Documentary screening in London exposes sex trafficking along Highway 401 corridor
A documentary film shedding light on the experiences of survivors of sex trafficking across the London region and beyond is screening at the Forest City Film Festival on Saturday at noon. Dark Highway exposes the sex industry along the 401 corridor through first-hand experiences from survivors.
"It's still such an invisible crime," said director and producer Anna Jane (AJ) Edmonds. "It's here and it's around us and we just have to talk about it and be a part of making a change."
Human trafficking for sexual exploitation is at a crisis level in Canada and for the victims, it's a living hell of trauma and abuse. It's one of the fastest-growing crimes in Canada, with victims getting younger.
A still from documentary film Dark Highway which sheds light on sex trafficking happening in Ontario. (Submitted by Dark Highway)
The 401 corridor is a known hotspot for sex traffickers, according to the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking. London's proximity to the Highway 401 corridor is a factor in higher rates of sex trafficking in the region, also because of its proximity between Windsor and Toronto.
The film is screening at the Forest City Film Festival on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 12 at the Wolf Performance Hall.
Edmonds set out to make the film when she found out how close the crime was to her own life and the people she loves.
"I felt an intense responsibility that now that I knew, I had to do something about it," said Edmonds, who splits her time between Kingston, Ont., and California.
For Kelly Tallon Franklin, the documentary is personal.
Kelly Tallon Franklin is a sex trafficking survivor from the London area who runs Courage for Freedom offering education and advocacy along with support programs for fellow survivors. (Submitted by Dark Highway)
"It's time for us to get ahead of this," said Franklin, who is a survivor of sex trafficking who knows runs an organization advocating for and supporting other survivors.
She was trafficked both in Canada and abroad in the '80s, she said, facing a lack of resources and support back then, and now runs support programs for survivors from equine theory to art and talk therapy, relocating survivors out of communities for protection.
From the London area herself, she's seen the crime increase in the region, she said. She's also noticed something concerning.
"The average age of those that are victimized in the crime is lowering and that is problematic — and something that's covered well in this documentary," said Franklin. Most of the women she works with are between 12 and 17 years old.
"There's the inhumane and degrading treatment that just violates the rights of these kids in a way that we can't even understand, and we can not sanitize ourselves from the reality of this," Franklin said.
The film poster for documentary Dark Highway which screens at the Forest City Film Festival on Saturday Oct. 26 at noon at the Wolf Performance Hall in London. (Submitted by Dark Highway)
The film also covers the complexity and trends of the issues they are dealing with in real-time, along with who is being targeted and where legislation is failing, she said.
It's not only about listening to survivors, but "giving us the platform that gives the community some hope," she said.
For Edmonds, it's also about not letting the crime be forgotten, and talking about it in a way that's not fear-mongering. "We just have to keep talking about it and keep the conversation of protecting our young people at the forefront of our minds," she said.
Ontario has second highest trafficking rate in Canada
A Statistics Canada report published in December found that between 2012 and 2022, Ontario had the second-highest rate of police-reported human trafficking in the country, which is possibly due to the concentration of urban areas.
Ontario is made up of many population centres that traffickers may use to avoid detection, including London, which had 130 reported incidents in 10 years, according to Statistics Canada.
Along the 401 is where everyone is passing through, said Franklin, and it's important for people to learn to keep their eyes open to signs of the crime at places like rest stops and motels.
If you are a victim or survivor of forced prostitution or forced labour, or believe someone else might be, you can call The Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-833-900-1010, which is available 24/7 from coast to coast in more than 200 languages.