The financial abuse started small for Cassandra Harvey, a survivor of human trafficking. But it quickly ballooned out of control.
The people trafficking Harvey, 27, would take away any money she earned at her job as part of the abusive experience she endured, claiming they wanted to keep it safe for her, she said.
"That's very common when someone is being trafficked," Harvey said. "But it kept escalating to the point where all my money was being taken and I was doing fraud on behalf of my traffickers."
There's a name for this kind of financial abuse, which often goes hand in hand with human trafficking: coercive debt. Traffickers coerce victims to borrow money from creditors and use it to purchase cell phones, hotel rooms, transportation, and more, according to Victim Services Toronto (VST).
Traffickers do this to cover up their crimes, leaving their victims with mounting debt and low credit scores.
"I would go into banks and pretend to be someone else," Harvey said. "After we'd exhausted other people's resources, it became about taking phone bills out in my name, credit cards in my name, and loans in my name."
How a VST program supports survivors to clear their names from debt
Harvey, who now lives in Toronto, is speaking up about how having coercive debt of $65,000 has affected her, and how the VST Reclaim project, with support from TD, is helping her and other survivors of human trafficking find financial recovery.
TD donated $360,000 to VST to support the Reclaim project for the next three years through the TD Ready Commitment, the Bank’s corporate citizenship platform.
Through the Reclaim project, VST works with banks, telecommunication companies, property managers, and car rental companies across Canada to remove fraudulent activity and coercive debt from a victim's name and record.
VST is a charitable organization that provides trauma-informed support and advocacy in the moment for any person in Toronto who has experienced crime or sudden tragedy.
While VST primarily supports Toronto residents, the VST Reclaim program assists survivors of human trafficking across Canada.
Human trafficking is a complex form of exploitation that can be hard for survivors and the people around them to identify.
It usually involves recruiting, transporting, controlling, or influencing people in order to exploit them, according to the Department of Justice Canada. Traffickers force their victims to work by exploiting them sexually.
Coercive debt is one of the ways Harvey was harmed, she said.
Harvey grew up in the child welfare system in Ontario. She began running away from her foster homes as a teenager before first becoming pregnant at 16. Harvey said she began abusing alcohol after her mom died.
She was then trafficked by three separate people, who abused her physically and sexually, and also exploited her financially, Harvey said.
"Trafficking and coercion isn't what it looks like in the movies," said Harvey, who also worked a paid job while the abuse was occurring.
"It's not like they're holding a gun to your head at the ATM. They let you have a job. They let you have freedom. But when you come home, you are 100% under the supervision of your trafficker. They are taking your money. They're taking your work cheques."
Working directly on the financial files of survivors
Through the Reclaim project, VST works with TD Helps – a division of the Bank that assists customers through financial hardships – to help survivors like Harvey clear debt they have with TD.
VST shares the financial files of human trafficking survivors who need help clearing debt directly with TD Helps, the first step in a process that can sometimes take years.
When it comes to survivors of human trafficking, the Bank encounters lots of coercive debt in the form of auto loans and credit cards, said TD Helps Team Manager Heather Kunkel.
A person being abused might be pressured to take out a loan for the purchase of the vehicle, she said. The trafficker will then turn around and sell the car for cash, while the survivor is forced to continue making payments or default on the loan.
"We also see a lot of hotel charges and ride-share charges," Kunkel said.
"Once the survivor gets out of the situation they were in, they might be struggling to pay off the fraudulent debt in their name.”
But the debt can also be with the Canada Revenue Agency, she said. TD Helps tries to help facilitate the return of loans or payments to the government.
The names and Social Insurance Numbers (SINs) of survivors might have been used to apply for government programs like the Canada Child Benefit (CCB), a monthly payment to help with the cost of raising children, the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), a payment that helped people who lost employment because of the COVID-19 pandemic, or the Canada Emergency Response Assistance (CEBA) program, a loan program that was designed to help businesses weather any shutdowns during the pandemic.
"Those ones can get messy, but we do get through them," Kunkel said. "We work closely with Victims Services Toronto and the [federal] government."
Debt has a negative effect on a person's credit score, which can have a ripple effect. It affects your ability to rent an apartment, get a job in certain sectors, or qualify for a mortgage or line of credit, Kunkel said.
"To take the next step forward in their lives, survivors really need that clean slate," she said.
The work TD Helps does is rewarding, she said, but she's aware it’s a long road of recovery for survivors. Helping remove their names from debt is just one stop along their journey.
"I'm proud to say this is something that TD does," Kunkel said.
Becoming a legal advocate for survivors
After escaping the people who trafficked her, Harvey began working with the Reclaim project to clear her debts in 2021.
"My debt impacted my life drastically," Harvey said. "When I left my abusive situation, my credit score was very low."
As she gets closer to clearing her debt, Harvey said her credit score has significantly improved.
"My traffickers had incurred debt with TD credit cards," she said. "That debt was cleared by [TD as part of the] Reclaim project and I was able to then apply for my own credit card with TD.”
Harvey is now finishing up an undergraduate degree at York University, with a double major in criminology and law and society.
She wants to become a criminal lawyer.
"I've seen where the system fails and where the system does a good job with services for human trafficking survivors," she said.
"That's what has fueled me."