When he was 22 years old, he moved from Japan to Toronto to study English, but he says he wound up in rural Nova Scotia working excessive hours at a campground for a total of $300 for nearly a year’s work. 

“It’s really, really sad. And I was crying sometimes because I don’t know who I can trust,” the man, now 24, said in an interview.

CBC News is not revealing the man’s name or showing his face to protect his privacy. 

The RCMP say he is a victim of labour trafficking, a form of human trafficking that they say is of growing concern across Canada. Labour trafficking calls to the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline held steady for an average of 24 cases a year from 2020 to 2022, jumping to 57 calls in 2023, and 100 in 2024, according to a report produced by the Canadian Association to End Human Trafficking. 

Police and experts agree the number of cases is likely much higher than the data suggests, because labour trafficking is a significantly underreported crime. 

In relation to the latest case, Nova Scotia RCMP have charged Trevor Annon, 65, of southern Ontario with trafficking in persons, receiving financial or material benefit, false pretense and extortion. He’s also facing a fraud charge in relation to another victim. 

The RCMP says labour trafficking is about more than unpaid wages or unsafe working conditions, which might be violations of provincial labour codes. They say it becomes criminal when a person is forced or deceived into working with the false promise of immigration status, or if they’re extorted through abuse of power, threats, coercion, fraud or the withholding of documents, such as passports.  

Accusations of threats

In the latest case, investigators say they have determined the man worked excessive hours, was coerced into performing additional duties and was threatened.

The man says Annon threatened to send him back to Japan if he didn’t work hard, yelled at him and called him a moron.

When CBC News asked Annon about the charges, he declined to comment. The allegations against him have not been proven in court. 

Court records show Annon was previously convicted of assault, uttering threats and fraud over $5,000 in separate matters in Ontario.

The young man in the latest case says he arrived in Toronto in May 2024 on a visitor visa to study at the International Language Academy of Canada for three months. The school arranged his living accommodations through a homestay program. He says Annon was his host’s boyfriend at the time.

By June, the man says, Annon had started asking him for loans he never paid back.

In July, text messages he provided to CBC News show, he messaged the accused that he had only $1,000 left and if he didn’t start working he would have to go back to Japan. 

The messages show someone named “Trevor” responded that the Japanese man should give the $1,000 to the host for rent, and that he had money coming from Dubai that he would give to him as an advance the very day the young man started working for him. 

“I think that you are a fantastic young man,” he texted. “I will make sure that you prosper very well. You will be my second. Everything I know you will know. All secrets you will know.” 

Documents the young man provided to CBC News show he finished his language program on Aug. 3, 2024. He has a letter of employment from Annon, dated Aug. 6, for a company called “Prefab Canada,” which outlines the man’s job would be installing prefabricated houses. It’s unclear whether that was ever a real company. By Aug. 8, he had obtained a temporary work permit, enabling him to work in Canada. 

He says a couple of weeks later Annon suggested the two of them move to Nova Scotia together, telling him he would be able to pay him more. 

“I was completely trusting him, like, since I got here,” the man said in his interview with CBC News. 

An ‘awful situation’

Together they drove to Church Point, a rural community in southwestern Nova Scotia, and began setting up a campground called Church Point Adventure. They lived together in a home on the property. 

They arrived, the man says, to an “awful situation.” He says the property was in disarray: There was no power, and no running water for a month.

Annon does not own the property. The property owner, Mirza Alakoozai, told CBC News he did not have any employees because the campground wasn’t up and running. He said he has been letting Annon live there free of charge, because he felt that was better than leaving it empty. He said the two had an agreement Annon would receive 20 per cent of any income, but there had not been any.

He said he visited twice and Annon had told him the Japanese man was not working for him, but was staying with him to learn English. The RCMP says the property owner has no connection to the alleged exploitation. 

The 24-year-old says he did everything from landscaping, washing dishes, cleaning bathrooms, grocery shopping, operating a food truck and corresponding with contractors who did work for Annon. Sometimes, he worked from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m, he says. 

He says Annon promised him money, property, a phone and clothes, and said he could sponsor his family to come to Canada. But when the man asked for money, he says Annon told him he didn’t need it, as he was provided food and a place to live.

Labour trafficking is a ‘hidden crime’: RCMP

Eventually, local residents took notice and started an online fundraiser to help the young man. A local RCMP officer spotted the fundraiser and referred the case to the force’s provincial human trafficking unit.

Sgt. Jeff MacFarlane, the unit’s manager, says labour trafficking cases are difficult to count because the files are all captured under the broader offence of human trafficking.  

He says it can also be difficult to compare statistics to past years because before human trafficking was clearly defined, it may have been confused as domestic violence, kidnapping or fraud.  

“The reality is that labour trafficking is a very hidden crime, and it’s one that people don’t know about and they don’t think about, especially when it’s for people that may not be Canadian citizens,” he said. 

According to a 2025 Statistics Canada report, while most victims of sex trafficking are women and girls, victims of labour trafficking are predominantly men and boys.

Julia Drydyk, executive director of the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, says labour trafficking is a nationwide issue — particularly in low-wage or seasonal industries, such as fishing, agriculture, construction and hospitality — where we often find temporary foreign workers. 

But even though there are more calls to the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline, which her organization runs, she says it’s unclear whether that’s because there is actually more labour trafficking in Canada, or it’s just better detected now.

Calls for feds to renew strategy

Drydyk is calling on the federal government to renew its human trafficking strategy with an equal focus on labour trafficking. 

“Both sex trafficking and labour trafficking are egregious, but labour trafficking is not getting enough attention if we’re ultimately going to eradicate it in Canada.”

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has a special permit to help victims of all human trafficking maintain their status in Canada. It is free and does not require a formal police report. IRCC issued 60 of these permits to people who were allegedly trafficked in 2025. 

The man in the Nova Scotia case was one of them. 

Bradley Ameluxen, project co-ordinator for the Migrant Worker Awareness Partnership under the YMCA of Greater Halifax/Dartmouth, says his program has been supporting the man. It was started in 2023 to help migrant workers by increasing their awareness and understanding of their rights.

“That led us into a world that we were seeing some of these more extreme cases that would be considered labour trafficking.”

The program is a federally funded temporary project, and it has recently been extended. But without a permanent project, Ameluxen says there’s always a risk it won’t be renewed, something he says would be worrisome.

The 24-year-old says he hopes his story will help prevent others from falling victim.

He has been able to find a safe place to live for now, but says he doesn’t have any money and needs to find a job soon. Despite his ordeal, he wants to stay in Canada. 

“I guess I didn’t enjoy Canada yet, because I want to enjoy this Canadian life,” he said.

“I want to get a chance.”