June 13, 2026

Canada’s Human Trafficking Crisis Is on Our Highways

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