By Jenn Watt

Published April 24 2018

An education session on human sex trafficking is planned for Friday April 27 in Haliburton.

Hosted by local MPP Laurie Scott who has done extensive work raising awareness about the issue the seminar will include Kawartha Haliburton Victim Services a representative from the Ontario Provincial Police and a speech by sex trafficking survivor Simone Bell.

According to the event’s registration website “In Ms. Bell’s early 20s she was in a relationship which led to her subsequent exploitation over a period of four years for the purposes of forced sex work in Ontario. Today Simone is actively involved in the design development and delivery of victim support services and peer mentoring to survivors of human trafficking through Roos-Remillard Consulting Services and Project Hope.”

Attendees will learn what human sex trafficking is how to identify potential victims and what can be done about it.

According to Scott more than 93 per cent of victims of sex trafficking in Canada were born here with the average age of 14.

Scott is the critic for women’s issues for the Progressive Conservative party in Ontario and has been an advocate on the topic for years.

The session is taking place in the Community Room of the Haliburton Community Funeral Home at 13523 Highway 118 outside of Haliburton from 1 to 3 p.m. on Friday April 27. The event is free to attend. To register go online here . If you don’t have access to the internet you can call Scott’s office at 1-800-424-2490.