Suspected Human Trafficking Victim Jessie Foster Still Missing – mother has not given up

On December 2, 2009 I wrote an article on human trafficking. Glendene Grant responded in the comments section regarding her daughter (Jessie Foster) who had been missing since March 29,2006. I couldn’t imagine what Mrs. Grant was going through so I decided to write an article about Jessie’s disappearance in the hope that I could help.

I have reposted the article many times, continued to pray for Jessie, and kept in contact with Glendene. Sadly, Jessie is still missing. But Ms. Grant has not given up. She has learned more about human trafficking, the difficulties of getting help from authorities, and the pain of not knowing where your child is, or if she is even alive, than any mother should ever have to know. As she continues to search for her own daughter she has launched a campaign to educate others about human trafficking. She knows all too well that this horrendous business can strike anyone.

The following is Glendene and Jessie’s story so far. I am posting it in Glendene’s own words because I know that many people do not understand that human trafficking is a very real, extremely devastating, thriving business that is stealing the lives of young girls and their families worldwide. Nothing more powerfully describes the reality of human trafficking than the journey of this courageous mother who is determined to find her daughter and help keep others from losing theirs:   

February 26, 2011

This is a VERY long and detailed account of Jessie’s disappearance and other things surrounding her case, but PLEASE understand how important it is to me and to my missing daughter, Jessie Foster, for you or someone to read it all.

First off, I want to thank you for letting me share this with you. I know it will most likely be very emotional for you, as it is to the few people I have told this to – especially if you are a mother. You should find it very interesting too, because it will keep you wondering! There are so many things to wonder about. Things that people have often asked me about over the years, like:

– WHY HAVE THEY NOT INVESTIGATED THIS CASE MORE THOROUGHLY?

– WHY HAVE THEY NOT INTERVIEWED ALL THE PEOPLE INVOLVED (or interviewed the ones they did much more thoroughly)?

– WHY HAS THE HOUSE NEVER BEEN GONE OVER FOR BLOOD & DNA (checking under carpets and behind baseboards and what ever it is they do during an investigation such as this)?

I WISH I KNEW! Why not??? HOW ELSE DO YOU SOLVE A CRIME, other than investigating? +++

JESSIE’S DESCRIPTION:

Missing Since: 03/29/06

Missing from: Las Vegas, Nevada

Home country: Canada

Classification: Endangered Missing

Date Of Birth: 05/27/84

Age at disappearance: 21

Age now: 27 as of May 27, 2011

Height: 5’6″

Weight: 110-130 lbs.

Hair Color: Naturally blonde, but could be dyed a darker colour

Eye Color: Hazel

Race: White

Gender: Female

Distinguishing Characteristics: Pierced right eyebrow, several ear piercings, no known scars or tattoos, long hair. Perfectly straight, white teeth. Vegetarian. Jewelry: Ring in the shape of a triangle full of little diamonds, with matching earrings, and a three-diamond princess-cut ring, sometimes wears a dainty nose ring.

Nickname: “Jessie”

Alias given to her by her traffickers: “Taylor”

DETAILS OF JESSIE’S DISAPPEARANCE:

Jessie was taken to Las Vegas in May 2005, met a man, and ended up moving in with him within a month or so (later we understood it was not because he cared for her – he ‘owned’ her. Less than one year later, she mysteriously vanished. Her older sister talked to her March 28 and said, “talk to you tomorrow”, but they have never heard from her again. It turns out her rich boyfriend is not a trust fund baby, as he told her and her family; he is actually a violent pimp has been convicted of spousal abuse, who has an estranged wife, who is a convicted prostitute, who many times threatened Jessie and Jessie’s life. The so-called boyfriend beat Jessica, but her family did not know this until she went missing, they were unable to get her to leave him. They later found out that he was forcing her into the escort business, which was discovered after she disappeared and her family hired a PI.

One of the last things that Jessie told her older sister, Crystal, during the last phone call was that she was packed and ready to leave, to come back to Canada for their stepsister’s wedding reception. Crystal warned her to make sure he did not find out, but Jessie said she thought he already knew. Her family never heard back from her again.

 The police do not have any evidence of foul play at this time, but her family believes otherwise.

DNA, fingerprints and dental records are available.

Investigating Agency

If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

North Las Vegas Police Department

Det. Dave Molnar

(702) 633-1779

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I personally have given so much information to the police working on Jessie’s case. But it is only given to them by me – THE MOTHER – a grandmother, because the people who have called me with this information had no other choice but to call the mom.

I am told over and over, they are calling me personally, BECAUSE THE POLICE HAVE NOT GOT BACK TO THEM. But even when I call or email this information to them myself, they STILL do NOTHING with any of it.

LEADS NEVER GIVEN A SECOND THOUGHT TO BY THE NORTH LAS VEGAS POLICE:

• never interviewing, or even wanting to talk to Jessie’s older sister, the last person known to talk to her

• never interviewing Donald Vaz (the person who took her to the USA and left her in Las Vegas); Yvonne Hubrechtsen (AKA: Angel, the person who was supposed to be Jessie’s best friend in Las Vegas); or Richard Barrington Walcott (Angel’s boyfriend and Peter Todd’s friend)

• thorough investigation of the home she was last known to be in

• that Jessie was kidnapped and the victim of modern-day slavery, because “that happens in Las Vegas, not in North Las Vegas” (yes, he seriously told Jessie’s dad that)

TIPS GIVEN TO ME, THAT THE NORTH LAS VEGAS POLICE HAVE DONE NOTHING ABOUT:

• a woman called me and told me she saw Jessie immediately after Trish VanArsdale (Jessie’s fiance

Peter Todd’s estranged wife – though, Peter had told Jessie they were divorced, and when she found their marriage certificate and he admitted they were still married, it caused a HUGE fight between the two of them) cut Jessie’s hand with a knife,(something we told the police about, but they said we had no proof of it, so I am guessing Jessie’s word coming from us, was not good enough for them, even though Jessie had told us about this incident prior to her disappearing, and I reported Trish as someone who HATED Jessie – as a matter of fact, Peter and Jessie both told me this: Jessie never answered the door at their home when she was alone, in case it was Trish on the other side – that is how much she hated Jessie for being with Peter and living in the home she once shared with him). This woman told me that Jessie rushed into the office of the escort agency that Jessie was beaten and forced to work at, with blood running from her hand. She was yelling that Peter’s jealous, crazy, ex-wife cut her hand. She was saying how much this person hated her. The woman told me this and she told me that she called the police with it but they NEVER called her back. She told me she was willing to be put under hypnosis, because it was several years ago and she wanted to remember every detail.

So I called the police and they never got back to me either. I tried to get someone to help me and eventually, Frank Mahoney from NCMLO (Nevada Center for Missing Loved Ones) told me to get her to call him, but by then, my contact info was no longer working (she did tell me she was going to be leaving Las Vegas and wanted to leave it all behind, so I guess it took me so long to find someone, it was TOO LATE).

• someone told me that Peter Todd took Jessie out to the desert and killed her and buried her, then took $30,000 cash to Trish VanArsdale and gave her $28,000 of it. The police never called them back and never check out this tip, or the car he was driving that day.

• a man called me in August 2009 after he saw the E! Entertainment’s documentary,YOUNG, BEAUTIFUL & VANISHED. He had recognized Jessie’s picture from it. He told me he saw Jessie at a Motel 6 in AUGUST 2006, months after she was reported missing. He had some detailed info about this time frame. He was there with his daughter who was celebrating her 21st birthday (Motel 6 is the motel we know that Jessie went to on two separate occasions when her friend CB was visiting her in Las Vegas in late summer or early fall of 2005. CB was the only person who was ever at the house that Jessie shared with Peter and his identical twin brother, James Andrew Todd, in North Las Vegas, and she left the house two times, once in a cab and once driven by James – and going to Motel 6. Peter came both times and brought them home – once the next morning, but once was that night – he paid for the room for the night, but took the women back to the house in North Las Vegas). This man told me he had called the police with his information, but they never called me back. He told me he was calling because he was going for major surgery the next week, and not knowing if he was going to make it, he wanted to ensure the mother of this missing woman knew what he knew. I called the police with this information, but they NEVER got back to me about it and have never told me if they have done anything with this tip.

• a young woman called me and told me that everyone in the Las Vegas world of Sin City knows what happened to Jessie, but you know, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. So no one will talk to the police and tell them what she told me, that Peter Todd beat Jessie to death in the house at 1009 Cornerstone Place, North Las Vegas, NV, USA (she is going to ‘try’ to see if she can find someone from back in 2006 who is no longer in LV, and may not be too afraid to come forward).

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My name is Glendene Grant and my daughter is Jessie Foster. We are from Canada, I live in Kamloops, BC; her father lives in Calgary, AB; and Jessie has been missing from (North) LasVegas since March 29, 2006. The reason I put the (brackets) around (NORTH), is because it was just a formality that Jessie’s missing person’s case was filed in North Las Vegas – because that is the house where they had her living at. It would have just as easily been (Henderson) or (Metro) or (anywhere) handling her disappearance as it was N LV (though I wish it was any other place else than N LV).

Detective David Molnar is the officer at the North Las Vegas Police Department “handling” Jessie’s case: file #06-9384 his phone number is 702-633-1779. Jessie’s case here in Canada is with the Serious Crimes Division, and Constable Darin Rappel is the officer in charge of her case: file #2006-9538 – his phone number is 250-828-3293. Jessie’s NCIC# is M-535642358. The reason I did “quotations” around the word “HANDLING“, is because in my opinion, it is just a formality. He is the detective on record. Considering he has not contacted me in any way, or replied to my emails or phones calls for over 2 years – for almost ｽ the entire time Jessie has been missing, except for one 15-word message in 2009, when I literally had to demand to know who was now the detective on Jessie’s case, since it was obviously not him, or he would be doing something, anything (like returning messages to people calling with tips, who end up calling me, the mother, because they get NO RESPONSE FROM THE POLICE – WHAT KIND OF INVESTIGATION IS THAT?). He replied with this quote: “Glendene, I am still the Detective on the case. Who told you I was not?” It was not that anyone told me, it was that he HAD NO CONTACT WHAT-SO-EVER, WITH ANYONE IN JESSIE’S FAMILY.

I AM THE FAMILY CONTACT PERSON – AND HE NEVER REPLIED TO ANY OF MY PLEAS FOR HIM TO RETURN MY PHONE CALLS OR REPLY TO MY EMAILS. So, to me, Detective David Molnar is simply the detective on record who is “handling” Jessie’s case.

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Here is some background on JESSIE FOSTER, international endangered missing person and human trafficking victim and the people she knew while in Las Vegas. People we believe, and if you read and listen to all the information, will probably agree – are likely involved in her disappearance:

Peter Bertrand Todd is the person who we were told, by many people, beat Jessie and forced her to work at an escort agency. Several people at this agency, including the manager, have told me personally that Jessie had bruises from Peter, and she was too afraid to leave him. They also all ‘know’, as did many people in that walk-of-life, that Jessie was beat to death (some say shot) by him in the house at 1009 Cornerstone Place, North Las Vegas, NV USA 89301 (some say in the desert) and buried in the Mojave Desert north of where they lived.

Even after all this time, I still get calls quite frequently, from people who can’t forget Jessie and feel that even though it may be years later – they feel the need to do what they can now to try to help. A recent one was just in August 2010, from a woman who knew Jessie (she knew her as Taylor) back in 2005, she said she believes Jessie is dead, that she was murdered by Peter Todd.

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In my and many others opinions, the North Las Vegas police have NEVER done a proper investigation on the house they know she lived in up to the time she vanished. They say they have no reason to do this investigation – so I guess her being missing is not ‘reason’ enough. It really makes me wonder how a crime can be solved without investigating it?!?!?!? How do they know if he did it or not if they do not check it out? If they don’t rip up carpets and baseboards to look for blood drops or splatters? How does someone not even be investigated and therefore ‘wins’ by default?

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I don’t know if Peter did anything or not, but I do know he told me 3 different stories about the last time he saw Jessie. Well, I have ONE story about the last time I saw my daughter . . . it was as she was leaving Kamloops and her family on CHRISTMAS DAY, DECEMBER 25, 2005 so she could go back to Peter and Las Vegas and the fate that she met, 3 months later – and my story has NEVER changed! How could it? The truth does not change! Our Christmas, however, has forever been changed. How do I have a different story about that?

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However, regardless of what we don’t know happened, what we do know happened is this:

• Jessie was taken to the USA in the spring of 2005 by Donald Vaz

• Donald Vaz left Jessie in the company of Richard Barrington Walcott and Yvonne (Angel) Hubrechtsen in Las Vegas, NV USA

• Richard Barrington Walcott and Yvonne (Angel) Hubrechtsen then left her in the company of Peter Bertrand Todd

• Peter Todd ended up her ‘fianc・ and it was who she was living with, and his identical twin brother, James Andrew Todd, when she vanished 10 months later, never to be seen or heard from now for 5 years.

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On March 29, 2006, JESSIE FOSTER, for all intents and purposed, COMPLETELY VANISHED!!I T IS LIKE SHE SIMPLY FELL OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH!!

IT IS LIKE SHE CEASED TO EXIST!!!

AND, her:

• passport was NEVER used again!

• debit card was NEVER used again!!

• cell phone was NEVER used again!!!

• credit cards were NEVER used again!!!!

• bank account was NEVER used again!!!!!

• loved ones NEVER heard from her again!!!!!!

AND:

• she does not have a known American Social Security Number!

• there has NEVER been anything on her Canadian Social Insurance Number!

