Truckers set to scour Ontario highways for signs of human trafficking

Kevin Kimmel sat in the cab of his semi truck a few slots over, finishing his paperwork from his deliveries earlier that day. He was preparing for his 10-hour break from the road when he spied a middle-aged man cross the pavement of the truck stop and knock on the RV’s rusty door. A local prosecutor would later tell the court that a fitting sign to hang above that door would be the warning from Dante’s Inferno, “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.”

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A program that has seen great success in the United States, identifying approximately 1,200 victims of human trafficking, is expanding into Canada for the first time.

Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) offers training and education to the trucking industry to help turn thousands of sets of eyes and ears that travel the nation’s highways — areas frequently used by traffickers — into crime-fighting tools to spot these pimps at work. A horrific case in the U.S. serves as an example of how truckers here can help fight this brutal crime.

Published on December 26, 2019 in The Pointer Brampton and The Pointer Mississauga