Georgian’s Orillia Campus presented guest speaker MPP Joy Smith (pictured), a leading anti-trafficking activist, on April 28.

Smith, an MPP for Kildonan-St. Paul in Manitoba, has been instrumental in bringing attention to the modern-day sex slave trade problem. Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation or harbouring of persons for the purposes of exploitation, typically in the sex trade.

Among her major achievements is the unanimous passing by the House of Commons of her Private Members Motion M-153 on Human Trafficking, which has led to important changes in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Smith’s efforts to raise awareness of this criminal industry and her actions to combat human trafficking worldwide should be of interest and concern to all Canadians.