If Jessie did ‘cease to exist‘, then we know, it is because someone murdered my daughter. If Jessie is alive, (like my heart has always told me), then it is because someone did something to her to make her disappear.

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I don’t know why I suddenly feel I have to share this now, but I have something I want to share with you. It is something that happened that I have only told a few people about. Namely: my family; a few friends; and a couple of reporters, but I am going to share it with you all now.

It is a very emotional thing for me to relive, and when I do, always I cry hard, so the tears will be pouring down my cheeks and the snot will be dripping from my nose, but you know what, nothing is worse than having a missing daughter. So compared to that, this will be a piece of cake.

First of all, the last time I talked to my beautiful daughter, Jessie Foster was during a phone call on March 24, 2006 when she called me to see if her little sister, Jennee’s birthday present had got there and to tell me she had a dentist appointment booked for March 27, she called me twice that day. Jessie was 21 years old at that time. Then on March 27 Jessie called her dad’s house and left her stepmom a happy birthday voice message and said that she was going to the dentist that day. My oldest daughter, Crystal talked to Jessie several times on March 28, 2006 – I didn’t, but I talked to Crystal on that day.

Then, on March 29, 2006 I got up for work at my usual time of 3:00AM. Because I was in the same time zone as Las Vegas, there were many times that Jessie would call me then to talk. She knew I always had time for her, even at 3 o’clock in the morning. So it did not surprise me when the phone rang shortly after I got up. What did surprise me was what I heard on the other end. The first thing I noticed was it was not Jessie’s cell phone number on the call display. She still had her same number from Calgary, AB. This was a 7 -0 – 2, Las Vegas area code, and it was not a phone number I recognized.

Even still, I knew, before I picked it up, that it was going to be Jessie. So I said HI SWEETIE! And then I heard it – it sounded like someone was yelling into the phone. It sounded crackly, like a bad connection with lots of static and I could not understand a thing she was saying. BUT I STILL ‘KNEW’ IT WAS JESSIE, and not just because of the Las Vegas area code on my call display! I felt it was her. It made me very nervous, because it sounded like Jessie was desperately calling for help. Like she was screaming. I was yelling back, JESSIE . . . WHAT IS WRONG? JESSIE, SWEETIE! I CAN’T HEAR YOU. WHAT IS WRONG? And the phone went dead.

I went into the other room to turn on the light and call the number from the call display back, I WAS STARTING TO PANIC. Before I could call the number, my phone rang again. It was the same 702 area code. I answered quickly and said, JESSIE, ARE YOU OK. But again, all could hear was what sounded like someone screaming. This time it was more desperate, but still not clear. I could not understand exactly what was being said, but it sounded like, “HELP . . . . ME . . . . AGGGGG . . . HELP . . .” I was seriously freaking out. I was starting to scream into the phone, JESSIE, WHAT IS WRONG? JESSIE HANG UP AND CALL THE POLICE. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO. JESSIE, WHAT IS HAPPENING? And the call ended again.

I was freaking, my heart was pounding, I was starting to shake and cry. WHAT WAS HAPPENING? Was Peter beating her? I had received calls before when Jessie and Peter were fighting and I talked to both of them. I even tried many times to get Jessie to come home and to get Peter to send her home – but of course, back then, I had no way to know that Jessie was already the victim of modern-day sex slavery. She was already being beat and forced to work at an escort agency. Then the phone rang for a third time.

This time I was as panicked as I have EVER been in my entire life. I HEARD MY DAUGHTER SCREAMING FOR HER LIFE! I swear it. I still could not make out the words, but the sheer panic and shrillness and the loudness of it all told me SOMETHING WAS VERY WRONG. I was screaming into the phone, JESSIE, STOP CALLING ME. CALL THE POLICE! WHERE ARE YOU? WHAT CAN I DO? CALL 9-1-1!!!!!!!!!!! Then the call ended again.

I tried to call Jessie’s cell phone from my cell phone at the same time as I tried to call the number on my call display from my home phone, but both phone just rang, and rang, and rang. I tried to call Peter’s cell phone and even Yvonne Hubrechtsen’s cell phone (hers was the only other number I had for anyone that Jessie knew in Las Vegas, because I ironically and prophetically said to Jessie when she was going to stay in Las Vegas for 2 weeks until her 21st birthday so she could celebrate there – “Jessie, you are not staying in another country unless you give me a contact number for SOMEONE there. I don’t know anyone or where you are, and IF YOU GO MISSING, who will I call”. TEN MONTHS

LATER MY DAUGHTER WENT MISSING). But all I got on everyone’s phone was voice-mail. I left messages, but no one was calling me back. I did not know what to do, because, seriously, I was not even sure what I had just heard. I called in to work and said I could not come in. I was a mess, there was no way I would be any use at work, as I would be just too worried. I was already worried out of my mind.

Then about 10AM my daughter Crystal called from a pay phone when the Greyhound bus she was on got to a stop . . . she was on her way home from up in Northern Alberta at the oil rig camp she was a cook at, to meet her sister Jessie in Kamloops so they could drive Jessie’s car to Calgary for their stepsister’s wedding reception (Jessie’s proof of car insurance came in the mail to my house for 30 days . . . Jessie paid almost $200 for this, but she never showed up to use it). She was very upset. She said MOM, IT WAS ME. IT WAS ME CALLING NOT JESSIE. IT WAS ME CALLING FROM MY CO-WORKER’S CELL PHONE, SHE IS FROM LAS VEGAS!!!!

You see, Crystal had accidentally washed her cell phone in her housecoat pocket before she left camp, so it was not working. She was on the Greyhound bus with her friend who was going to Edmonton to take a plane home to Las Vegas and she knew I would be up at 3:00AM, so she called me from a 7-0-2 area code phone number!!

Crystal told me she could hear me plain as day. She kept saying over and over, “No, Mom, it is not Jessie, it is me!”, but all I heard was Jessie screaming for help.

Now, if you knew how close my daughters are to each other, and how close I am to my kids, then maybe somehow there is a way for Crystal to call me on a Las Vegas cell, just as something horrific is happening to Jessie – perhaps she was being kidnapped or beaten to death at that exact time and through the powers of whatever; through the heart-strings between my children and I and my children and each other; I somehow heard Jessie screaming out for me, for her Mommy as she was snatched away or as ‘someone’ snuffed out her beautiful life.

I know my heart has always told me Jessie is alive and to this day, through my tears as I type now, even with what I just told you, I can’t help it! I just DO NOT FEEL, DEEP IN MY HEART, THAT MY CHILD IS DEAD, and whether that is the truth, and Jessie is alive and that night there were just 3 ‘bad’ connections from a Las Vegas cell area code at the exact same time Jessie sometimes called me OR, Jessie was murdered, and through the grace of the Lord, I was able to be there for her at the end, well, I just don’t know.

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I do know this though. My best-friend Brenda was there for her 16-year-old son (his birthday was just on July 22, 2002) son, James when he was hit by a speeding truck on August 5, 2002 . . . she held him as he died, and as tragic as that is, it is what has allowed her to go on. She KNOWS he did not suffer, she knows he went to heaven, and she was with her baby as he took his last breath. I hope, if Jessie is not alive, that I was ‘with her’ as she took her last breath.

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The next day, after Jessie never returned Crystal’s calls or my calls, one of my other daughters – Jessie’s 2nd youngest sister Katie, told me she had been calling Jessie all day, and she never returned her call. I started leaving message after message and I filled up her voice-mail-box. I emailed her and my emails were getting more and more frantic and pretty soon I was YELLING in them!! I went to work the next day and told one of my co-workers, I THINK MY DAUGHTER IS MISSING IN LAS VEGAS.

He said, “What are you doing here then?” And I said, “I DON’T KNOW”. I left and never went back for a year and a half (then a year and a half after that, the business closed).

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Right now, besides the tears and snot I already mentioned, I am shaking and my head is throbbing. It is almost like I just went through that again. But you know, this time, I feel as if I got something out of telling it. Like when you go to the ‘shrink’ and pour your guts out and feel better! Or . . . when you pop that damn pimple that hurts like hell . . . and when you do, the pressure comes off and the pain is relieved a bit. Eventually the pimple will heal, and I pray that one day, so will my heart.

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So. over the next few days of trying to get a hold of Jessie, I was also calling Peter Todd’s cell phone number, which I had – and the number to Yvonne Hubrechtsen that Jessie had given me – IN CASE SHE EVER WENT MISSING – but I was not getting any answers from either of them – or from Jessie or from her emails.

One day a friend of mine suggested call-blocking my phone number before I called, but I said that it wouldn’t make a difference. You see, at this point, I no idea that they may (or did) have something to do with her being missing. You know, what – that worked! I did it . . . I call-blocked my number and called Peter: HE ANSWERED.

After that I call-blocked my number and called Yvonne: SHE ANSWERED. Until then, they never bothered to answer the frantic phone calls from the mother of their fiancé/friend’s, nor did they return any of my messages where I was pleading for someone to contact me about where my daughter was. That is, until they did not know it was me calling.

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When I finally did get a hold of Peter, he gave me 3 (THREE) different stories about the last time he says he saw Jessie:

1. He told me that she was gone since April 3 (this was the 9th). She had called him and asked him to drop off her Rx for pain medication at the pharmacy and she would pick it up on her way home from ‘work’ in the morning. (He said she had a dentist appointment to have her wisdom tooth pulled and needed the meds. HOWEVER: we know her appointment was on March 27th – not in April).

2. He told me some of the same details: date / dentist appointment – but he told me she asked him also pick up the Rx. The earlier story he said she picked it up.

3. Still some of the same details: date / dentist appointment – but he told me that she wanted him to drop off the Rx for her, then she came home – when he went out to pick it up for her later, and came home, she was gone. WITH EVERYTHING BUT HER HAIRDRYER & MAKEUP (the two things that Jessie would NEVER leave behind on purpose). This tells me she was either taken away suddenly, or someone else took her things and never thought about the bathroom items.

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Then, I had to beg him to call the police there and I would call the police here, then we can report her missing on both sides of the border. He was not very interested in doing it – but I insisted and told him I was calling back. Again the RED FLAGS were flapping!

After I made my report to the Kamloops, BC RCMP, I called him back and he told me he was not ALLOWED to report her missing! (WHAT? They were engaged and living together for MONTHS. Who else would report her missing?)

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This is PETER TODD’s lame attempt to report Jessie as a missing person in the city where she went missing and it is very interesting (at least, it is in my opinion):

He told me that he was told that I had to make the report. He told me that he was given the number to a ‘chief’ and was told to give this number to her mother and have her mother report her missing. But this number kept going to voice-mail when I called it over and over,and when I finally called the Metro Las Vegas Police (I got the number from Google), I gave the woman I talked that number, and she told me that number was to a FIRE CHIEF?

WHAT???

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So I reported her missing from here. But to do that I had to go to the police station here and show my drivers license to prove who I was, then I had to photocopy it and fax it to the North Las Vegas Police Station.

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And when I FINALLY got Yvonne to answer my phone calls . . . well, she lied to me about being Yvonne. She told me I had the wrong number. But I called that number back later, again call blocking my number, but this time I lied to her. This time I ‘pretended’ to be her friend. Calling her by her nickname, Angel – and go figure, I never had the wrong number that time!!

MORE ABOUT YVONNE HUBRECHTSEN:

Yvonne Hubrechtsen was arrested in Vancouver, BC Canada and deported back to the USA – banned for, I think 5 years from coming back onto Canadian soil. It was the middle to the end of December 2007 and she lied to cross the border into Canada because she was denied entry at a port the day before (so she went to a different one, with a different story – who knows, maybe even a different name/passport). Yvonne was pulled over in a Black Hummer owned by her boyfriend, Richard Barrington Walcott (whose Canadian address that I have found, is 5933 – 137 A Street, Surrey, BC Canada V3X 3K9, home phone: 604-596-2159 / cell phone: 604-724-0006 – his mother is Elaine Walcott who lives at that address) in a ‘red light district’ (hmmmmmm, let’s see – trying find their next ‘friend/victim’? I think so, but then, who am I so think anything – I am just the mother of a missing woman with WAAAAAAAAY too much time on her hands?) Here is a newspaper article about this incident:

Mom of missing daughter wants to speak with deported woman – Friday, December 21, 2007

by LENA SIN of the Vancouver Province.

(http://www.jessiesnewsarticles.blogspot.com/2008/09/article-89-mom-…). I am posting the link to my Jessie news article blog, because the original article is no longer available online, it has just been too long.

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THE PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR WE HIRED:

Mike Kirkman, from Las Vegas Detectives, the PI we hired when Jessie went missing, found hospital records showing that Jessie was beaten and hospitalized and he also found an escort agency where Jessie was forced to work. Others who worked there saw bruises on her, and it was not just our PI that was told, I was also told the same thing. I talked to several women who knew Jessie back in 2005 /2006 (she was kept in Las Vegas from May 2005 to March 2006), they knew her as Taylor, but many knew her. And the ones I talked, including the manager, told me Jessie often had bruises on her and that Jessie was too afraid to leave . . . too afraid of her so-called ‘fiancé’, Peter Todd (known to the police, including the VICE squad in Las Vegas, as a violent pimp with a conviction for spousal about), to leave.

