Benjamin Perrin

Benjamin Perrin

A black-and-white photograph of a man with dark hair and a cleft chin wearing glasses and looking at the viewer while smiling

Perrin in 2009
Residence Vancouver
Citizenship Canada
Nationality Canadian
Fields Criminal law
Human trafficking
Institutions Office of the Prime Minister
Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia
Known for Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking
Website
www.law.ubc.ca/faculty/Perrin/web/index.html

Benjamin Perrin is an associate professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia.[1] He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.[2]

Opponent of Human Trafficking

Perrin is involved with human trafficking research and activism, and wrote the 2010 book Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking. This book deals extensively with a gang of pimps called North Preston's Finest[3] and includes an account of the disappearance of Jessie Foster. Perrin received a George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature nomination for having written this book.[2] Perrin helped Joy Smith develop the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking.[4] In the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report by the United States Department of State's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, he was the only Canadian named a TIP Hero.[5] Perrin spoke at the news conference at the Vancouver American consulate during which the TIP report was released, and he called for Stephen Harper "to announce that he will enact a national action plan to combat human trafficking to follow up on the measures that his government has already taken."[6] Perrin said that not having such a plan in place makes Canada look bad internationally and also prevents the issue of human trafficking from being adequately addressed.[7] Perrin argued that, if the plan was to be effective, it needed to establish a strategy for preventing human trafficking, protecting victims, and prosecuting traffickers.[6] He further said that the establishment of a national action plan on this issue "should be a priority for our federal government to end this atrocious crime that is flourishing in Canada."[4]

Political career

He moved to Ottawa, Ontario in the late 1990s in order to become a policy intern for the Reform Party of Canada.[8]

He eventually was appointed "Special Adviser and Legal Counsel to the Prime Minister", and acted as a lead policy adviser in the PMO on subjects of relevance to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, the Department of Justice, and Public Safety Canada.[9]

In 2013, Perrin was implicated in the Canadian Senate expenses scandal.[10] Perrin was named in an "Information to Obtain" police request related to the scandal.[11] In a letter to the RCMP’s assistant commissioner Gilles Michaud, the PCO said it had informed the Prime Minister’s Office that emails from Perrin, who allegedly helped broker a deal between Nigel Wright and Sen. Mike Duffy were not deleted, as had mistakenly been believed, following Perrin’s abrupt departure from the PMO in March 2013. The PCO letter states the account was not deleted, as is standard practice, but in fact frozen due to unrelated litigation.[12] In April 2013, Perrin left the Office of the Prime Minister and took up a position on the Faculty of Law at UBC.[9] On 30 July 2014, the Law Society of British Columbia announced that it closed its file related to Perrin's alleged role in the affair because the complaint was not valid.[13] On 25 October 2014, the Law Society of Upper Canada also reported that after fully investigating, it had no concerns whatsoever with Perrin's conduct as a lawyer.[14]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.allard.ubc.ca/
  2. 1 2 "Local authors up for Ryga award". Kamloops This Week. August 4, 2011. Retrieved October 17, 2012.
  3. ↑ Julian Sher (October 15, 2010). "Sex trafficking: A national disgrace". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved November 18, 2012.
  4. 1 2 "National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking Required". The Filipino Journal 7 (9). September 2013. Retrieved October 10, 2013.
  5. ↑ "2009 TIP Report Heroes". United States Department of State. 2009. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  6. 1 2 "U.S. tells Canada: Harsher sentences needed for sex traffickers". The News. June 17, 2009. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
  7. ↑ Tamara Cherry (June 14, 2010). "Report, experts call for national strategy on human trafficking". The London Free Press. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
  8. ↑ Stephen Maher (October 25, 2013). "MPs demand answers over role of Tory lawyer Arthur Hamilton in Mike Duffy spending affair". Postmedia News. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  9. 1 2 Andrea Janus (May 20, 2013). "PM's former legal advisor arranged deal for Wright to give Duffy $90K". CTV News. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  10. ↑ Michael Den Tandt (October 29, 2013). "Michael Den Tandt: Where is Stephen Harper’s famous resourcefulness in the Senate scandal?". National Post.
  11. ↑ G+M: "Documents: Stunning revelations from the investigation into Duffy's expenses, residency" 5 Jul 2013
  12. ↑ ctvnews.ca: "Ex-PMO lawyer's emails not deleted: PCO to RCMP" 1 Dec 2013
  13. ↑ / "B.C. law society won't investigate former PMO lawyer Benjamin Perrin" 30 Jul 2014
  14. ↑ / "Case closed on lawyers in Mike Duffy-Nigel Wright affair" 25 Oct 2014
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