This petition asks the federal government to create a system that helps survivors of human trafficking, sexual violence, and domestic violence get relief from debts and tax bills that were created because of their abuse — without forcing them to repeatedly prove what happened to them.

Human trafficking, sexual violence, and domestic violence, can involve financial exploitation, including identity theft, coerced debt, fraudulent use of government benefits, tax liabilities, credit damage, and financial transactions undertaken without the survivor's meaningful knowledge or consent;

Survivors may continue to experience the financial consequences of their exploitation years after leaving trafficking;

Existing government processes may not adequately account for financial liabilities incurred as a direct consequence of human trafficking;

Survivors should have accessible, trauma and survivor-informed mechanisms to seek review and relief from financial liabilities arising from their exploitation; and

The lived experience of survivors should inform the development of government policies and processes addressing financial exploitation associated with human trafficking, sexual violence, and domestic violence.

We, the undersigned,citizens and residents of Canada, call upon theGovernment of Canadato: 1. Develop a federal framework to identify, review, and provide appropriate relief from federal debts, tax liabilities, benefit overpayments, and other financial obligations incurred as a direct result of human trafficking, sexual violence, domestic violence, or exploitation; 2. Review existing federal legislation, policies, and CRA procedures to identify barriers preventing survivors from obtaining such relief; 3. Establish clear, trauma and survivor-informed processes for assessing these cases without unreasonable delay, and unnecessarily requiring survivors to repeatedly disclose or prove their lived experience; and 4. Establish a survivor-informed advisory board on financial exploitation, including people with lived experience, to advise the federal government on policy, legislative reform, and implementation.