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Jessie Foster (http://www.jessiefoster.ca/) she was reported missing by me (her mom) in April 2006, to the North Las Vegas Police Department. Jessie (http://www.amw.com/missing_persons/brief.cfm?id=60803) has since been on America’s Most Wanted (http://www.amw.com/) twice as a possible victim of a highway / truck driver / serial killer along with 3 other women who went missing from Las Vegas (http://www.amw.com/features/feature_story_detail.cfm?id=3049): Lindsay Marie Harris (see below for the story about Jessie & Lindsay, by Abigail Goldman with the Las Vegas Sun); Jodi Marie Brewer; & Misty Marie Saens. The problem is, all her belongings also went missing when Jessie did, so it has never made sense to me how anyone came to that conclusion. Well, other than she looked similar to Lindsay Harris and their ‘stories’ are similar about their background: family life, boyfriend /fiancé / pimp, prostitution / disappearance. And they are, but all Lindsay’s belongs and also Jodi and Misty’s belonging were where they were left when the women left their homes that last time.WHERE ARE JESSIE’S THINGS? Remember: Jessie lived with Peter Todd . . . rather, was engaged to Peter Todd . . . and lived with him and his twin brother, James Andrew Todd (who works for the LV or NLV school district . . . yes, a known pimp’s brother works with the kids in his community – and who moved out of the house he shared with Peter & Jessie on April 15, 2006 – WHY? He won’t answer me when I ask. I know he is not completely happy with what his brother does, but then, he lived off him at 1009 Cornerstone Place, NLV). I have personally spoken to Peter Todd and James Todd myself and have communicated a few emails with Donald Vaz. And most recently, Yvonne Hubrechtsen has left me a message in our guestbook (http://users2.smartgb.com/g/g.php?a=s&i=g20-03861-b1&m=all&…) on our website.

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There are tens of thousands of people who have followed Jessie’s case in the news and on the internet. Thousands of people who love Jessie like a daughter, sister & friend. The prayers for Jessie are constant – every day from everywhere around this world.

On March 29, 2011 it will be 5 years since Jessie’s sister Crystal last spoke to her younger sister. It was on March 29, 2006 at approximately 12:00AM that our family lost all contact with my daughter Jessie.

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A LOT HAS BEEN HAPPENING IN CANADA THIS YEAR, WITH JESSIE’S CASE STAYING IN THE NEWS

(and it has since she has been missing), AND WITH ME DOING EVERYTHING I CAN IN A CAMPAIGN

OF MY OWN TO TRY TO COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING.

THE CANADIAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS FINALLY STEPPING UP TO DO WHAT IT CAN TO ALSO COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING WITH CRIME STOPPERS NEW BLUE BLINDFOLD CAMPAIGN, WHICH IS A HECK OF A LOT MORE THAN ME . . . A 53-YEAR-OLD MOTHER & NOW GRANDMOTHER WITHOUT A JOB . . . CAN POSSIBLY EVER DO. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT, I HAVE BEEN DOING MORE THAN MY SHARE FOR THE PAST 5 YEARS, SO I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR THE ‘HELP’!!

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The amount of things happening here in Canada with human trafficking and with Jessie’s case pretty much now the poster child for human trafficking in our home country. Right now I will concentrate on the most important things that have happened just in 2010 and 2011, directly regarding what I have been doing in Jessie’s name and to bring forth human trafficking awareness in Canada, and what is being done here to try to put a stop to it.

I am very proud of everything I have done, and I am very proud that because the hard work by myself and so many others in the 5 years since Jessie disappeared, human trafficking is no longer in the ‘closet’. It is no longer considered a 3rd world issue, or a mystery TV show. Now, TV shows are loosely basing their episodes on stories the writers heard in the news.

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Some of the media and information from 2010 and 2011:

1 – TITLE

2 – INTRODUCTION

3 – RCMP & CRIME STOPPERS BLUE BLINDFOLD CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCEMENT

4 – MP JOY SMITH’s BLUE BLINDFOLD CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCEMENT

5 – SEVEN HUMAN TRAFFICKING ARTICLES by JEREMY DEUTSCH of K.T.W.

6 – M.A.T.H. MOTHERS AGAINST TRAFFICKING HUMANS

7 – BOOKS OUT or COMING OUT WITH JESSIE’s CASE MENTIONED

8 – ADDITIONAL INFO ON MEDIA, ETC

1 – TITLE: Missing Jessie Foster & Human Trafficking Information in 2010

Put together by Jessie’s mom Glendene – Released September 10, 2010

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2 – INTRODUCTION: Human Trafficking

Finally it is not just known as a 3rd world country or crime television thing anymore. I have become friends and allies with people in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, South Africa who are all now more aware of human trafficking than ever before because of Jessie’s case and all the work I have been doing in her name.

There was so much in just 2010 alone:

• February 15, 2010 I was honoured to be invited to be a guest speaker at the 19thAnnual Women’s Memorial March in Vancouver, BC. I was not sure I would be able to make it, due to financial difficulties, but thanks to many generous Jessie supporters all over (from Canada, the USA, Portugal and England) I was able to attend. Besides being a guest speaker, during the march I was able to have the glorified honour of drumming. It is a very spiritual thing, and there were several times during the march, that there were several eagles flying high above us. It was amazing, but it was not surprising, To the First Nations People there is nothing surprising about those who have gone before, their ancestors . . . their family and their friends . . . them to be with them at a time like that, to give them strength and love. It was very amazing to me to feel as I did there.

While I was there I met some people who were filming a documentary with one of Robert ‘Willie’ Pickton’s (a notorious Canadian serial killer) victim’s daughter, and during their filming, they did a portion on Jessie. Also there was a documentary being filmed called “In the Shadow of the Olympic Flame: A Report from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, the Poorest Neighbourhood in Canada” (http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/2/in_the_shadow_of_the_olympic) in which I was able to show Jessie’s missing poster and mention her case.

• March 6, 2010 I was contacted by a woman named Timea Nagy, the founder of a human trafficking organization called Walk-With-Me (http://www.wix.com/timea77/walk-with-me). Timea was also the victim of human trafficking, but she has long become a survivor of this horrific crime. Timea had heard of Jessie’s case the previous October when she was in Calgary. She was there to do a human trafficking training session with the Calgary police and it just so happened that there was a 3-day series that Canoe News was doing about missing Canadian women and Jessie’s case was on the front page of the Calgary (AB) Herald newspaper, again. Timea was talking to a police officer and he asked her if she had ever heard of Jessie Foster, the Calgary woman who was a human trafficking victim. Timea had not, but she took the paper and for months after that she could not get Jessie out of her mind.

Then she was planning her ceremony to award people who have worked with victims of human trafficking, trying hard to make a dent in this horrific crime. But she did not have a name for her award and she again thought about Jessie and she called me. Timea wanted to know if she could name the award the Glendene & Jessie Foster Award to honour Jessie as a victim and me as the mother of a human trafficking victim who works to raise awareness. I was so pleased. I had long said that Jessie was going to be the Poster Child for human trafficking in Canada and this was definitely going to help. Jessie is the most well-known human trafficking victim in Western Canada, if not the most well-known human trafficking victim in all of Canada.

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• March 17 & 19, 2010 were parts one and two of a four-part series in my local Kamloops This Week newspaper called: MODERN-DAY SLAVERY.

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• March 23, 2010, Canada’s only accredited forensic artist and now a dear friend of mine, Diana Trepkov offered to do an age-enhancement drawing of Jessie as a gift from one mother to another, as she put it. I was thrilled, and when she ended up doing 3 of them, I could not thank her enough.

Then another Jessie supporter, a man who had been through his own daughter’s disappearance and murder years earlier, someone who had been there for us since we first realized Jessie was missing wanted to pay Diana her fee to do a 4th drawing of Jessie as she would look, 4 years after being a human trafficking victim. After these drawings were complete, he and I worked on a news release to come out on March 29, 2010, the 4th year of Jessie’s disappearance.

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• March 24 & 26, 2010 were parts three and four of a four-part series in my local Kamloops This Week newspaper called: MODERN-DAY SLAVERY.

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• March 29, 2010 I was in Vancouver, BC on the CTV Canada AM TV show. Diana Trepkov talked to her contact there and they wanted to have her and me on their show at the same time, on March 29, 2010. So I went to Vancouver and Diana went to Toronto and we were on the show ‘together’ even though we were half-way across the country from each other.

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• April 15, 2010, again thanks to the generosity of so many others, I was in Toronto, Ontario, for the First Annual Glendene & Jessie Foster Award Ceremony. I was flown there on WestJet thanks to Louis McIvor donating buddy tickets, getting me plane tickets from Kamloops to Toronto for just $70.00 each and I stayed at the Toronto Sandman Signature Hotel for 2 nights and 3 days in their Penthouse Suite (I would have been happy with a bed and a shower, but there was a hot-tub and everything in this mansion) with everything included. Meals, taxes, anything I needed . . . even bottled water, but I did not know that until I checked out and I found out I owned NOTHING! I got to see Jessie’s stepsister Alisha and her 3 children and I got to meet the most incredible people who were all being honoured with a Jessie Award.

People like:

•Timea Nagy (http://www.walk-with-me.org) herself, she is such a wonderful person and exactly like she was on the phone and in emails and people like the recipients of the Jessie award (listed below):

Law Enforcement

•Armand P. La Barge: Chief of Police York Region (now their former Chief)

•York Regional Police: Drugs and Vice Unit

•Peel Regional Police: Drugs and Vice Unit

•RCMP: Human Trafficking National Coordination Centre, Ottawa

•RCMP: Immigration and Passport Section, Hamilton-Niagara Regional Detachment

•RCMP: Human Trafficking Coordination Centre, Awareness Coordinator, Toronto, Ontario

•Toronto Police Services: Sex Crimes Unit

•Toronto Police Services: 22 Division

•Edmonton Police: Vice Section, G. John Fiorilli, Edmonton, Alberta

•Channa Guenoun: Canada Border Services Agency

•Crime Stoppers York Region: Sergeant Gary Harvey, Police coordinator

•Toronto Police Services: 52 Division, Sergeant Michael Josifovic

Non-Government Agencies

•FCJ Refugee Centre: Loly Rico, Co-Director, Toronto, Ontario

•Human Trafficking Coalition Windsor: Shelly Gilbert staff Lawyer, and her team

•Professor Benjamin Perrin & MAYTREE Foundation: Toronto, Ontario

•Salvation Army Branford: Doug Radmore, Front line worker

•Salvation Army Hamilton: Amy Claus, Case worker

•Salvation Army Windsor: Sandor Meszaros, Food Services Supervisor

•HTAP Waterdone, Ontario: Sister Celeste Reinhart, and her dedicated team members

•Sextrade 101, Public Education and Awareness: Natasha Falle, Executive Director

•Canada Fights Human Trafficking: Naomi Baker, Founder

•Herbert H. Carnegie, Future Aces Foundation: Bernice Carnegie, Executive Director, Brook Chambers, Presenter, Educator

Media

•Toronto Sun: Tamara Cherry, reporter, Crime Bureau

•Rogers Television Newmarket: Nancy Coldham, Partner

•CBC National Television: Mark Kelly, and the production team

•Sing Tao Newspapers: Percta Lam, reporter

•Rogers Television, Richmond Hill: Brianne Thom, Videographer- First Local

•YRMG: Joe Fantauzzi, Reporter

•Ric Esther Bienstock: Producer, Director

•Marina Jemenez: Globe and Mail foreign respondent

•Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall: Freelance Writer, Toronto

Private Groups / Citizens

•MP leader Joy Smith: Member of the Parliament, Winnipeg

•Joel Oosterman: Chief of Staff, Office of Joy Smith, MP

•Bernice Carnegie and Brook Chambers: Herbert H. Carnegie Future Aces Foundation

Each one of these people received the “First Annual Glendene & Jessie Foster Award” for their dedication and hard work combating human trafficking, but to me, it was even more than that. To me it meant that every one of the recipients would be going home and talking about the award and human trafficking, and during those discussions missing Jessie Foster would be mentioned.

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• April 15, 2010 at the “Glendene & Jessie Foster Award Ceremony“, I got the honour ofbeing asked by MP Joy Smith, if I would be interested in going to our nation’s capital city, Ottawa, Ontario, to testify at the Senate hearing to get her Bill C-268 to be passed into law. Which it was, but without needing the testimony of citizens.

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• May 1, 2010 we started to get responses from some of our local schools for myself, Mark Price from the Kamloops & District Crimes Stoppers and Deb Noel from the Catholic Women’s League to do our presentation to educate the students about human trafficking.

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• June 1, 2010 there was an article in the Flint (Michigan, USA) Journal newspaper about M.A.T.H.: Burton mother, Lisa Brant (*Canadian mother, Glendene Grant*) aims to raise awareness of human trafficking by starting Mothers Against Trafficking Humans (http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2010/06/burton_mother_lis…).

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• June 8 & 10, 2010 we did our presentation for the grade 11 Social Studies classes at Valleyview Secondary School.

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• June 17, 2010, MP Joy Smith’s Bill C-268 has finally passed the Senate of Canada. What a day for celebration around our country.

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• June 22, 2010 we gave the Walk4Justice 2010 a send-off in Kamloops, British Columbia where they started. This year the walk was to Winnipeg, Manitoba. I had contacted MPJoy Smith about the walkers ending in Winnipeg and she organized a BBQ to welcome them and to celebrate the Walk4Justice 2010 achieving its goal. I am so proud to have been part of this. I hosted the walkers at my home on June 21st with tents pitched all over my side yard. We had dinner provided by our local Domino’s Pizza. I called them and told them that the walkers were at my home, and since I had won a contest to geta pizza a week for a year, meaning I won 52 pizzas, so I ordered some then (and the rest we used for a Dine ‘N Dance fundraiser for Jessie in July). And I am very proud that a young woman who is like a daughter to me (her mom is one of my long-time friends from teen hood), Shona White and her boyfriend Jarrod Nosan, hosted the walkers at their home in Canmore, Alberta. They enjoyed Jarrod’s delicious spaghetti dinner.

