Check It Out: What’s happening “right under your nose”?

By Joan Janzen

Someone once said, “It’s funny how things work out, isn’t it? I mean, it’s like dominoes - you touch one, and then the others start to go, and sometimes they fall in the right direction.” Those words seem to apply to my choice of topics lately.

Since I’ve discussed child trafficking a couple of times in the last month, I hadn’t planned on writing about it again. However, a recent phone call I received changed my mind.

A woman from BC called to tell me she was visiting family in this area and felt compelled to phone me after reading an article I had written about the movie Sound of Freedom. She proceeded to share her interesting experience.

She had watched the movie about a week earlier. Although she had been moved by it, she said there were a couple of things she wasn’t sure about. She thought the movie was well done, but was more relevant to activists who deal with that sort of thing, rather than someone like herself.

She also explained her friend, who had watched the movie, forwarded information to her that suggested the people who made the movie were some sort of scammers. Consequently, she didn’t know what to think.

A week later, she flew to Saskatoon on her way to visit family and stayed overnight in a motel. While waiting in the motel lobby before driving to her destination, she happened to overhear the phone conversation of a man who was sitting nearby.

The middle-aged man was asking questions on the phone, such as “What skin colour do you have?” Then he asked, “What eye colours do you have?” During the phone conversation, he explained he wasn’t from Saskatoon, but was from Alberta. He repeated the skin colours ... brown, light brown, white, and also repeated the eye colours ... brown, hazel, green. Finally, he said they wanted to choose green eyes, and he would e-transfer $1000 before they met in person.

The woman said she probably would not have paid any attention to the conversation if she hadn’t watched the movie just a week earlier. But since she had, the conversation seemed very unusual and somewhat suspicious, so much so that she followed the man to the restaurant where he sat down with a woman, who she presumed to be his wife.

After the couple had finished their meal, she observed them as they prepared to leave the restaurant. They were hugging one another, and appeared very, very happy. Then the man said to his wife, “We’re finally getting our baby!”

The secret observer was not sure what she should do next, but she knew she had to do something. “I ended up going to the police station and telling them all the details I heard in the phone conversation,” she said. The police assured her they would follow up on the information.

After leaving the police station, she headed to the home of her mother, where she picked up the paper and read my article.

“I didn’t know what to think about the movie,” she mused. “Until I heard this story with my own ears about someone purchasing a baby!”

In addition to hearing her story, I came across a humanitarian organization called Airline Ambassadors International (AAI). The president of AAI is flight attendant, Nancy Rivard. When the AAI team of volunteers first became aware of the prevalence of human trafficking on airlines, they promised to pay attention. Within one month, they had correctly identified trafficking incidents on four airlines. Their first tip led to the bust of a pornography ring, saving 86 children.

This eventually led to AAI developing the first industry-specific training on human trafficking awareness for flight attendants and pilots in 2016, which was implemented in countries all over the world. This training serves to fill a huge void, as there previously was no instruction available for flight crews regarding human trafficking.

Marisol Nichols interviewed Nancy on her podcast. “I hear about kids being trafficked on all these different airlines right under our noses,” Marisol said. She asked Nancy what signs travellers should look for.

Nancy said anyone can look for signs of human trafficking. “If you are flying with sports teams, on vacation, or for business purposes, you can look for the signs and know how to take action if you see anything suspicious,” she explained. “You can help stop trafficking if you’re willing to be observant and take action.”

She instructed travellers to look for a child who is frightened, crying, sick, ashamed, dressed inappropriately, may have bruises, appears to be drugged, eats ravenously, is unsure of their destination, gives scripted answers to questions, or doesn’t have any toys or books along to entertain them. Often the person accompanying the child insists on answering questions for them and doesn’t let them speak, and accompanies them to the washroom. She said the adults often appear uncaring about the child. “Follow your gut feeling that something’s wrong,” Nancy advised. “And tell someone, whether it’s a flight attendant or law enforcement.”

Marisol noted this empowers everyday citizens like you and me to become part of the solution, not only while travelling on planes, but anywhere, even in a motel lobby, as was the case for the woman who was visiting Saskatchewan.

Her story caused me to realize how impactful the movie Sound of Freedom is. It is definitely raising awareness, causing people to be more observant of what is happening “right under their nose”, and empowering everyday citizens to make a difference.