Actions Against Human Trafficking in the Meetings Industry: A Conversation with Sandy Biback

Ottawa Tourism recently implemented a comprehensive Action Plan against Human Trafficking, a pioneering initiative that underlines the city's ethical commitment to safety, social justice and human values at the forefront of the business travel and hospitality sectors. This is especially relevant when, today, tourism and business events are seen by many economic strategists as the most important service sector for the GDP of several countries. Human Trafficking is the world’s fastest growing criminal enterprise and is an estimated €142 billion-a-year global industry.

Meeting Professionals Against Human Trafficking (MPAHT), a group of Canadian grassroots volunteers, helped shape this plan with Ottawa's DMO on improved access to information, reporting forms, training programmes, and destination-wide evaluation using audits and data collection. The Founder, Sandy Biback, is an event planner with 40 years' experience who began to take a closer look at this darker side of the industry while roaming the lobbies of some hotels at the crack of dawn. She opens up to our HQ magazine manager, Manuel A. Fernandes, in this interview:

Sandy, what are we really talking about when we link this harsh reality of human traffi cking to the context of event professionals?

It is about taking collaborative action. In the case of Toronto, the aim was to understand what was really going on here. On returning from a trip to Cambodia, I felt the urge to dig into these issues and ended up contacting the Toronto Police Department. They conf rmed that, yes, it was happening here – from low-end to five-star hotels. When I started holding conferences, we opened the door to a lot of discussions about training and measures that some hotel chains have in place on a global scale. What we tried to do was go beyond lip service and collect the hoteliers’ experiences in their properties. It has definitely opened our eyes to the fact that, in many cases, profit can take precedence over people. Nowadays, it is especially important to be transparent and community-engaged, and so, the hotels opened up. Far beyond training and performance models, we want to know what happens a year later: how to act if you see something suspicious, or whether your structure will be there to help you. I have already been taking part in several meetings, one of them with the anti-human trafficking committee of Meeting Professionals International.
 

How can this partnership with Ottawa position the city at the forefront of eff orts against human trafficking to other destinations?

What Ottawa Tourism did with their DMOs just blew me away, because we had a very hard time reaching these areas. Their Business Events Manager, Lizzie Low, sits on our Board, while the CEO, Michael Crockatt, is on our Advisory Board. Best of all, they allowed what we developed together to be put into practice in their organisation, with the necessary tweaks and adjustments for a model application – which is rare, as sharing such blueprints has been a problem in our sector for as long as I have been in it. Together with Voice Found and the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking (CCEHT), we have given this project a boost by drawing attention to the cause. As I said, I think we need to cooperate at an institutional level. We cannot hold things back any longer. I was one of the original members of CanSPEP (Canadian Society of Professional Event Planners), and we have always been in favour of collaboration with independent meeting planners. I believe that what Ottawa Tourism is doing is breaking precedents with the support of the respective associations working with survivors and everyone involved. Our relationship with Ottawa Tourism is very close.
 

Because the overall picture is somehow related to the migration crisis we're living in, right? Is that what you found in your research?

I do not disagree with that. However, statistically, around 93% of people who are victims of sex trafficking in Canada are locals. They are Canadians. I recommend taking a look at the latest CCEHT research. From the perspective of the people arriving, the greatest need is housing, so you can already see an intersection with the vast majority of our countries. In terms of labour trafficking, we know how difficult it is to check supply chains along the line. To do this, we have to work with data analysis and sales strategy. Along the way, I have learnt that everything comes down to money. Let’s say the most important thing for conference organisers is the price of a coffee urn. I could simply base it on a standard price and ignore tracking it. But if a hotel starts analysing its supply chain down to the smallest detail – where the coffee beans are picked, who selects them, and what wages they receive – and if employees pass this screening, your event can be certified as socially sustainable. If you ask your attendees to support this cause, you can off set the investment of those coffee boxes – also, you can use this as a selling point. The meeting organiser can then tell delegates that their conference cares about human rights and that they are on the right side by opting for 100% socially conscious properties and providers.
 

"I started out as one of those philosophical people who just wanted to do good in the world, but I quickly learnt that it is really about money."

We all know that hotels and venues are public spaces where, despite all the security protocols, sex trafficking events do happen. How should a delegate react if confronted with such a situation?