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• June 29, 2010 marked a historical event, with Bill C-268 receiving Royal Assent. This bill is an Act to Amend the Criminal Code (minimum sentence for offences involving trafficking of persons under the age of eighteen years). Bill C-268 was signed by Justice Rothstein and read by the Speaker of the Canadian Senate, giving the Bill Royal Assent by written declaration.

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• July 29, 2010, MP Joy Smith hosted the BBQ for the Walk4Justice when they arrived in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was held at Birds Hill Park from 12:00 P.M. to 10:30 P.M. They had walked (approximately) 2000 kilometers or 1240 miles. The Walk4Justice 2009 was from Vancouver, British Columbia up the Highway of Tears to Prince Rupert, British Columbia. They walked (approximately) 1230 kilometers or 765 miles! And the first ever walk, the Walk4Justice 2008 was from Vancouver, British Columbia to our nation’s capital, Ottawa, Ontario. They walked (approximately) 4700 kilometers or 2900 miles!! The plan for the Walk4Justice 2011 is again to walk to Ottawa again.

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• August 18, 2010 I was invited by the L.N.I.B. (Lower Nicola Indian Band) to do a presentation on human trafficking prevention for their youth group. Ages 6 to 18 yearsold. Previously I have only done presentations to high school age students, so I had to change it somewhat to be more suitable for younger kids. This was my first time I did my presentation without Mark from Crime Stoppers and I was very proud of myself. I also got a chance to invite Megan Stevenson from the S.H.O.P. (Social & Health Options for Persons in the sex trade) program, which is within the A.S.K. (Aids Society of Kamloops) to go with me and she got the opportunity to do her own presentation to the group. Prior to this, Megan and I had been talking about a new organization that they want to have a chapter open in Kamloops called C.A.S.E.Y. (Communities Against Sexual Exploitation of Youth).

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• August 29, 2010 I got an email from a woman with M.L.A.P. (Maple Leaf Alberta Projects) about being a guest at their upcoming book launch for Professor Perrin’s book on human trafficking in Edmonton on October 23, 2010. They took care of my flight and hotel costs.

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• September 2010, Timea Nagy’s book, called “Walk With Me, Memoirs of a Sex Slave Survivor” is being released. Jessie is mentioned in her book.

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• September 7, 2010, Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews was joined by Joy Smith, Member of Parliament for Kildonan – St. Paul, Manitoba, for an announcement launching a national human trafficking awareness campaign. The federal department of Public Safety is partnering with the RCMP and the Canadian Crime Stoppers Association to launch the Crime Stoppers “Blue Blindfold” Campaign. The campaign will educate the public on human trafficking and provide tools for Canadians to join the fight against human trafficking (which is something that I have been doing for months with Mark Price and the Kamloops & District Crime Stoppers). An article (posted later on) actually said the following about our presentation, in his article about this very announcement: “It was the only one of its kind in the country”.

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• September 9, 2010 there was a very good article on the Kamloops This Week website by Jeremy Deutsch about the ‘Blue Blindfold Campaign’, including his interview with me. This article was also in the September 10 hard copy issue.

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• September 10, 2010 I got a call from one of my local Kamloops Members of Parliament, Cathy McLeod’s assistant. She told me Mrs. McLeod was hoping I had time to meet with her next week (of course I have time). We are meeting at 10 A.M. onThursday, September 16, 2010.

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• October 5, 2010, Professor Benjamin Perrin’s book, called “INVISIBLE CHAINS: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking” will be released. Jessie is mentioned in his book.

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• October 18, 2010 is Professor Benjamin Perrin’s book launch in Vancouver, British Columbia. It will be held at U.B.C. (University British Columbia) where he is an assistant law professor.

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• October 19, 2010 was my 53rd birthday and my 5th without knowing where my daughter is, or even if she is alive. All I do know is that Jessie was beaten and forced to work for an escort agency and when she tried to leave she disappeared. My daughter is a human trafficking victim and I want, one day, to have a real HAPPY BIRTHDAY – I want to get answers to my haunting question, WHERE IS JESSIE? On May 27, 2011 it will be Jessie’s champagne birthday. She will be 27 on the 27th. I hope to get some answers, any answers, by then.

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• October 22, 2010 is Professor Benjamin Perrin’s book launch in Calgary, Alberta.(Calgary is where Jessie was born, and though my children and I moved to Kamloops, British Columbia when she was just 3 years old, Jessie did move back to Calgary when she was 16 years old and in grade 11. Jessie graduated from high school in Calgary in 2002. It was in Calgary that Jessie met the person who took her to the USA, which was the beginning of the end of life as the Grant/Foster/Hoflin families had known it, and the beginning of the nightmare of our lives.)

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• October 23, 2010 is Professor Benjamin Perrin’s book launch in Edmonton, Alberta, the one to which I am invited to be the guest of M.L.A.P. (Maple Leaf Alberta Projects).

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3 – RCMP and CRIME STOPPERS BLUE BLINDFOLD CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCEMENT

The following content taken was from the website for the C.C.S.A. (Canadian Crime Stoppers Association): http://www.canadiancrimestoppers.org/content/human_trafficking.htm

CCSA Homepage: http://www.canadiancrimestoppers.org/?content/home.html

Human trafficking is a global and multi-faceted phenomenon. It occurs across and within national borders. Its defining feature is the illegal exploitation of women, men and children.The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has raised the profile about human trafficking throughout the world and has encouraged all nations to take appropriate actions to help stop such illegal and cruel activity.

Here in Canada, as you will come to realize, we do have human trafficking occurring in large numbers all across the country. A problem we all face right now is a general lack of knowledge about the issue of human trafficking and its presence in our communities. We hope to be able to change that.

The C.C.S.A. (Canadian Crime Stoppers Association) was very pleased to be approved recently by Public Safety Canada to participate in a project which will extend the ability of Crime Stoppers programs across the country and help increase awareness of this growing issue. The project will encourage provision of information through the tip taking network which will facilitate law enforcement response to any identified human trafficking activity.Public Safety Canada is funding the development of posters, pamphlets and presentations which will be provided to every Crime Stopper program for use in raising awareness in the communities we serve. Crime Stoppers in Canada currently serves over 4000 communities through its 107 programs. If we can raise awareness nationally about this important issue we should be able to decrease, if not eventually eliminate, this illegal activity.

CCSA will be introducing the media materials to you over the next few months and asking for your assistance in helping raise overall awareness in Canada about the issue of human trafficking. It is our hope that local programs will conduct community meetings which will help raise understanding about human trafficking and Crime Stoppers involvement in this growing problem. Full details will be included in the packages.

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The following content taken was from the website of the R.C.M.P (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Human Trafficking National Coordination Center:http://www.rcmpgrc.gc.ca/http/index-eng.htm

–

The R.C.M.P. (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Homepage:http://www.rcmpgrc.gc.ca/indexeng.htm

The RCMP has established a Human Trafficking National Coordination Centre (HTNCC) with in the Immigration and Passport Branch at Headquarters in Ottawa. The Centre works in partnership with domestic and international agencies to develop an extensive network of partnerships, monitors investigations from a national perspective, facilitates the central processing of requests from international law enforcement agencies, provides analytical services and intelligence feedback to domestic law enforcement, and contributes to international data banks.

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The following ‘Tories target human trafficking in campaign‘ was taken from the CBC News website: http://www.cbc.ca/politicis/story/2010/09/07/toews-human-smugglingt…

The federal government is partnering with Crime Stoppers to enlist the Canadian public’s help in detecting and reporting signs of potential human trafficking. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews says law enforcement officials need Canadians to be aware of the signs of human trafficking. (CBC) The announcement Tuesday by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews comes in the wake of last month’s arrival of the MK Sun Sea, a ship carrying hundreds of Tamil migrants, in British Columbia.

Toews said that by exposing the reality of the “disturbing” crime of human trafficking, the “Blue Blindfold” campaign will give Canadians a better understanding of how to detect it and report suspicious activity. While Toews acknowledged the Sun Sea was a case of human smuggling, not trafficking, he noted that smuggling sometimes turns to trafficking if those being transported are unable to make payment.

While human smuggling involves the illegal movement of people across international borders for payment, trafficking includes an additional element of exploitation — usually in the form of forced labour, prostitution and other forms of servitude — and usually involves threats or the use of force.

Toews said most human trafficking victims are women and children from Asia, who are often forced into the sex trade. “Most are women and children and their cases often go unnoticed and unreported due to threats from offenders, language barriers or mistrust of authorities,” he said.

CBC News has learned that Toews is also expected to present Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet with a list of legal options later this week on how to target human smugglers.

The Conservative government has been floating the idea of new laws since the arrival of the Sun Sea in Victoria on Aug. 12. All 492 people on board have requested refugee status in Canada. Toews said there was “certainly a possibility” of other vessels from Sri Lanka coming to Canada and reiterated investigators’ suspicion that the Sun Sea was a “test ship” to gauge the Canadian government’s response.

Kenney calls for minimum sentences for smugglers

Migrants are escorted from the MV Sun Sea after the vessel arrived at CFB Esquimalt in British Columbia last month. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press) Meanwhile, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Parliament needs to consider minimum jail sentences for human smugglers to send a message to those who seek profit through exploiting desperate immigrants. Kenney made the comments on Monday during a meeting with other European leaders in Paris on the issue of human smuggling.

Critics and some legal experts have questioned what, if anything, the government can do to prevent future migrant ships from arriving in Canada. As a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees, Canada is obliged not to send migrants who have reached Canada’s territorial waters back to their own country if they face persecution there.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1985 that all people in Canada were protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The ruling gives asylum-seekers who enter Canadian territory the legal right to a refugee status hearing before facing potential removal from the country, provided they are not deemed a threat to public safety.

Letters from representatives of those who were on the ship claim the ethnic Tamil population in Sri Lanka still faces harsh treatment since the end of the bloody, decades-long civil war between government forces and separatist Tamil rebels. The Sri Lankan government has steadfastly denied such claims and insists the country is at peace since last year’s defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also known as the Tamil Tigers.

The Tamil Tigers were outlawed in Canada as a terrorist group in 2006 for their use of child soldiers and suicide bombers during the country’s 25-year civil war, which killed an estimated 70,000 people.

With files from The Canadian Press

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/09/07/toews-human-smugglingta…

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The following ‘Feds ask for public’s help with human trafficking by Brian Lilley, Parliament Bureau’ is from the CNews website: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2010/09/07/15269211.html

OTTAWA — If you frequent escort services, massage parlours or strip clubs, the RCMP and the federal government want you to know you may be supporting a crime: human trafficking. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews joined the RCMP and Crime Stoppers Canada to announce simultaneous public awareness campaigns to educate the public on the issue of human trafficking.

“Today’s announcement seeks to engage all Canadians in recognizing and reporting when exploitation due to human trafficking is going on around them,” Toews said. “Human trafficking is an insidious form of modern-day slavery in our communities,” said Benjamin Perrin. Perrin, a law professor at the University of British Columbia and author of the soon-to-be published INVISIBLE CHAINS: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking. “Only when many more Canadians learn about the ruthlessness of traffickers and the help that victims need can we confront this hidden national tragedy,” said Perrin.

Whether they want to or not, Canadians are about to learn more about human trafficking. The RCMP Human Trafficking National Co-ordination Centre has launched an awareness campaign called “I’m not for sale.” The campaign will provide resources to police services and local charities working to end human trafficking.

Crime Stoppers is launching the campaign , which will inform the public about how to identify and report cases of possible human trafficking. “Awareness is key in this type of activity,” said RCMP deputy commissioner Raf Souccar. Bringing awareness to the public and allowing them to provide tips anonymously through Crime Stoppers will likely result in more charges, Souccar said.

NDP immigration critic Olivia Chow said she supports the government’s push for a public awareness campaign, even if it’s late. Chow points out that Britain launched its own Blue Blindfold campaign in 2007 and claims it has been a success.

Still Chow said more needs to be done for the victims of trafficking. “At the end of the day, publicity will not convict the criminal,” said Chow. “Publicity will expose the criminal but they will continue with their crime until they are caught. “Chow said victims must be given a comprehensive support system including a safe place to stay if they speak out against their traffickers. Victims should also be allowed to stay in Canada if they would be in danger of physical harm or of being retrafficked if returned home.

In June, Parliament passed private member’s bill C-268. Initiated by Conservative MP Joy Smith, the bill altered the Criminal Code to add a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for anyone who was found guilty of trafficking in minors.

For more information:

http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/ht-tp/publications/poster-affiche-saleve…

http://www.canadiancrimestoppers.org/?

content/human_trafficking.html http://www.endmoderndayslavery.ca/

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4 – MP JOY SMITH’s BLUE BLINDFOLD CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCEMENT

The email below is one I got from MP Joy Smith’s office explaining it best.

There are also three websites listed there that go into greater detail about it.

