Apparently the women are sold for "parties" on American ships. Picture via WikiCommonsNative women, children, and even babies are being trafficked in the sex trade on freighters crossing the Canada-US border on Lake Superior between Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Duluth, Minnesota.Next month, Christine Starkâa student with the University of Minnesota-Duluth, who is completing her masterâs degree in social workâwill complete an examination of the sex trade in Minnesota, in which she compiles anecdotal, firsthand accounts of Native women, particularly from northern reservations, being trafficked across state, provincial, and international lines to be forced into servitude in the sex industry on both sides of the border.Starkâs paper stems from a report she co-wrote, published by the Indian Womenâs Sexual Assault Coalition in Duluth in 2011, entitled, âThe Garden of Truth: The Prostitution and Trafficking of Native Women in Minnesota.â Through the process of researching and writing this report, Stark kept hearing stories of trafficking in the harbors and on the freighters of Duluth and Thunder Bay. The numerous stories and the gradual realization that this was an issue decades, perhaps centuries, in the making, compelled Stark to delve further into what exactly was taking place.She decided to conduct an exploratory study, âsimply because we have these stories circulating and we wanted to gather information and begin to understand what has happened and what currently is happening around the trafficking of Native American and First Nations women on the shipsâ said Stark, in an interview with the CBC Radio show Superior Morning. âHearing from so many Native women over generations talking about the âboat whores,â prostitution on the ships or the âparties on the ships,â this is something that⊠was really entrenched in the Native community and we wanted to collect more specific information about it.âThrough her independent research and work with the Indian Womenâs Sexual Assault Coalition, Stark interviewed hundreds of Native women who have been through the trauma of the Lake Superior sex trade. The stories sheâs compiled are evidence of an underground industry thatâs thriving on the suffering of First Nations women, which is seemingly going unchecked and underreported.In an article written for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Stark describes one disturbing anecdote of an Anishinaabe woman who had just left a shelter after being beaten by her pimpâwho was a wealthy, white family man. He paid her bills, rent, and the essentials for her children, but on weekends, âbrought up other white men from the cities for prostitution with Native women⊠he had her role play the racist 'Indian maiden and European colonizer' myth with him during sex.ââThe Duluth harbor is notorious among Native people as a site for the trafficking of Native women from northern reservations.â She continues, âin an ongoing project focused on the trafficking of Native women on ships in Duluth, it was found that the activity includes international transport of Native women and teens, including First Nations women and girls brought down from Thunder Bay, Ontario, to be sold on the ships⊠Native women, teen girls and boys, and even babies have been sold for sex on the ships.â Christine Starkâs complete research paper will be published in September.The fact that these horrendous crimes are taking place right under the noses of North American authorities is obviously disturbing and somewhat surprising, considering we have a Conservative government that is oh-so-tough on the commercialization of human beings. However, the word trafficking can often be a blurry one.I spoke with Kazia Pickard, the Director of Policy and Research with the Ontario Native Womenâs Association based in Thunder Bay. Their organization has also been researching this issue. Kazia told me over email: âPeople assume that trafficking always takes place across international borders, however, the vast majority of people who are trafficked in Canada are indigenous women and girls from inside Canada and sometimes, as we're now starting to understand, across the US border.âIn an earlier interview with the CBC, she also alluded to the possibility that there was trafficking taking place across borders in Southern Ontario as well. She made it clear to me that the image most people imagine when they think about âhuman traffickingâ often isnât accurate: âThe majority of women who are trafficked in Canada are indigenous women and girls. So itâs not that you have people being trafficked across international borders in shipping containers or something like that.âIn most cases itâs a lot more subtle. âWomen may say they [have been pulled into it by] a boyfriend, there have been some reports of family members recruiting women into the sex trade⊠so it doesnât appear in this sensationalized way that we may [think it is].âAll that said, there are nearly 600 aboriginal women who are currently missing or believed to have been murdered in Canada, a number the RCMPâwho are being accused of human rights abuses against aboriginal women on a monthly basisâhave publicly questioned.And while itâs refreshing to hear Canadian Parliament members (particularly Conservative ones) such as Manitobaâs Joy Smith show some honest compassion, on the whole, the governmentâs attitude and response to protecting vulnerable Native women has been one of indifference. In July, the federal government dismissed calls made for an inquiry into missing or murdered Indian women by the provinces and territoriesâ premiers.Christine Starkâs report is one that cannot be ignored. If the government is as serious as they claim to be about human trafficking, they canât dismiss whatâs taking place between Duluth and Thunder Bay the same way that they have regarding the 600 missing First Nations women. To ignore this issue would point to an obvious double standard when it comes to the treatment of Indian women, many of whom are clearly being taken advantage of.Follow Dave on Twitter: @ddnerPreviously:The Federal Government Is Surprisingly BlasĂ© about Medical Experiments Conducted on Canada's First NationsOur Government Is Withholding Documents Concerning the Torture of Native ChildrenThe Wildly Depressing History of Canadian Residential Schools
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