It is important not to draw attention to the victim, as this could cause even more problems. It is also not advisable to approach the trafficker if you spot them. What I would suggest is that the person take the matter up directly with the barman or steward. If the hotel has some kind of professional hierarchy organisation, the barman will report it to their supervisor, and from there to the director of security, going up the chain to the management of that location. The aim is to find the first line of defence within that specific property. The MPAHT has convened several meetings with security directors from a number of hotels in and around Toronto on this subject. This is tracked in five-star properties, but small guesthouses and two-star hotels are rarely considered. For me the question is, where does it go when it is tracked? Then there is also a legal layer in between. In the USA, signage is mandatory in some states. PACT – Protect All Children from Trafficking USA lists the laws in the states and cities regarding signage on site. It is a matter of taking it and adjusting it to your needs. We do not have that in Canada, which was one of our recommendations for Ottawa Tourism’s action plan.
 

Based on your experience in the field, what advice would you give to event destinations starting out on this path?

Awareness. Let me come in and talk to your group, and I will make the connections. I am a people connector. First, I would ask what you already have in place; then, I would come in and guide an individual group through a 40-minute session. Most of all, I am talking about local awareness because I think that is what is missing. We all think this battle has to be fought internationally (of course it does), but the fact-finding has to be done locally first. We can support mentoring in that sense. What I try to avoid are generic models that lead to abstract programmes. Most of these multiple-choice tests and educational grids reduce complex questions into ‘A, B, C or D’. Instead, I want to know why you answered “A”. These are the things I want a local hotelier and meeting organiser to understand. So that, together with employees, customers and the chain of command, we can move on from problems and challenges to integrated solutions. In today’s world, due to migration, climate change, etc., there are around 50 million people who are victims of human trafficking, be it sexual, labour, child marriage, etc. On top of that, the vast majority of victims are women (97%).
 

"Ultimately, we need to realise what we are buying. When we outsource labour, such as housekeeping, are we buying an up-and-up service or a human being?"

Child trafficking has tripled in the last 15 years, fuelled by new technologies and digital platforms. How can the meetings industry take control of its cybersecurity activities in this regard?

If many of these cyber-terrorists manage to hack into governments and large corporations with more sophisticated security systems, they will not find much resistance in venues and hotels. It is like a game of catch. When we get smarter at strengthening our networking systems, hackers get even smarter at breaking them. During COVID-19, child pornography and human trafficking on the internet skyrocketed because it was the only way to do it. At the beginning of the pandemic, I saw somewhere that they were advertising COVID-free girls.

When we invited the Toronto Police Department’s Former Chief of Human Trafficking, Nunzio Tramontozzi, to one of our events, he shared one of the many ways these things happen: “I want you to think about this – John, a banker who works in the financial district, kisses his wife and children goodbye and leaves on a business trip. He goes on the dark web, and books a 14-year-old blonde virgin. John meets her in a luxury hotel in the city centre, enjoys his 30-minute session, pays and then goes about his business.” Who is to say that this banker is not an important delegate at an international conference? What happens to the ‘Johns?’ Generally, nothing.
 

At what events, conferences, forums or summits will MPAHT be present this year to discuss these elements and issues? Have you been invited to any conference sessions to explain your vision and mission?

I worked with Tourism Victoria and Tourism Nanaimo in Western Canada and was invited to a meeting of ECPAT (End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism) in Mexico City. For me, this is a grassroots issue. I also took part in a few government meetings in recent years, and we have started to make progress with ECPAT, with more points of contact with its Executive Director, Guillaume Landry, due to our role as Local Country Representative. Regarding conference participation, we do not have the economic independence to go beyond our means. We have no public or private funding because, as I said, we are all volunteers and work on a mutual basis. We have a programme called ‘Change for Change’, which calls for individual action in the form of donations, impact and volunteering. These funds will now be distributed to two groups in Ontario that work with survivors. We do not have charitable status in Canada for various reasons, so we define ourselves as grassroots volunteers. For instance, our Board member, Robert Thompson grants us all kinds of technological sponsorship through his company AV Canada.

What does a truly responsible event look like in practice?

In our latest interview, Stephanie Séguin, Vice President of Business and Major Events at Ottawa Tourism, introduces the city’s Responsible Events Guide — a comprehensive framework for planners that integrates sustainability, accessibility, DEI, legacy, and social value into every stage of the event journey.

Powered by Meeting Media Company, publisher of Headquarters Magazine (HQ) – a leading international publication based in Brussels, serving the global MICE industry and association community.