From: SmithJ8@parl.gc.ca

Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 1:16 PM

Subject: MP Joy Smith welcomes launch of national human trafficking awareness campaign Office of Joy Smith, M.P. Kildonan-St. Paul Bureau de Joy Smith, députée Kildonan-St. Paul

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 7, 2010 News Release

MP Joy Smith welcomes launch of national human trafficking awareness campaign

Winnipeg, MB: Today, Joy Smith, Member of Parliament for Kildonan – St. Paul joined Public Safety Minister Vic Toews to announce the launch of a national human trafficking awareness campaign. “As a former educator, I have always advocated education and awareness as our greatest weapons against human trafficking and child exploitation,” said MP Joy Smith. “Equipping Canadians to recognize and report human trafficking is essential to ending this modern-day form of slavery. “The federal department of Public Safety will partner with the RCMP and the Canadian Crime Stoppers Association to launch the Crime Stoppers “Blue Blindfold” Campaign. The campaign will educate the public on human trafficking and provide tools for Canadians to join the fight against human trafficking.

“I commend our government for taking this important step forward to combat trafficking in persons,” said MP Joy Smith. “Human trafficking is an egregious form of exploitation that impacts all corners of our nation. By engaging all Canadians, we can effectively fight human trafficking within our borders and protect our most vulnerable citizens.

“The RCMP Human Trafficking National Coordination Centre (HTNCC) has been working with Crime Stoppers to train Crime Stoppers members and staff in the call center receiving tips from the national human trafficking tip line. The HTNCC has also produced a human trafficking tool kit for law enforcement, non-governmental organizations and the Canadian public.

MP Joy Smith is one of Canada’s leading human trafficking abolitionists and most recently succeeded in amending Canada’s Criminal Code to include an offence of trafficking in minors. Bill C-268 provides a minimum sentence of five years imprisonment for anyone convicted of trafficking a minor in Canada and a minimum of six years imprisonment for cases with aggravating factors. First introduced on January 29, 2009, by MP Joy Smith, Bill C-268 has attracted broad national support and received Royal Assent on June 29, 2010.

For information on MP Joy Smith’s work on human trafficking, please visit: http://www.joysmith.ca

For information on the RCMP’s Human Trafficking National Coordination Centre, please visit the website: http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/ht-tp/index-eng.htm

For information about the Blue Blindfold Campaign, please visit:

http://www.canadiancrimestoppers.org/?content/human_trafficking.html

Crime Stoppers national human trafficking tip line is 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

For further information please contact:

Joel Oosterman, Chief of Staff

Office of Joy Smith, MP

Phone: (613) 220-6795

Email: smithj8@parl.gc.ca

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5 – SEVEN HUMAN TRAFFICKING ARTICLES by JEREMY DEUTSCH of K.T.W.

Many of you already know that I have been volunteering my time with my local Kamloops & District Crime Stoppers doing human trafficking education presentations in high schools in my area. One of our local newspapers, Kamloops This Week, has a reporter, Jeremy Deutsch, who has personally attended one of my presentations so he can also help bring human trafficking awareness. He has written several articles, I am posting them below:

In March 2010, Kamloops This Week published a four-part series on human trafficking, written by staff reporter Jeremy Deutsch. What follows is the complete series of Modern-Day Slavery: The fourpart KTW series on human smuggling in its entirety by Jeremy Deutsch. Since then Jeremy has written several articles about Jessie’s case and human trafficking.

1st – March 17, 2010 – Modern-Day Slavery PART I: A SURVIVOR’S TALE FROM THE MEAN STREETS

2nd – March 19, 2010 – Modern-Day Slavery PART II: IT’S HAPPENING IN KAMLOOPS

3rd – March 24, 2010 – Modern-Day Slavery PART III: OPENING INNOCENT EYES

4th – March 26, 2010 – Modern-Day Slavery PART IV: A MOTHER’S AGONIZING ODYSSEY

5th – April 22, 2010 – CITY MOM TO GIVE INPUT ON HUMAN-TRAFFICKING BILL

6th – June 15, 2010 – VALLEYVIEW STUDENTS GET ‘REALITY CHECK’ ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING

7th – September 09, 2010 – OTTAWA HELPS FIGHT TRAFFICKING

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1st – Modern-Day Slavery PART I: A SURVIVOR’S TALE FROM THE MEAN STREETS

March 17, 2010 by Jeremy Deutsch, Kamloops This Week (not about Jessie)

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2nd – Modern-Day Slavery Part II: IT’S HAPPENING IN KAMLOOPS

March 19, 2010 by Jeremy Deutsch, Kamloops This Week

It could easily begin with a smile or a Facebook poke. It might then progress to a gift or a secret rendezvous. Often, a vulnerable teenage girl is the target. She’ll be showered with gifts and given access to any drug imaginable. Without even suspecting a thing, the teen is being groomed for a life of prostitution. They are common tactics used to lure young Canadian girls from their homes into a life of modern-day slavery.

According to one leading expert on the issue of domestic human trafficking, it’s happening right here in Kamloops. Benjamin Perrin, an assistant professor at the UBC faculty of law, has studied human trafficking for several years and has just completed a two-year study on Canada’s involvement in the issue.

His research has found that, not only do trafficking rings operate in larger cities, but they’re active in smaller communities — recruiting young women from towns in the Interior of B.C.

In many cases, girls are lured to cities like Vancouver or across the border by lavish promises from a “boyfriend”. They’ll offer drugs or gifts, such as a free airline ticket to a vacation destination. But, in the end, the victim — often through the threat of violence — ends up being sold for sex.

“Kamloops has come up in our research as an area where traffickers have engaged in efforts to recruit Canadian victims,” Perrin told KTW. Social-media websites like Facebook and MySpace have made it easier for traffickers to operate across vast geographical areas with the push of a button.

One of the highest-profile suspected cases of human trafficking in Western Canada is that of Jessie Foster. The Kamloops woman went missing in the spring of 2006 after moving to Las Vegas with a boyfriend.

If getting caught up in human trafficking appears easy, getting out is a different story. The underground nature of the crime makes it difficult for law enforcement to detect it within a community.According to Perrin, the traffickers — most of them men — have ties to violent street gangs.

The federal government made human smuggling a criminal-code offence in 2005, but Perrin argued the province has been slow in prosecuting human traffickers. While Perrin noted 30 active RCMP files of trafficking, not a single person has been convicted of the crime in B.C.

The province has also created an office to combat trafficking — but the B.C. Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons (OCTIP) has six staff members whose primary focus is on Victoria and Vancouver. Perrin suggested there is little offered for Canadian victims of trafficking in the way of counselling, shelter or exit programs from life in the sex trade. There is also little help for communities to defend against the growing scourge “We don’t see the same level of support for victims of human trafficking in our country as we witness in other jurisdictions,” Perrin said. Instead, he said, victims are often left to fend for themselves once they are identified and rescued.

But the head of OCTIP said the agency’s intention is to pull together in a variety of communities the same sort of network of services it has on the Coast. “Not building anything new, but linking and training the various community partners and agencies that would be involved,” Robin Pike, the executive director of OCTIP, told KTW.

The groups would include social agencies, child-protection workers and law enforcement. Besides providing education and awareness programs, OCTIP works with the police when it encounters a situation of human trafficking.

Pike noted the agency has been to Kamloops to bring public awareness to the issue, but it hasn’t been asked to help specifically on any cases in Kamloops. Pike couldn’t say just how large a problem domestic human trafficking has become. “We just know there is a fair amount of movement of women,” she said, noting the agency has been involved in 50 different cases in the last year.

OCTIP hopes to start a greater public-awareness campaign this year. Pike said the first step is to help communities understand what human trafficking looks like. If human trafficking is happening in Kamloops, it hasn’t come to the attention of the local RCMP. Kamloops Mounties said they have yet to deal with a single trafficking file, nor do they have members set aside to deal with any cases. Complaints of human trafficking are typically dealt with out of RCMP offices in Vancouver. However, if there was an incident reported, RCMP Const. Pat Nagy said, police would treat it like any other file, with the seriousness of the complaint determining where on the investigative ladder it would fall.

MANY CITY MINORS ‘OWNED’ BY GANGS

Experts on human trafficking say there isn’t enough being done to help women once they get out of the sex trade. It was the same helpless feeling that drove Kamloops’ Heather Cameron, a former prostitute, to create Mothers For Recovery.

The grassroots agency lends support to mothers or pregnant women who are trying break their addiction. Cameron spent years on streets of Vancouver before finally getting free in 2004 (her story was featured in the March 17 edition of KTW and can be read online at http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com).

But, when she returned to Kamloops, she had trouble staying clean and out of the lifestyle. Cameron believes part of the problem is the general attitude to the local sex-trade industry. “It’s such a hidden thing, especially behind closed doors in Kamloops,” she said. Cameron knows just how much of a problem the lure of prostitution is in the city. When she began her agency in 2007, she surveyed 30 mothers and found 17 were involved in the sex-trade.

The AIDS Society of Kamloops’ SHOP (Social and Health Options for Persons in the Sex Trade program) has 94 open sex-trade client files. An open file refers to someone who has had contact with SHOP in the past year. That’s mostly at street level and doesn’t include escort agencies and massage parlours. Heidi Starr, the SHOP co-ordinator, said the number of sex-trade workers in Kamloops is disproportionate for the size of the city. She contends many of the minors involved in prostitution are owned by local gangs, often caught up in the lifestyle after being lured by a supposed “boyfriend” and a promise of drugs. Starr said communities like Kamloops are popular recruiting grounds for human traffickers because there is the promise of going to bigger cities, like Vancouver.

After spending years in the trade, Cameron has some well-earned advice for teens who may find themselves in her shoes. “Learn to listen to your own intuition,” she said. “If I look back, I know that feeling in my tummy told me something was wrong and I never listened to it. “I got to the point where I could block it out.”

In addition, Cameron said it is crucial that young girls find women to look up to and confide in. Though it might not be a parent, Cameron said it can be someone who is safe and confidential.

KEEPING YOUR EYES OPEN

They are the signs of modern-day human slavery.

A growing number of teenage girls are being targeted and recruited into the sex trade, in what is effectively human trafficking. While the crime is difficult to detect, experts say there are warning signs parents and teacher can look for.

According to Benjamin Perrin, an assistant professor at the UBC Faculty of Law, the signs a teen is falling victim to human trafficking include unexplained absences from school, an inability to keep a regular schedule, bruising and depression. In some cases, there could be some form of branding on body parts, like a tattoo.

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3rd – Modern-Day Slavery PART III: OPENING INNOCENT EYES

March 24, 2010 by Jeremy Deutsch, Kamloops This Week

At first glance, it would appear Mark Price and Glendene Grant would never need to cross paths. Price is a gruff former cop who now heads the Kamloops and District Crime Stoppers Society. Grant is a quiet mother of four and grandmother who worked at the Convergys call centre in Valleyview until recently being laid off. But tragic circumstances have brought the two together for a very important project.

Grant’s daughter, Jessie Foster, went missing after moving to Las Vegas with a boyfriend in the spring of 2006. Her disappearance is a case of suspected human trafficking. Since then, Grant has worked tirelessly to find her.

Today, the cop and the mom are teaming up to educate Kamloops teens on the growing problem of human trafficking. The pair will be a part of a three-person, 45-minute presentation at local high schools that will touch on two aspects of modern-day slavery — trafficking into the sex trade and slave labour in the global trade market. The presentations will target senior grades in a classroom setting.

Grant hopes to use Jessie’s story as a warning to other teens, so they can avoid being lured into slavery. “The kids need to learn while they’re in school that they could be a potential victim at that age,” Grant said. No one knows that better than Grant herself.

While her daughter was seen as beautiful, she said she wasn’t as self-confident as she appears in her photos. Grant said it’s easy for a girl with low self-esteem to be drawn to somebody who compliments her. “Unfortunately, she [Jessie] fell victim to someone who gained her trust while still in high school,” she said. For her presentation, Grant has put together a short video, set to music, filled with pictures that encapsulate Jessie’s story.

Experts on human trafficking say victims are often too afraid to come forward and get help. Grant believes that was the case with her daughter. That’s where Price and his organization come in. Crime Stoppers International has been involved in human-trafficking education campaigns for several years. Price intends to tell the kids that, if they are being targeted and don’t know where to turn, they can call Crime Stoppers. “They can phone in and feel safe,” he said.

The idea for the program was actually the brainchild of Debra Noel, a member of the Catholic Women’s League. She was interested in the subject and figured Grant and Price would be the perfect duo to talk to kids. Noel said she wants to shine a spotlight on human trafficking and offer solutions to teens to avoid getting caught up in the sex trade. “As I think about it more, often it bugs me that people don’t know enough about it,” she said. “The problem of slavery is very well hidden. People get locked away and no one sees them. “Noel will be presenting the slave-labour portion of the program. While the group has just started putting a package together to bring to the schools, there’s already interest in the presentation. St. Ann’s Academy, an independent Catholic school, has expressed interest, and Noel is confidant public schools in the Kamloops-Thompson district will follow.

Grant hopes the program will make its way through every school in the district and beyond. “Even if all they saw was the video, I think it would be extremely effective,” she said.

THE HUMAN COST OF SMUGGLING

•Trafficking in Canada has consequences estimated between $120 million and $400 million per year and accounts for approximately 8,000 to 16,000 people arriving annually in Canada illegally.

— Organized Crime Impact Study, Solicitor General of Canada

•Although accurate statistics on human trafficking are hard to obtain, the U.S. State Department estimates between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year. Of these, 80 per cent are women and girls and up to 50 per cent are minors. The International Labour Organization estimates there are 12.3 million victims of forced labour (including sexual servitude) at any given time. Other estimates range from four million to 27 million. The RCMP estimates between 600 and 800 victims are trafficked into Canada each year, while another 1,500 to 2,200 persons are trafficked through Canada to the United States annually. Trafficking in people ranks with the drug trade and arms smuggling as a major source of revenue for organized crime. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations estimates the trade in human life generates global profits approaching $10 billion annually.

