Bill 41 one step closer to being a law in Ontario
Bill 41 has crossed another hurdle at Queen's Park.
The bill, which seeks to protect victims of human trafficking from coerced debt, is one step closer to being passed as a law in Ontario.
“The bill has moved to a second reading,” said Ottawa-Vanier Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Lucille Collard, who co-sponsored the bill, on The Sam Laprade Show on Feb. 27. “But, there are important next steps that need to happen for the measures to be implemented and that is going to committee with a review with public hearings, hearing from survivors, hearing from creditors and hearing from Ontarians about what this bill needs to accomplish so it's the best measure possible to help victims.”
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If all goes well and the bill is passed into law, it will compel financial institutions and collection agencies to forgive any coerced debts accrued by a victim of human trafficking. Consumer agencies will also be barred from publishing that information on credit card reports.
The Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking reports that most coerced debts are accumulated either by identity fraud or victims being forced to take out loans for traffickers.
“The majority of the victims are women,” added Collard. “There are also marginalized people, Indigenous people and there are a lot of teenagers unfortunately, and the victims are groomed from a really young age.”
Data from Statistics Canada showed that between 2010 and 2020, there were almost 3,000 cases of human trafficking reported in to police services across the country.
Listen to the full interview with MPP Lucille Collard below:
