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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Friday April 6, 2007 - 5 Tales of today's human slavery horrors By Krissie Rutherford OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Slavery isn't a thing of the past ­ it's alive and well, pulling in yearly global revenues of upwards of $10 billion. That was the message a group of nuns delivered to St. Thomas Aquinas students at a workshop they led on human trafficking, specifically focusing on sexual exploitation. "Slavery is really flourishing today in a very devastating way," Sister Liz Morelli told an attentive group gathered last week in the school's library for the first of two seminars. In fact, human trafficking ­ the illegal buying and selling of human beings ­ is the third largest criminal activity in the world, behind only drugs and arms. "Trafficking is growing," said Sister Theresa Nagle. "It's people being bought and sold as products ­ that's what they are to a lot of people." It's a growing problem many know nothing about. That's why the School Sisters of Notre Dame are visiting schools and universities ­ to talk about it. The magnitude of human trafficking for sexual exploitation is something students at the workshops called "shocking" and "eye-opening." The numbers are staggering. Statistics on human trafficking for sexual exploitation show 375,000 humans ­ main- ly women and children ­ are sold every year from Asia alone. Another 75,000 are sold from Eastern Europe, anywhere from 200-500,000 are sold out of Latin America and approximately 50,000 from Africa, Nagle said. It's not a problem unique to the rest of the world, either. Between 1,500 ­ 2,000 people were bought in Canada and sold to the United States last year, Nagle said. "Trafficking is a highly lucrative industry. Listen to that wording again ­ industry ­ we're talking about human beings here," she said. To put a face on this human rights tragedy, the sisters showed photos of women and children who have been bought and sold. Many didn't live to tell their stories. For Sale signs showed pictures of young children to be sold "for your pleasure." Beneath a photograph of a young boy it read, "Six years old. Healthy. Untouched." Sexual exploitation, Sister Dorothy Goetz admitted, isn't a usual subject for a group of nuns to tackle. "Oh my goodness, what do nuns know about that?" she asked, drawing a laugh from students. "What we're trying to do here is to raise awareness about a global crime of human tragedy." The presentation kicked off with co-chairs of St. Thomas Aquinas' Peace and Justice Group Stephanie Wells and Anne McArthur reading a first person account of a woman, who was unknowingly sold. She was told if she signed the dotted line, she'd be going to a cooking school in China and would later be guaranteed work. Things were very different when she arrived in China. "There was no cooking school," McArthur said, "There was only a whore house." "Once they come to your village and you sign their papers, your life is over," Wells added. "They're unaware, deceived, lied to," said Sister Morelli. "They're unwilling because they think they're going to another country for a certain purpose, but it's not that purpose. They're unable to escape. They're caught. There's no way out." Students got a visual of that experience through a taped PBS news report the sisters brought along. Its focus was Turkey, a hotbed for human trafficking for sexual exploitation. PBS followed one man's quest to find his wife after she was sold ­ for just $1,000 ­ by an acquaintance of theirs, and then later re-sold to a pimp. Escaping, the report shows, is difficult. Women are drugged, beaten, raped and told they'll be killed if they don't follow the orders of their pimp. In the case PBS followed, the ASHLEY HUTCHESON / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER HORROR STORY: St. Thomas Aquinas educated students about the horrors of human trafficking going on around the world. Sister Harriet Schnurr speaks to the students before watching a video. Easter Bunny 11:00am - 2:00pm Centre Court See It's page 7 visits Hopedale and make an Easter Craft*! Limited to the first 200 kids Two Inches Saturday April 7 Meet the Easter Bunny BRING YOUR OWN CAMERA FOR PHOTOS WITH THE EASTER BUNNY! ( NOTE: 2007 MINI not shown actual size ) MINI's engineers had miles of leeway to redesign the MINI for 2007, but all they took was 2 inches. If ever you wished for two more inches, come to MINI Oakville and test drive one at last years' price of $25,900. Remember, It's not the size... it's how you drive it! 2454 South Service Road, Oakville 905.469.6220 minioakville.com