— The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada

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4th – Modern-Day Slavery PART IV: A MOTHER’S AGONIZING ODYSSEY

March 26, 2010 by Jeremy Deutsch, Kamloops This Week

Flipping through the pages of the neatly organized newspaper clippings of Jessie Foster is like opening a vault to a heart-wrenching mystery. With each turn, her bright hazel eyes, blonde hair and slightly roguish smile still seem to light up the pages. But the images are in contrast to a brutal reality. They were captured before the 21-year-old Kamloops resident vanished in 2006 after moving to Las Vegas with a boyfriend, a case of suspected human trafficking. Four years later, that vault of stories is her mother Glendene Grant’s bible.

The collection also represents the crusade-like efforts by the mother of four to find her daughter and shine a spotlight on the issue of human trafficking. Monday (March 28) will mark the four-year anniversary since Jessie was last seen alive. She would be turning 26 in May.

Foster’s disappearance is a disturbing tale of modern-day slavery that has hit close to home for many in the Kamloops community. Grant believes Jessie was lured to Las Vegas by a boyfriend who eventually forced her into prostitution. She spoke with Jessie on the phone just days before she went missing. At the time, Grant recalled having a sense something just wasn’t right with her daughter. There was something in Jessie’s voice in those last phone calls that didn’t sit well. Grant was close to Jessie and assumed the adventurous girl would open up. She didn’t find out what kind of living hell her daughter was living in until it was too late. “I knew better, but I didn’t think it was happening,” she said.

Following Jessie’s disappearance, Grant learned her daughter, who had maintained regular contact with her family, had previously been arrested by Las Vegas police for prostitution. Jessie was last seen by her boyfriend, Peter Todd, a Jamaican national authorities have labeled a pimp. Up until Jessie’s disappearance, Grant thought of human trafficking as a Third-World problem. That was until the crime came crashing through her white picket fence. She never thought her own daughter would end up in an international human-trafficking ring. She hopes her struggle will serve as a reminder to parents to talk their kids and not take answers to their queries at face value.

As the days turned into weeks, then months and now years, Grant has never given up hope the daughter she held in her arms countless times will some day return. “My heart just isn’t telling me she’s dead,” she told KTW. “I can’t argue with that.”

But Grant has not been sitting idly by, waiting for Jessie to walk through her front door. Instead, she has worked with a dogged determination to find her daughter in the years following her disappearance, along the way educating others on the shadowy world of human trafficking. Besides the dozens of stories in the media, including appearances on America’s Most Wanted and The Montel Williams Show, Grant hired a private investigator, flew to Las Vegas twice to hold her own search, held fundraisers, created websites and acquainted herself with various social media.

Grant is also teaming up with the Kamloops and District Crime Stoppers Society to give a presentation to local schools on the subject of human trafficking. Most importantly, she will tell Jessie’s story to anyone who will listen with a kind ear.

Grant conceded her effort has almost become an obsession. Her laptop computer rarely leaves her side. “Not one person out there considered missing deserves to be missing and have their case sitting in a drawer,” she said. But the preoccupation has taken its toll on Grant, both mentally and financially. Her teenaged daughter recently divulged to her that she can’t wait until Jessie is found so she can get her mom back.

Surely a sad admission, but even if Jessie were found today, Grant said she can’t go back to being the mother she once was. “That mom is forever gone,” she said. Grant also decided to take on the stress of Jessie’s cause alone, so the rest of the family can move on and try to live a normal life. “Even if I don’t get Jessie back and, even if anything I’ve ever done will prevent one child from going missing, all that I’ve done was so worth it,” she said.

Matters were only made worse after she was laid off from her job at the Convergys call centre in November. Grant has spent thousands of dollars of her own money in the last four years in her search for her daughter. While those efforts have left her near-destitute, none of that seems to matter to Grant. All she wants is Jessie to come home.

GRANT’S JOURNEY CONTINUES

While the case of Jessie Foster appears to have gone cold for investigators, it hasn’t for her mother, Glendene Grant. The Kamloops resident has led a crusade to find her daughter and keep Jessie’s case in the media spotlight.

To mark the four-year anniversary of Foster’s disappearance, Grant will be flying to Vancouver for an interview on CTV’s Canada AM program on Monday, March 29. She will be joined by forensic artist Diana Trepkov, who recently sketched new age enhancement drawings of Foster.

A couple of weeks later, Grant intends to fly to Toronto to attend the Walk With Me ceremony. Organizers have named an award after Grant and Foster in recognition of the work she has done to bring attention to human trafficking. The Jessie and Glendene Award honours police officers, social workers and media for their work with human trafficking and victims of the crime. The ceremony takes place on April 15.

For the latest updates and more information on the case, go online tohttp://www.jessiefoster.ca.

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5th – CITY MOM TO GIVE INPUT ON HUMAN-TRAFFICKING BILL

April 22, 2010 by Jeremy Deutsch, Kamloops This Week

The mother of a missing Kamloops woman is getting a chance to take her fight against human trafficking to the hallowed halls of Parliament. Glendene Grant is thrilled to have been asked by a Conservative Manitoba MP to possibly attend committee meetings in Ottawa for Bill C-268 — a private member’s bill that would set mandatory minimum sentences for anyone convicted of human trafficking.

Grant’s daughter, Jessie Foster, went missing after moving to Las Vegas with a boyfriend in the spring of 2006. Grant believes her daughter has been taken into the world of human trafficking. “All I’m thinking is more people are going to hear about Jessie,” Grant said. “I didn’t think about anything else. “It wasn’t until later the mother of four realized she might help change laws. “I have a hard time wrapping my brain around all that,” she said.

Grant admits she doesn’t know much about politics, but she hopes her presence at the committee meetings and her heartbreaking story will help educate politicians on the issue of human trafficking.  “Laws need to be changed,” she said. Grant suggested all the education and effort will go to waste if there isn’t anything done to protect victims who have the misfortune of getting caught up in human trafficking. She believes the bill, which is currently in front of the Senate, will be a good start.

The bill seeks to set mandatory minimum sentences of five years for anyone caught trafficking persons under the age of 18. Grant was invited to Ottawa by Kildonan-St. Paul MP Joyce Smith. The two met at the Walk With Me ceremony in Toronto earlier this month. Organizers of the event named an award after Grant and Foster in recognition of the work Grant has done to bring attention to the issue of human trafficking.

The Jessie and Glendene Award honours police officers, social workers and media for their work with human trafficking and victims of the crime. Grant has also been inspired to start her own non-profit organization, tentatively called M.A.T.H. (Mothers Against Trafficking Humans), that will further her efforts to thwart modern-day slavery.

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6th – VALLEYVIEW STUDENTS GET ‘REALITY CHECK’ ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING

June 15, 2010 by Jeremy Deutsch, Kamloops This Week

Their eyes are fixated on the video screen a few feet away. The teens are told about human slavery and how it’s being carried out in foreign lands. The students are reminded they can call organizations like Crime Stoppers if they see it — or if they get caught up in it themselves.

A group of Grade 11 social studies students at Valleyview secondary are getting an education on the growing problem of human trafficking. But the 45-minute presentation doesn’t really hit home until Glendene Grant steps to the front of the class. She introduces herself as the mother of Jessie Foster, the Kamloops resident who has been missing for more than four years in one of the most well-known cases of suspected human trafficking. Grant sets up a video montage that tells Jessie’s story, set to photos of the beautiful girl. Many of the pictures were taken when Jessie was the same age as the teens sitting at their desks. It’s all a little too much for Avelyn Hall. “It makes it so much more real,” the 17-year-old student said, with tears in her eyes.

Avelyn has seen the posters of Foster while riding on Greyhound buses over the years and never thought she’d meet the missing woman’s mom. “I could see the pain,” she said. Though Avelyn doesn’t believe she could become a victim herself of human trafficking, she said some of her peers may find their way into more trouble. She said many of her fellow students just don’t have respect for themselves — and Grant’s story could help open their eyes.

Grant, Mark Price from the Kamloops and District Crime Stoppers Society and Deb Noel from the Catholic Women’s League, are making presentations at local high schools. The trio touches on two aspects of modern-day slavery — trafficking into the sex trade and slave labour in the global trade market. Valleyview was the second presentation for the group.

Braden McCarthy, another Grade 11 student, called the presentation “really disturbing.

“He didn’t realize to what extent the problem of human trafficking had grown. Braden noted students in his class were moved to tears from the presentation. It’s exactly the reaction Grant was hoping to get. “I can see them and feel their eyes on the videos,” she said. “In a way, it’s a good reality check. “While it may be hard to keep a teen’s attention for a long period of time, Grant is sure the kids are taking something from her story.

The mother of four said she’s been inundated with calls from throughout the school district, the province and country from educators inquiring about the presentation. Grant said the group will continue to do as many presentations as they can, adding she’s working on a way to offer the lecture online.

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7th – OTTAWA HELPS FIGHT TRAFFICKING

September 9, 2010 by Jeremy Deutsch, Kamloops This Week

For several months now, the local Crime Stoppers chapter has been quietly spreading the word about human trafficking to Kamloops high school students. That effort is about to blow up in a big way, as the national organization is set to partner with the federal government to introduce the Blue Blindfold campaign in Canada.

Originally launched in the U.K., the campaign goal is to raise awareness of human trafficking by establishing a symbol that is internationally recognized. For the Kamloops woman who has spent hours in classrooms around the city telling her story about her daughter Jessie Foster, who vanished in Las Vegas, word the human-trafficking campaign was going nationwide was met with praise. “We all have to be aware of it before we can stop it,” said Glendene Grant.

Foster went missing in 2006 in one of the most well-known cases of suspected human trafficking. Beside bringing attention to the issue, the federal government, along with the RCMP’s Human Trafficking National Co-ordination Centre, will provide material and support to Crime Stoppers and its tip line.

The idea is to educate Canadians on human trafficking so that, if they spot it, they can call the organization. Grant said it only makes sense the government would take part in a wider campaign. She suggested people are still surprised to hear modern slavery exists in Canada, noting it’s time to take the “shock factor” out of the issue. “It’s a little harder for it to happen in Kamloops, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t,” Grant said. “It also doesn’t mean some other form isn’t happening.

“The mother of four believes attention brought to the issue will ultimately result in fewercases of human trafficking in the country. Earlier this spring, Grant teamed up with Kamloops and District Crime Stoppers Society and the Catholic Women’s League to offer a 45-minute presentation at local high schools that touches on two aspects of modern-day slavery — trafficking into the sex trade and slave labour in the global trade market.

It was the only one of its kind in the country.

Though much of the attention around the new campaign has focused on international human smuggling, in light of the recent arrival of a boat filled with migrants from Sri Lanka off the coast of B.C., Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Conservative MP Cathy McLeod said it’s equally important to put the focus inside Canada’s borders. She said there are plenty of stories of young girls being lured from small towns across the country to bigger centres. “It’s an issue gaining more attention right now,” she said.

McLeod said she believes people generally would like to help prevent such “horrific crimes” and that the Crime Stoppers campaign is going to be a benefit to the cycle of prevention and support for those caught up in human trafficking.

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6 – M.A.T.H. MOTHERS AGAINST TRAFFICKING HUMANS

I have been thinking an organization that I want to start

Human trafficking is the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world and it has touched me personally . . . my daughter Jessie Foster is a trafficking victim. Now, keep in mind I have no idea how to start an organization, so I am hoping that with all the connections I have made in the past 5 years, someone will be able to advise me somewhat. If you have a suggestion – please do not hesitate to contact me with it. Thank you all, Glendene.

I have come up with a name:

M.A.T.H. (Mothers Against Trafficking Humans) Do the M.A.T.H.!

2.5 million people are trafficked yearly around the world*

PLUS a global annual market of about $42.5 billion**

EQUALS who is getting rich?

*The United Nations estimates 2.5 million people from 127 different countries are being trafficked around the world annually

**The Council of Europe states there is a global annual market of about $42.5 billion

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7 – BOOKS COMING OUT and ALREADY OUT with JESSIE’s CASE MENTIONED

TO ALL MY FRIENDS & JESSIE FOSTER SUPPORTERS, please consider buying any or all the books mentioned below. My daughter Jessie Foster’s human trafficking case is in them all. A very important book to be published, as it describes to Canada, our hidden (in plain sight) problem of human trafficking in our very own country. It is called “INVISIBLE CHAINS: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking“, written by Benjamin Perrin, one of Canada’s leading experts on human trafficking, if not THE leading experts on this topic in Canada.

http://www.law.ubc.ca/faculty/Perrin/web/index.html

This one is written by the victim of human trafficking, who is now very much a survivor,Timea Eva Nagy, called “Walk With Me, Memoirs of a Sex Slave Survivor“.

http://www.wix.com/timea77/Walk-with-me

Timea Nagy is the founder of a human trafficking organization called “Walk-With-Me”, and on April 15, 2010 she held the First Annual ‘Glendene & Jessie Foster Award’ Ceremony in Toronto. I was very honoured to have been invited and thanks to many people in Kamloops I was able to attend.

http://project417.com/walk_with_me

One is written by a former reporter for the Las Vegas CityLife newspaper (now a freelance reporter and author of another book called “Beneath the Neon“), Matthew O’Brien, who has written several articles about Jessie’s case and has now written his second book called “My Week at the Blue Angel: and Other Stories from the Storm Drains, Strip Clubs, and Trailer Parks of Las Vegas“.

