Dartmouth man facing human trafficking, sexual assault charges

CITYnews halifax / By Mark Hodgins

A man from Dartmouth is facing a long list of charges as part of a human trafficking investigation.

Halifax Regional Police says officers arrested Jason Warner Loppie, 58, on Wednesday, as part of “an ongoing investigation involving the use of violence and coercion to traffic a survivor.”

Loppie appeared in court on Friday, facing charges including:

• Assault causing bodily harm
• Assault
• Sexual assault
• Uttering threat
• Mischief
• Trafficking in persons
• Material benefit from sexual services >18 (living off the avails)
• Human trafficking for material benefit
• Advertising sexual services

“Human trafficking is a serious crime that can have detrimental and long-term impacts to victims,” police wrote in a media release. “The Nova Scotia Human Trafficking Unit is comprised of officers with specialized training in human trafficking and sexual violence. Every report is taken seriously and victims are treated with a high level of care and compassion.”

Related:

• Alberta man brought back to Halifax on historical human trafficking charges
• Halifax police charge two men as part of human trafficking investigation
• Nova Scotia triples the national police-reported human trafficking average

HRP says people can reporting human trafficking directly to a provincial hotline at 902-449-2425 or by making anonymous tips to Crime Stoppers.

Nova Scotia has high rate of human trafficking

Data from Statistics Canada shows that per capita, Nova Scotia has the highest rate of human trafficking in the country. The data published last year shows that over a 10-year period, the average annual rate for Canada is 1.2 incidents per 100,000 people. In Nova Scotia, it is 4.1 incidents per 100,000.

Halifax in particular was mentioned in the report, which notes that 6.4 per cent of Canada’s incidents were reported in the provincial capital. In 2024, StatCan said the highest rate of human trafficking was reported by police in Guelph (11 per 100,000), followed by Halifax (7.5 per 100,000).

The StatCan report notes that police-reported human trafficking has declined in Nova Scotia by 44 per cent since its peak in 2020. However, it details that there were more Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) than Criminal Code offences reported by police in the province, a ratio that is 60 versus 40 per cent.

This, the report reads, “has not been observed since 2017 when 66 per of Nova Scotia’s human trafficking incidents were IRPA offences.”