Benevolent State, Law-Breaking Smugglers, and Deportable and Expendable Women: An Analysis of the Canadian State's Strategy to Address Trafficking in Women

This article discusses the provisions of the now defunct immigration legislation Bill C-31 tabled in the Canadian House of Commons in April 2000. Many of the core provisions in Bill C-31 were retained in Bill C-11 which created the 2002 Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. The author analyzes the proposed changes in Bill C-31 to various migrant categories including family class, temporary employment, domestic workers, extra-legal migrants, and human smuggling and trafficking. She highlights weaknesses in the proposed changes that make women migrants vulnerable to human rights abuse. She argues that the Canadian state has an obligation to improve protection of women migrants' human rights, particularly as Canadians reap the benefits of migrant women's domestic and sexual labour. [Descriptors: Migration - Trafficking, Canada]