Ottawa Tourism, the destination marketing organization (DMO) for Canada’s capital city, is launching a long-term anti-human trafficking action plan, which is believed to be a first-of-its-kind for a Canadian DMO.

Details of the plan were outlined by Michael Crockatt, CEO and president of Tourism Ottawa, in a LinkedIn Live Stream (click on video at right to view) on February 22, 2024 – the fourth Human Trafficking Awareness Day in Canada. The live stream also included comments from Tourism Ottawa members and the DMO’s partners on the initiative: Sandy Biback, founder of Meeting Professionals Against Human Trafficking (MPAHT); Cynthia Bland, founder and CEO, Voice Found; Sarah Tunstall, Lived Experience specialist and case manager, Voice Found; Judy Drydyk, executive director of The Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking; Geneviève Dumas, MBA, general manager, Fairmont Château Laurier (Ottawa); and Nina Kressler, president and CEO, Shaw Centre Ottawa.

Share this number: The Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline – 1-833-900-1010 – is a confidential, multilingual service, operating 24/7 to connect victims and survivors with social services, law enforcement, and emergency services, as well as receive tips from the public.

The plan, said Crockatt, represents a collective effort to combat trafficking in Ottawa. “[It] is simple, scalable and will produce hard data that will help guide further actions. Most importantly, this plan has been developed in consultation with human trafficking experts and those with lived experience,” he explained. “This is also a framework that any destination marketing organization could adapt to fill gaps in their own city.”

The first phase of the plan focuses on three objectives, all of which are aimed at normalizing the conversation around human trafficking, increasing awareness, education and prevention.

Tourism Ottawa has committed to:

1. Increasing access to information and resources on human trafficking, which includes both sex trafficking and labor trafficking, by growing Tourism Ottawa’s digital resources for the public, its tourism members and businesses, and meeting planners and event organizers.
2. Providing enhanced training to ensure all types and sizes of tourism businesses and their teams have access to appropriate education.
3. Surveying its members with the goal of accurately understanding their current efforts to disrupt trafficking to pinpoint exactly how it, as a DMO, can supplement those efforts.

Sandy Biback, founder of MPAHT, said the plan was a call to action from Ottawa Tourism’s leadership and asked other DMOs to join their fight against human trafficking.  “As far as we know, this is the very first DMO in Canada to take such action,” she said. “Are there others? Are you going to come and join us? Ottawa Tourism is setting the template…. You can help by jumping on to what they’re offering.”

Cynthia Bland of Voice Found, an Ottawa-based organization based in lived experience that provides recovery support for victims of human trafficking and child sexual abuse, explained that it would be assisting in the development and delivery of the training that Tourism Ottawa has committed to. “We know that many members of the general public are not aware of the issue, and we’ve developed a basic presentation to assist in increasing knowledge of the issue specific to Ottawa. Beginning on February 29th, we will be delivering this presentation in person in collaboration with a number of Ottawa city councilors.”

Sarah Tunstall of Voice Found, who has lived experience of trafficking and who works with survivors every day, said an initiative like Ottawa Tourism’s was long overdue. “This action plan will make a positive difference by bringing this topic into the open,” she said. “Many times, trafficking is sensationalized in the media with inaccurate portrayals of its victims. This training and action plan are based in reality, making it effective in the identification of victims and providing concrete actions for support. Anyone can be a victim of human trafficking and I applaud Ottawa Tourism for their leadership, Meeting Professionals Against Human Trafficking for their vision, and The Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking for their key role in helping victims of both labor and sex trafficking across Canada.”