Human trafficking is a form of modern slavery. The United Nations defines human trafficking as "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons by improper means such as force, fraud, coercion, deception, abduction and abuse of power for the purpose of exploitation." It’s a multi-billion-dollar criminal industry that denies freedom to an estimated 40.3 million people around the world, including 20.9 million people who are forced into different forms of labour and sex trafficking.
People read statistics but don’t often engage with trafficking on a deeper level because they feel it is a problem that is happening “over there” in developing countries. Many think such exploitation, trauma and oppression could never happen here. As the old saying goes, “Out of sight, out of mind.”
Yet, Canada and Bermuda are not immune to human trafficking. Canada has been labelled internationally as a “destination country” for human-trafficking victims, a “transit country” through which victims are moved and a “source country” for recruiting potential victims. No matter where we live, chances are it is happening nearby.
Commissioner M. Christine MacMillan was born in Montreal and raised in Toronto where, following high school, she trained as a social services worker. Prior to entering The Salvation Army Training College in 1973, she served as a social service worker in Metropolitan Toronto Community Services and later as Director of Social Services with The Salvation Army in the City of North York, Ontario and as a corps assistant, with a congregation in Toronto.
From 1975 to 2012, Commissioner M. Christine MacMillan served as a Salvation Army officer in a variety of appointments in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and the United States. The range of her experience, from front-line ministry to senior administrative leadership has been motivated by her deep commitment to the Gospel and to social justice. Through all of her appointments, she was actively engaged in promoting social justice, including the establishment of The Salvation Army’s International Social Justice Commission.
In July 2012, following retirement from The Salvation Army, Commissioner M. Christine MacMillan was selected by the World Evangelical Alliance to serve as their Senior Advisor for Social Justice. While serving with the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) as Associate Secretary General for Public Engagement, Commissioner M. Christine MacMillan oversaw the work of the WEA United Nations teams in Geneva and New York inclusive of WEA networks in the fields of Refugees, Climate Change, Humanitarian Advocacy, Peace & Reconciliation, Human Trafficking and Health and Healing. She continues with the WEA as a Senior Advisor – Social Justice while chairing their Global Task Force on Human Trafficking and representing the WEA at the United Nations. Commissioner M. Christine MacMillan sits on various boards and advises organizations in discerning strategic ways forward in fulfilling impactful influence through paradigms of integral mission while emphasizing intentional relationships of integrity. This includes an appointment by the United Nations to serve on the UN Multi-Faith Advisory Council.
Ray Lamont - National / Territorial Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking (MSHT) Response Coordinator (Canada and Bermuda)
Ray has completed her Anti-Human Trafficking Certificate through Vanguard University and was involved in an EU sponsored Advance MSHT Training in the Netherlands. She has also completed her Masters of Slavery and Liberation through the University of Nottingham with her dissertation focusing on how Canada's federal anti-trafficking plan reproduces and sustains colonial structures that increase the vulnerability of Indigenous women and girls to be victims of domestic sex trafficking. She has been involved in front line work in this field in Canada and Greece while having some short-term experiences in Italy and Bangladesh. She is the Vice Chair for The Salvation Army's International MSHT Response Council and is the Coordinator for MSHT Response work for the Caribbean and North America Zone.
We will be giving away FOUR copies of this book which is a collaboration between Commissioner M. Christine MacMillan, founding director of the Army’s International Social Justice Commission (ISJC); Don Posterski former: Senior Policy Analyst, ISJC; and Dr. James Read former: Senior Advocacy Analyst ISJC. The book is divided into five sections, the last of which is a personal reflection from Commissioner MacMillan and covers a variety of topics, from poverty to gender inequality, and racism.
