‘BE VIGILANT’: Portage on high alert after sex trafficking bust

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The Mayor of Portage la Prairie says the community is in shock with the news that sex trafficking arrests were made for an operation involving teenage girls in the city.

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“This is just a big wakeup call to everybody,” Portage la Prairie Mayor Sharilyn Knox said on Thursday, just days after Manitoba RCMP announced that two 15-year-old girls were exploited and arrests were made in what police said was a human trafficking operation in the southwestern Manitoba city.

“It’s been a few days of just sitting with it and figuring out what to do next, and where we go as a community from here.”

And although Knox said it was a wakeup call for Portage, she said it should also be a wakeup call to all Manitoba communities, both big and small, that human trafficking can and does happen, and that people should be watching for signs that it might be happening in their communities.

“It certainly hits home when it’s your community that you live in and when some even recognize the names of some of the accused because we’re not a large city, but it also drives home the message that the world has changed, and with social media these types of things are happening everywhere.

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“And it’s happening to children so that just makes it all the more shocking.”

RCMP said they began investigating after getting a tip in February about a girl seen around the city who was often seen with older men.

Police say a woman befriended two vulnerable 15-year-old girls and offered them drugs and money to go to different homes in Portage la Prairie.

They allege the woman often locked the girls inside and forced them to perform sexual acts on men in exchange for drugs and sometimes money.

Police also said they continue to investigate, and believe there are more victims, including an unidentified girl believed to be 13 or 14 years old.

Knox said the community is anxious about what else this investigation might turn up.

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“I don’t know what‘s going to happen, so right now we’re just holding our breath and waiting to see if there is more to the story. I know they started investigating in February, but now we have to see if it’s something that just started in the last few months or if it’s been ongoing for longer than that.”

Police said Tuesday that seven people face a total of 65 criminal charges, including human trafficking, sexual assault and making child pornography.

Knox said she also wants to get the word out that other youth and adults are often vulnerable to sex trafficking, and she’s calling on everyone to report anything they see that seems out of the ordinary especially when it comes to children.

“We all have to be vigilant,” she said. “Make sure you are reporting things that just don’t look right and reporting them to the right place, and often that means contacting law enforcement and not just telling people you know or people on Facebook.

And if any children and youth believe any of their peers might be in a dangerous or exploitative situation, please tell a trusted adult.

“We all have a responsibility to protect children.”

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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