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Another book that is slated to come out with Jessie’s case in them:

Written by forensic artist Diana Trepkov, it is called “FACELESS, VOICELESS: From Search to Closure“. She is writing a book of her work and Jessie is a big part of it. Diana has taken Jessie’s case to heart.

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First book published (2007):

Written by Canadian author Lisa Wojna it is called “MISSING! The Disappeared, Lost or Abducted in Canada“. It came out in August 2007. Jessie’s case is told in Chapter 6: Las Vegas bound – Follow Your Daughter Home.

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8 – ADDITIONAL INFO ON MEDIA, ETC

Something that Detective Molnar told me when Jessie first went missing was that there would not be any media outlets interested in Jessie’s case enough to do a story on it. I was appalled he said this to me, her mother, during the worst time of my life and the time I would have thought the detective on the case would be trying, if nothing else, to at least tell me of the ‘possibilities’, no matter how slight, rather than the negative – because in my humble opinion, WHO IS HE TO ATTEMPT TO FORESEE THE FUTURE?

I will try to mention the media who WAS interested in Jessie’s case since she went missing on or about March 29, 2006 and was reported missing by me on April 9, 2009 (there is a whole other story about what Peter Todd told me when I told him to report Jessie missing in Las Vegas . . . see below. Trust me, there is so much information I can give you on Jessie’s case you will be dumbfounded, I am sure).

1. April 21, 2006: The Las Vegas Sun did its first of 3 newspaper articles on Jessie’s case. (LV CityLife, the LV Review-Journal, LV Tribune newspapers and more have ALL done stories on Jessie’s case, as have some of the local Las Vegas TV stations).

2. April 24, 2006: The Geraldo at Large Show producers and camera crew came to my home in Kamloops, BC to film an episode on Jessie.

3. October 11, 2006: The Maury Povich Show did a missing person’s episode and put up Jessie’s poster with her picture, missing information and contact info – shown again in reruns.

4. May 24, 2007: The Montel Williams Show flew me to their studio in New York City for an episode on human trafficking, which, of course, included Jessie’s case – shown again in reruns.

5. August 2007: The National Enquirer full page story about Jessie’s disappearance.

6. August 2007: MISSING! The Disappeared, Lost or Abducted in Canada BY Lisa Wojna was the first book out with Jessie’s case (but certainly was not the last).

7. July 8, 2008: The Montel Williams Show did an update on Jessie’s case for his last year of shows (this was not one of the reruns that were shown).

8. November 15, 2008: America’s Most Wanted did a show about Jessie and 3 other missing women from Las Vegas.

9. August 2009: E! Entertainment‘s documentary called Young, Beautiful & Vanished – and shown over and over in reruns.

10. December 19, 2009: America’s Most Wanted did an update show on the 4 women missing from Las Vegas (this is not one of the reruns of the first show).

11. There have been DOZENS if not HUNDREDS of TV news broadcasts; documentaries; newspaper articles; magazine articles; website/blog/forum articles; radio interviews; internet radio interviews; online articles on Jessie’s case since she went missing. YOU NAME IT, AND JESSIE’S CASE HAS BEEN TOLD ON/IN IT!

* To read most of (I say most of, because there are so many I have not got copies of them all, plus I have fallen behind posting them, but they will be updated – just start at the end, which is actually the start) the newpaper articles about Jessie’s case, you can go to my Jessie Foster News Articles blog:

http://jessiesnewsarticles.blogspot.com/

Jessie’s mom Glendene’s message to Detective Molnar: YOU WERE AS WRONG AS YOU HAVE EVER BEEN IN YOUR CAREER. THE WORLD IS INTERESTED IN MY DAUGHTER’S CASE – THEY ARE VERY INTERESTED IN WHAT HAPPENED TO JESSIE FOSTER?

12. There have been THOUSANDS of Jessie supporters around the world who are helping (online research; sharing Jessie’s info and praying for answers) – here are some stats:

• Website = 131,238 page views

• NowPublic = 122,484 page views

• Facebook (MissingJessie Foster) = 4,874 (contacts)

• Facebook (Glendene Grant) = 4,113 (contacts)

• Facebook BIRTHDAY FOR JESSIE = 2,368 Attending

• JESSIE AWARENESS EVENT = 1,281 Attending

• Facebook http://www.jessiefoster.ca Cause = 3,942 Members

• Facebook HELP FIND JESSIE FOSTER Cause = 3,290 Members

• Facebook M.A.T.H. Cause = 4,930 Members

• Facebook M.A.T.H. Group = 3,499 Members

• HELP FIND JESSIE FOSTER AND ALL MISSING PERSON Group = 3,067 Members

• HELP BRING JESSIE FOSTER HOME! Group = 1,065 Members

• FIND JESSIE Group = 771 Members

• BRING JESSIE HOME = 2,119 Members

• QUIT DISABLING THE MISSING JESSIE FOSTER ACCOUNTS!!! Group = 1,046 Members

• SEARCH FOR MISSING JESSIE FOSTER Group = 879 Members

• PLEASE HELP US TO FIND MISSING JESSIE FOSTER Group = 588 Members

• PLEASE DONATE $1 AND HELP BRING JESSIE HOME Group = 411 Members

• 46 YouTube VIDEOS = 16,164 Views (81 Subscribers to my channel)

• 35 OneTrue Media VIDEOS = 1,363 Views

• MySpace = 19,765 page views (with 3,207 contacts)

• Missing Jessie Blog = 47,172 page views (1,235 Jessie Blog + 679 Jessie News Articles Blog + 514

Newsletter Blog = 1,522 total Network blog followers – my 3 blogs are the top 3 human trafficking blogs with Network blog followers)

• Email contacts = 1,379

• SO, to add up each one of these clicks of a mouse to sign up or follow, we get a total of: 365,201

NOTE: this total was on February 23, 2011.

+++

The following are some of the Las Vegas news articles & reports about Jessie’s case and human trafficking – these are important because this is where she went missing: Here are 3 articles from the Las Vegas Sun & a comment on a human trafficking article :

• 1st article in Las Vegas Sun by Tom Gorman: Tom Gorman on when parents learn their missing daughter was a Vegas call girl

(http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2006/apr/21/tom-gorman-onwhen-paren…) April 21, 2006

• 2nd article in Las Vegas Sun by Abigail Goldman: Mutual misery when daughters go missing

 (http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2006/sep/24/mutual-misery-when-daug…) September 26, 2006

• 3rd article in Las Vegas Sun by Tiffany Brown: A moment captured – A mother’s anguish

(http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2006/oct/22/a-moment-captured/) October 22, 2006

• 4th article in Las Vegas Sun by Timothy Pratt: Problem once thought dire hasn’t been confirmed

(http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/dec/08/problem-once-thought-di…) September 8, 2008 (comment section)

Here is a very extensive Las Vegas CityLife article by Matthew O’Brien:

• 1st article by Matt O’Brien: Searching for the Missing Jessie Foster (Matt also wrote 2 other articles on Jessie’s disappearance but they are no longer available online, and he has included her in his book: MY WEEK AT THE BLUE ANGEL).

(http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2007/02/01/news/cover/iq_1…) February 1, 2007

Here are several articles from the Las Vegas Tribune by Perly Viasmensky:

• 1st article by Perly Viasmensky: PLEASE HELP US TO FIND JESSIE FOSTER

(http://www.lasvegastribune.com/index.php?option=com_content&vie…) March 12, 2010

• 2nd article by Perly Viasmensky: WHERE IS JESSIE?

(http://www.lasvegastribune.com/index.php?option=com_content&vie…) March 15, 2010

• 3rd article printed with permission from the Vancouver Sun: Mother of possible sexring victim to speak to Parliament by Tiffany Crawford

(http://www.lasvegastribune.com/index.php?option=com_content&vie…) May 4, 2010

• 4th post in Perly Viasmensky’s personal column: Great Minds Think Alike

(scroll to end of article http://www.lasvegastribune.com/index.php?

option=com_content&view=article&id=842:great-minds-think-alike&catid=149:perlyviasmensky& Itemid=220) May 19, 2010

• 5th article by Perly Viasmensky: Heriberto Nony Herrera Another Missing Person

(http://www.lasvegastribune.com/index.php?option=com_content&vie…) September 11, 2010

• 6th post in Perly Viasmensky’s personal column: Personal Note to Misha Boyd-Harris

(http://www.lasvegastribune.com/index.php?option=com_content&vie…) September 15, 2010

• The following was not posted in the paper but was sent to me by Perly Viasmensky:

From: “Perly Viasmensky” pviasmensky@lasvegastribune.com

Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 4:37 PM

To: “Glendene Grant” glendene@shaw.ca

Subject: Jessie

My dear Glendene:

This coming week 9-15-10, read my personal column under editorial. Jessie is also mentioned there.

Now the following unedited letter is just for her.

Dear Jessie:

A day doesn’t pass by that I don’t think of you and pray that you are doing well. Today, you probably won’t be able to read my note, but heck what do we know, maybe you have access to this note but won’t be able to answer at this time. I just want to remind you that your mother is the most wonderful human being on earth and she loves you more than her own life. You are a very dear little girl, and we all love you very much. There are always many unknown reasons in life, for one of those reasons I firmly believe that we will hear from you when the time is right. You are very much loved, Jessie. I wonder if you ever knew that.

Perly

Here are 2 articles from the Las Vegas Review- Journal by Lawrence Mower:

• 1st story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal by Lawrence Mower: SIMILAR SLAYINGS: Prostitutes

share tragic fate – Police theory: Truck driver possible killer

(http://www.lvrj.com/news/34451949.html) November 14, 2008

• 2nd story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal by Lawrence Mower: Police ask: Are there others?

(http://www.lvrj.com/news/34511299.html) November 15, 2008

Here are links to Americas Most Wanted & ABC Nightline that the LVRJ was referring to:

• America’s Most Wanted (http://www.amw.com/) episode: Is A Serial Killer Murdering Las Vegas Prostitutes?

(http://www.amw.com/features/feature_story_detail.cfm?id=3049) November 13, 2008

* Jessie’s own line on AMW: JESSICA EDITH LOUISE FOSTER – Young Woman Disappears Under Strange Circumstances

(http://www.amw.com/missing_persons/brief.cfm?id=60803) November 15, 2008 (there was a 2nd AMW show filmed and aired December 19, 2009, but there is just one link on their website)

• ABC Nightline (http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/) documentary: HUNTING HUMANS ON THE HIGHWAY

(http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7582591) May 14, 2009

* This is also, along this idea of the Truck Driver / Highway / Serial Killer theory and it is where the 4 women, Jessie, Lindsay, Jodi & Misty’s pictures are shown on the screen, (although ABC never contacted any of the women’s families before airing this). However, when the other 3 women went missing, all of their belongings were still in their homes exactly as they left them – which makes sense if they were abducted by someone from outside their home. But when Jessie went missing, so did all her of her belongings, except her hairdryer &makeup and like I said, she would NEVER leave those items behind . . . not if she had a choice.

Here is one from the Las Vegas NOW with Alyson McCarthy (though there were several):

• 1st story on Las Vegas NOW with Alyson McCarthy: On the news tonight in Las Vegas: Missing Las Vegas Prostitutes to be Profiled on National Television with Alyson McCarthy

(http://jessiesnewsarticles.blogspot.com/2008/11/article-141-missing…) November 11, 2008

* This is no longer available on the LV NOW website, but I have a blog with my Jessie Articles.

As you can see, there have been several people in the media who are very interested in Jessie’s case and I thank them all for their articles.

NOTE: This list does not include the radio interviews or even all the newspaper and TV news clips, as some of them were never provided to me when they were posted and others are no longer available online.

SOME OF MY SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES for MY MISSING DAUGHTER JESSIE FOSTER:

Facebook for MissingJessie Foster – http://www.facebook.com/MissingJessieFoster

Facebook for Glendene Grant – http://www.facebook.com/glendenegrant

NowPublic – http://my.nowpublic.com/jessiesmomglendene

MySpace – http://www.myspace.com/jessiesmomglendene

YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/JessiesMomGlendene

Twitter – http://twitter.com/MissingJessie

Jessie Blog – http://jessiefoster.blogspot.com/

Jessie News Articles Blog – http://jessiesnewsarticles.blogspot.com/

Jessie Newsletter Blog – http://whitepicketfencenewsletter.blogspot.com/

Check them out and if you are on the ones with friends/contacts list – send me a request.

Official Website for Missing Jessie Foster: http://www.jessiefoster.ca/

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LETTER SENT TO HIGH SCHOOLS ABOUT MY HUMAN TRAFFICKING EDUCATION PRESENTATION:

My daughter is Jessie Foster. She is the Canadian woman missing in Las Vegas. Jessie was born in Calgary on May 27, 1984, moved to Kamloops, BC with me when she was 3 years old and moved back to Calgary when she was 16 years old to live with her dad. She graduated from John G. Diefenbaker high school, where she attended grades 11 & 12, in 2002.

