‘Her death isn’t in vain:’ trafficking victim remembered in Ontario campaign

“It can happen to anybody,” Holleman said in an interview on Saturday. (Pixabay photo)

YARMOUTH, N.S. — Maddison Fraser is remembered as a champion boxer, an aspiring nurse, and a caring parent — but her mother says she was trapped in a lifestyle that ultimately cost her her life.

Three years after Fraser’s death, Jennifer Holleman of Yarmouth, N.S. said she hopes her daughter’s story will help other people recognize the warning signs of human trafficking.

“It can happen to anybody,” Holleman said in an interview on Saturday.

Fraser, who grew up in southwestern Nova Scotia, moved to Alberta in her late teens after being lured there by a boyfriend to work in the sex trade, Holleman said.

In July 2015, she was killed in a car crash in Edmonton at the age of 21. While going through her daughter’s belongings, Holleman found cellphone messages indicating the man behind the wheel — who later died — was a john.

“I think he picked her up downtown somewhere. And then she went with him, and the car accident was a couple hours later,” said Holleman.

In November, Fraser will be honoured by the London (Ont.) Abused Women’s Centre through its Shine the Light on Woman Abuse Campaign, a month-long movement to raise awareness of violence against women. Holleman plans to travel to London for the opening ceremony on Nov. 1.

As part of the campaign, a photo of Fraser’s smiling, freckled face will appear on a billboard in London for the month of November, and homes and businesses in the city can choose to hang up purple posters and use purple lights in solidarity with the movement.

“Purple is a symbol of courage, survival and honour, and has come to symbolize the fight to end woman abuse,” reads a statement on the London’s Abused Women’s Centre website.

Shainee Chalk, a Woodstock, Ont., woman and a “revenge porn” survivor, was also chosen for the campaign.

When she first found out her daughter was a sex worker, Holleman confronted Fraser and told her that she disapproved. After they had a fight over the phone, Holleman grudgingly decided to accept it so she wouldn’t push her daughter away.

“Looking back, it was horrifying. Because I had to pretend that I was okay with it, and that killed me on the inside. But I knew that if I didn’t, I wouldn’t hear from her,” said Holleman.

“And I wanted her to know that regardless of the situation, she could reach out to me if she needed help.”

But none of her attempts to persuade her daughter to come home worked.

In the spring of 2013, Fraser called her mother from Alberta and told her she needed to come and take her young granddaughter back to Nova Scotia. Holleman flew out the next day, and was later given custody of the child.

Fraser “knew it was getting bad … she said, ‘if you don’t come and get her, someone else will,”’ recalled Holleman.

Communication between the two got worse in the year before Fraser died; often, when Holleman tried calling or messaging her daughter, someone else answered the phone.

At one point, a friend of Fraser’s sent Holleman a photo of her daughter’s face, beaten beyond recognition. Fraser said at the time that it was a misunderstanding at a party, but Holleman later found voice recordings on Fraser’s phone detailing the beatings she had endured while working in the sex trade.

The past three years have been difficult for Holleman, who was left angry that the people who forced her daughter into prostitution were never brought to justice — and upset that she couldn’t do more to help.

“I just felt like I had lost everything, I felt like I had failed her, I had to carry a lot of guilt,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion.

“I still to this day feel like I let her down. It’s really hard. I don’t think, in all honesty, I’ll ever truly be healed.”

Since Fraser died, Holleman has become an outspoken advocate against human trafficking. In March, she spoke to a federal committee as they travelled across the country to learn about combating human trafficking.

Holleman doesn’t think she will ever fully recover from her daughter’s death, but she said her advocacy work has helped her in the healing process.

“Her death isn’t in vain, because by speaking out and bringing awareness, it’s helping other people,” she said, adding that since she went public with Fraser’s story, she’s received an outpouring of messages from other women and girls who have gone through the same thing.

“She’s kind of turning into the face of change, instead of this young girl that lost her life to human trafficking.

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In September, Holleman launched the Maddison Fraser Society, with the eventual goal of starting a recovery centre in eastern Canada for survivors of human trafficking.

“There’s nowhere for young women to go here. There needs to be more access for these women when they want to get out, and when they need to get out,” she said.

“I’m just going to keep plugging away, and working on fundraisers, and keep going, until one day, hopefully, that dream becomes a reality.”