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An Act to amend the Criminal Code (trafficking in persons) (S.C. 2005, c. 43)

Assented to 2005-11-25

An Act to amend the Criminal Code (trafficking in persons)

S.C. 2005, c. 43

Assented to 2005-11-25

An Act to amend the Criminal Code (trafficking in persons)

SUMMARY

This enactment amends the Criminal Code to

  • (a) create an offence of trafficking in persons that prohibits a person from engaging in specified acts for the purpose of exploiting or facilitating the exploitation of another person;

  • (b) create an offence that prohibits a person from receiving a financial or other material benefit that they know results from the commission of the offence of trafficking in persons;

  • (c) create an offence that prohibits concealing, removing, withholding or destroying travel documents or documents that establish or purport to establish another person’s identity or immigration status for the purpose of committing or facilitating the offence of trafficking in persons; and

  • (d) establish that a person exploits another person if they cause them to provide, or offer to provide, labour or a service by engaging in conduct that could reasonably be expected to cause the other person to believe that their safety or that of someone known to them would be threatened if they failed to do so or if, by means of deception or the use or threat of force or of any other form of coercion, they cause the other person to have an organ or tissue removed.

Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

Marginal note:R.S., c. C-46

CRIMINAL CODE

1. Paragraph (a) of the definition “offence” in section 183 of the Criminal Code is amended by adding the following after subparagraph (xlvii):

  • (xlvii.1) section 279.01 (trafficking in persons),

  • (xlvii.2) section 279.02 (material benefit),

  • (xlvii.3) section 279.03 (withholding or destroying documents),

Marginal note:R.S., c. 27 (1st Supp.), s. 39(1)

2. The heading before section 279 of the Act is replaced by the following:

Kidnapping, Trafficking in Persons, Hostage Taking and Abduction

3. The Act is amended by adding the following after section 279:

Marginal note:Trafficking in persons

  • 279.01 (1) Every person who recruits, transports, transfers, receives, holds, conceals or harbours a person, or exercises control, direction or influence over the movements of a person, for the purpose of exploiting them or facilitating their exploitation is guilty of an indictable offence and liable

    • (a) to imprisonment for life if they kidnap, commit an aggravated assault or aggravated sexual assault against, or cause death to, the victim during the commission of the offence; or

    • (b) to imprisonment for a term of not more than fourteen years in any other case.

  • Marginal note:Consent

    (2) No consent to the activity that forms the subject-matter of a charge under subsection (1) is valid.

Marginal note:Material benefit

279.02 Every person who receives a financial or other material benefit, knowing that it results from the commission of an offence under subsection 279.01(1), is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than ten years.

Marginal note:Withholding or destroying documents

279.03 Every person who, for the purpose of committing or facilitating an offence under subsection 279.01(1), conceals, removes, withholds or destroys any travel document that belongs to another person or any document that establishes or purports to establish another person’s identity or immigration status is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years, whether or not the document is of Canadian origin or is authentic.

Marginal note:Exploitation

279.04 For the purposes of sections 279.01 to 279.03, a person exploits another person if they

  • (a) cause them to provide, or offer to provide, labour or a service by engaging in conduct that, in all the circumstances, could reasonably be expected to cause the other person to believe that their safety or the safety of a person known to them would be threatened if they failed to provide, or offer to provide, the labour or service; or

  • (b) cause them, by means of deception or the use or threat of force or of any other form of coercion, to have an organ or tissue removed.