Jessie is Canada’s most well-known human trafficking victim. She was lured to the USA by Donald Vaz (younger brother of convicted pimp, Lima Vaz) a man she met while she was still in high school and when she was 20 years old, after she moved back to Kamloops, he called her to go on a ‘trip’ then another ‘trip’. These are the same trips we have seen in the movies. She was first taken to Ft. Lauderdale & Key West, Florida; then she was taken to Manhattan, New York & Atlantic City, New Jersey; and then instead of bringing her home, she was then taken to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Jessie was ‘given’ (or sold) to a couple in Las Vegas, Yvonne ‘Angel’ Hubrechtsen (recruiter) and Richard Barrington Walcott, who then ‘handed her over’ (or sold) to a violent pimp. This person did what Professor Benjamin Perrin, Canada’s leading human trafficking expert and the author of INVISIBLE CHAINS: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking – a book that includes Jessie’s case, and many others call ‘love bombing’. He did everything he could to ensure Jessie fell in love with him (it only takes 72 hours to brainwash a young person), including: wining & dining at the most expensive places in Sin City; buying her clothes, shoes, purses and other items to wear to such places; giving her expensive cars to drive; moving her into his $750,000 house and I am sure much, much more. Jessie was taken to Las Vegas on May 13, 2005 (exactly 2 weeks before her 21st birthday) and by June – the very next month – Jessie was living with Peter Bertrand Todd.

Jessie was kept in Las Vegas from May 2005 until November of that year, when she was allowed to come home for a visit. We thought she might stay, after all the phone calls that were nothing but fighting – screaming and swearing at each other. She stayed through most of December and then, suddenly, on Christmas Day, she told us she had to be at the airport by 2:00PM that day, to fly back to Las Vegas. That was the last time I ever laid my eyes on my daughter. Three months later, Jessie was a missing person.

Jessie was planning on coming back to Canada for her stepsister’s wedding reception. The wedding was in Mexico, and they were having the reception in Calgary in April 2006. Jessie and her older sister Crystal spoke on the phone on March 28th many times and exchanged several text messages throughout the day, ending the last call with “I will talk to you tomorrow”. But for Jessie and for us, tomorrow never came – you see, we have never seen or heard from Jessie since.

Since then a lot has happened, but to make a VERY long story, short, I will tell you what I have been doing with Crime Stoppers here in Kamloops. Mark Price, included in this email, and I have been going into high schools with a human trafficking educational presentation. It is to teach our teenagers to try to NOT become a human trafficking victim and to know what to do if they even were to see something that did not seem right.

I have also done the presentation for the Lower Nicola Indian Band, near Kamloops and we are going to a closed forum in Langley, BC next month, to meet with several people, including MP Joy Smith, to discuss her National Action Plan to fight human trafficking in Canada. And I am invited to travel around Canada (Vancouver many times; Edmonton several times; Toronto a couple of times .. . . with more events booked) to fundraisers for human trafficking organizations and to launch new human trafficking organizations and many other things, which I am copying from another document & pasting below.

NOW, the point of this email. I was hoping you would be open to us coming to your school to do our presentation AT NO COST TO YOU. At the age of the students in your school, it is important that they are educated about human trafficking. After all, some of them will be out in the ‘real world’ very quickly. We do classroom and assembly presentations, which ever is better for your students.

Please get back to me about this idea I am proposing as soon as you can. Thank you very much for your time. Sincerely, Glendene Grant.

+++

SUBJECT: Jessie’s case aired on HLN (sister station to CNN) twice: NANCY GRACE on Jan 27 & ISSUES on Feb 1

Well, January is already past, and we are now into February, meaning that next month – on March 29, 2011 – it will be 5 years since Jessie disappeared. FIVE YEARS! Can anyone believe it? I know I certainly have a hard time even imagining it has been half a decade. HALF A DECADE! Wow – it is amazing that life can just fly by with something like the disappearance of a loved one looming over everything. No matter what happens, good or bad – we have to remember to tell Jessie about it. I say that, because I believe she is coming home one day. I also know that if she is not alive, she already knows.

There are many things that I am grateful for, even while living anyone’s worst nightmare. I am grateful to have Jim in my life – he is my strength and he is always there for me. I am grateful my other daughters – if not for them, I don’t know what I would do. I am grateful for my grandchildren. They are the light of my light, and they just mean so much to me. I am grateful to all the rest of my family – my elderly dad, my siblings, my aunts & uncles, my nephews & nieces and cousins – there are so many and they are always there for me. And for all my friends and Jessie supporters. You all keep me going. I will never give up, not with the support system I have. I love my family and friends so much.

Jessie’s case has never left the news. Year-after-year there are more and more reporters and news shows who are interested in writing or airing it on through their media. Last year was a huge year, not just for Jessie’s case, but also for human trafficking taking its rightful place in the top of the news, so people know this is happening in this day-and-age and it is happening here. To our daughters, our sisters, our friends. Jessie’s case, already known as an international human trafficking case, she is Canada’s most well-known case of human trafficking and becoming the same in the USA and around the world. HUMAN TRAFFICKING IS NOT A 3rd WORLD COUNTRY ISSUE ANY MORE – nor is it just an episode on a crime TV show.

This year is looking to be no different . . . well, actually it will be. It will be even busier, if January was any indication of what is to come.

+++++

On Tuesday, February 1, 2011, Jessie’s case aired on ISSUES with Jane Velez-Mitchell, on HLN, the sister station of CNN. Here is the message I got from the producer with link to the segment: We will continue to follow your story Glendene and hope you’ll come back on the air with us . . . whatever the circumstance. Jane meant it when she said she wouldn’t let this go! Emily.

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2011/02/02/jvm.jes….

+++++

On Thursday, January 27, 2011, Jessie was one of the missing shown on Nancy Grace’s FIND 50 PEOPLE IN 50 DAYS series. Here is the message I got from the senior producer with the link to the segment: Hi, Glendene – Hope Toronto was good. Please find below a link to the story that aired about Jessica. Many thanks and wishing you the best – thank you for your kindness, Phil.

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/crime/2011/01/28/ng.america.missing.fr….

+++++

The launch of the ALLIANCE AGAINST MODERN SLAVERY was in Toronto on Friday, January 28 and Saturday, January 29. I was invited to be a presenter at the Freedom Benefit Concert (the 28th) and to be a guest speaker at the Inagural Conference (the 29th). It gave me the opportunity to speak about Jessie’s disappearance and human trafficking – and all that I have been doing to educate others about this horrific crime on Friday night at the Freedom Benefit Concert and Saturday at the Inaugural Conference, along with several other people who are highly educated and extremely active in combating human trafficking. This is the link to the AAMS website:

http://www.allianceagainstmodernslavery.org.

I have a video of my speech on Facebook, it is 17 minutes long and that is 2 minutes longer than YouTube allows, so I have to figure out how to post it somewhere else. But for those of you on Facebook, this is the link:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1471048389883.

Just a quick note about something that happened at the Kamloops airport on my way to Toronto for the AAMS launch: I was at the Kamloops airport on Thursday to catch my flight to Calgary, then on to Toronto. I asked a young women in the line-up if this was the flight to Calgary and she said yes. I stood behind her and she turned around and looked at my Jessie button and said, “I like your button”. I said, “Thank you – that is my daughter Jessie – she is missing and the victim of human trafficking. She asked me how I knew and I told her that “we don’t have PROOF, if that is what you mean.” Then I told her a condensed version of Jessie’s story. How she as lured . . . etc. I also told her that several human trafficking experts in Canada and the USA believe Jessie’s case was a CLASSIC case of modernday sex slavery.

She asked if I had another button, but I didn’t – however I had posters. I told her I would get her out a poster on the plane, but she said CAN I HAVE ONE NOW? I got her out a poster and wrote the website on it, since I had forgotten to add it before printing, and gave it to her. I asked her name and she said Alicia. And she said she was RUNNING AWAY. I asked her how old she was and she said 23. She said she can’t decide if she wants to get on the plane or not. I told her I was going to Toronto and I would be seeing Jessie’s stepsister Alisha. Then she looked as Jessie’s poster and she started to cry. The she looked me deep in my eyes and asked me if she should go to Calgary or back to 100 Mile (House, BC – pop. 2,000 – located along Highway 16 . . . otherwise known as THE HIGHWAY OF TEARS. I said DON’T LEAVE.

She asked me how to get her luggage off the plane and I told her to go to an agent. She hugged me, crying, and I told her to go home and tell all her friends about Jessie Foster and to educate themselves (or call me) on human trafficking. With awareness none of you will ever end up in the position Jessie is in!

While I was in the line-up I heard an announcement to have someone’s luggage removed from the plane. I smiled. I feel deep in my heart I truly helped her. Maybe even saved her. Remember – Calgary is where Jessie met the trafficker that lured her away. Now I know why I had to be at the Kamloops airport on Thursday afternoon, January 27, 2011. To save beautiful Alicia.

NOTE: She had my email address from the poster and she messaged me right away. And now we may do some presentations together up where she lives.

+++++

On Wednesday, January 26, the day before I went to Toronto, I got a call from Tara, a news reporter at Radio NL here in Kamloops, who interviewed me about my upcoming trip to Toronto. She told me to call her back when I returned, but it has been so hectic, that I have not yet. But I will be calling her soon to tell her how it went.

Radio NL website: http://www.radionl.com.

+++++

While I was in Toronto on the weekend, I got a call from the MIKE SMYTH SHOW – CKNW Radio in Vancouver, about an interview. I thought it funny that I am from Kamloops, BC, the show is from Vancouver, BC and they tracked me down in Toronto, ON. We did the interview from my hotel room on Friday, January 28 at 4:00pm, before I had to leave for the concert. I ended up getting an email from a teacher in Coquitlam, BC, who heard the interview, asking me if I would please go to his school with my human trafficking education presentation. You can listen to the interview here:

http://www..corusradio.com/Shared/AudioVault/CKNWAMaudioVault.asp?V….

+++++

I was also interviewed on Monday, February 1, on the NEWSLINE at NOON with JIM SMALLEY – 620 AM CKRM Radio in Saskatchewan. It was an open mike interview and there were 2 callers.

The first was a woman who had been lured then forced into prostitution for many years and she was able to get away. She wanted to tell me that girls DO get out and to NEVER give up hope or stop searching. I TOLD HER I WOULDN’T.

The second was a man whose daughter who was also forced into prostitution. She was taken to Florida and lost contact with her family for a long time. She was able to finally contact her parents, and they were able to get some money down to here with the message, “don’t look back, just leave everything there and get to the airport, NOW”. She did and she got away. She is still not able to talk about what happened, even years later. HE ALSO WANTED TO TELL ME TO NEVER GIVE UP.

Link to CKRM radio: http://www.620ckrm.com/index.php.

Newsline at Noon (Monday to Friday) with Jim Smalley link:

http://www.620ckrm.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=articl… (podcast to be added).

+++++

I had another interview on Monday, February 7 from 3:00PM to 4:00PM, on the VINNY EASTWOOD SHOW. This is the message I got from Vinny: This is Vinny Eastwood. I want to give respectable activist and researchers like yourself coverage on an international level on my radio how which goes out on 25 AM/FM stations worldwide

http://www.americanfreedomradio.com/listen_live.html.

To help wake people up to the truth of the international ins & outs of the NWO system using a little bit of humor! I’ve been doing this for years when no one else in New Zealand will bother to try create any credible media. I’m trying to serve my country, community and species by giving amplification to those voices who are censored from our media in all spectrums of discourse. If you’re interested to donate some of your valuable time we’ll schedule you to come on the show this week. Cheers! Vinny Eastwood. Talk Show Host: http://www.thevinnyeastwoodshow.com.

+++++

And I also has a radio interview with Bring Them Home on Wednesday, February 9, at 7:50 P.M. EST / 4:50 P.M. Pacific Time (my time). There will be an open mike for people to call in if they have a question or comment. This is their official website:

http://www.bringthemhome.net and you can listen live to the show here:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bringthemhomenow.

I am the second guest on the show, following Stephen Watkins, searching for his 2 sons, Alexander and Christopher, taken from Canada on cancelled passports, on March 6, 2009 to somewhere in Europe by their non-custodial mother in a tragic case of international parental kidnapping. Stephen has been looking for his sons ever since. Official website for the missing Watkins brothers:

http://www.missing-children-child-abductions-kids-abducted.com.

+++++

I got the following message about contributing a short chapter to a book. They will need it within a month. It sounds like it will be a challenge, but I am always up to a challenge: I am founder and director of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement and Demeter Press. I am editing, on behalf of Demeter Press, a large volume on the 21st Motherhood Movement; more than 80 organizations are in the book. The book will be published in May. I would love you to contribute a short chapter on your new organization M.A.T.H. The chapter is to provide a brief introduction, context (why was your group founded; what need does it address) history, mandate, activities, challenges and relation to the larger motherhood movement). Unfortunately, we are working against a looming deadline as book goes into production this week and must be at printers by mid-March so would need your chapter no later than early March.

Link to MIRCI: http://www.motherhoodinitiative.org.

Link to Demeter Press: http://www.demeterpress.org.

+++++

I was invited and I have joined the Board of Advisors for the Frederick Douglas Family Foundation – http://www.fdff.org. There are several goals, including going into schools to educate our youth about the horrific crime of human trafficking: I want to welcome our new Board of Advisors members and thank them for supporting the efforts of the Frederick Douglass Family Foundation. We’re entering into an exciting period of growth and we hope that the expanded Board of Advisors is the initial step to building a solid infrastructure for the foundation. Let me tell you briefly about the members:

http://www.fdff.org/advisors.html

Click here to read up on Glendene: http://www.fdff.org/glendene-grant.html.

+++++

I have been asked by Naomi Baker, the founder of Canada Fights Human Trafficking, to open the western Canada chapter of CFHT. I will be the director, and with my volunteers we will be responsible for rescuing victims and working to help them become survivors. Website for CFHT:

http://www.canadafightshumantrafficking.com.

I also want to always educate others on human trafficking, which I will continue to do with the Crime Stoppers. I am very excited about all of this, as I think of it as the next chapter in my life and in my search for Jessie.

 THIS IS NOT YET THE END +++++