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Sex TraffickingArchive 2008–2016

Sex Trafficking in Burnaby, British Columbia (2003)

A sex trafficking case from 2003 in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. 1 source on file.

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What happened

a 59 yrs old man from Burnaby, BC, Canada, The charges stem from acts between December 1998 and March 2002. Mr. Klassen initially faced trial on 35 counts but pleaded guilty in May to 15 counts involving girls in Cambodia and Colombia, as well as the child pornography charge. Klassen, the father of three lived in Colombia for 20 years before returning to Canada. His lawyers argued he didn't travel there for sex, but became complacent to the age of girls in a place that doesn't have the same stringent laws. Mr. Klassen's lawyers had argued the Burnaby man was merely a “customer” of willing participants after he pleaded guilty to 14 offences of sexual interference and one count of importing child pornography

Response and intervention

July 28, 2010 Klassen was sentenced to 11 years in prison. |Justice Austin Cullen condemned Kenneth Klassen's repeated sexual activity with prepubescent girls overseas as “opportunistic” and “organized,” as he delivered his sentence Wednesday for Mr. Klassen's violations of Canada's rarely used sex-tourism law." Outside court, Crown lawyer Brendan McCabe said the sentence is the highest ever imposed for charges under the sex-tourism law. "Mr. Klassen was charged after police discovered 21 DVDs with titles like “Child Abuse” and “First Timer” in a package of bedding he'd mailed to his own address back in Canada. In the videos, he's shown in numerous sex acts with girls under 14. The judge noted the crimes may never have surfaced if not for the customs officers' discovery in Mr. Klassen's mail. A Colombian woman had been paid to blur out Mr. Klassen's face and design the covers. all information from THe Globe and Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/sex-tourist-kenneth-klassen-sentenced-to-11-years/article1654820/

Sources

Nearby cases

All 41 in Canada →
Sex Trafficking2010

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 2010

Canada CA

WaiChi (Michael) Ng, Vancouver. Accused of trafficking 2 Chinese women into sex trade. Was acquitted on trafficking charge, sentenced on prostitution-related charges. Sentenced to 9 months for two counts of falsifying immigration documents and extra 6 months for keeping bawdy house and two counts procuring person to have illicit sexual intercourse.

Needs a sourceArchive 2008–2016
Sex Trafficking2005

Vancouver Downtown Eastside, Canada, 2005

Canada CA

"In 2005 Michael Ng was the first person to be arrested and charged under Canada’s human trafficking laws after two Chinese women escaped from his massage parlour in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and called the police claiming they had been brought from China and forced into prostitution. One of the women testified that she worked from 11:00am to 2:00am in order to meet her financial obligations to Ng. “In one year and five months I [made] him well over $100,000 plus the $50-an-hour he charged customers for a massage”. Ng was cleared of human trafficking, but found guilty of a number of related offences instead, including operating a common bawdy house, helping create false travel documents and procuring a person to have illicit sexual intercourse with another. In April 2008 he was sentenced to 15 months in jail. The Chinese women returned to China at their request, but came back briefly to Canada to assist in Ng’s prosecution." http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/octip/identifying.htm

1 sourceArchive 2008–2016
Domestic Servitude2009

West Vancouver, Canada, 2009

Canada CA

Mumtaz Ladha Age: 55 Muslim from Tanzania The Public Prosecution Service of Canada on Thursday approved one charge of human trafficking and one charge of human smuggling against Ladha. According to reports, in 2008 Mumtaz Ladha hired a 21-year-old woman from Africa, promising her a job in a hair salon and a work visa. When the woman arrived in Canada, police say, she was made to work in Ladha’s home as a maid unwillingly for 18 hours a day, seven days a week, with no salary. Mumtaz Ladha also allegedly confiscated her passport. In 2009, the woman was able to escape to a woman’s shelter where workers contacted police, prompting the RCMP Border Integrity Program’s Human Trafficking Team to launch an investigation with West Vancouver police. “This is well beyond what anyone would expect are reasonable working conditions,” said RCMP Const. Michael McLaughlin. “She was essentially a prisoner in the home.” He described a life of forced labour where the victim was often not allowed to sleep if anyone else in the house was awake and she was charged with tasks like hand washing underwear and washing visitors’ cars. “She wasn’t even allowed sufficient food. She was only allowed to eat the table scraps of what the rest of the family had eaten,” said McLaughlin. McLaughlin said that Ladha lived with other family members who were likely aware of the girl’s treatment, but that there was not enough evidence to prosecute them. The charges in the superseding indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant IS presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

3 sourcesArchive 2008–2016