Quebec human trafficker sentenced to four years in prison – Winnipeg Free Press

A Quebec man has been sentenced to four years in prison for human trafficking. New allegations are being made against him that he continued to exploit his female victim while in prison.

Jean Francois D'Asti-Brideau, 29, of Laval, pleaded guilty to one count each of human trafficking and procurement of sexual services following a trial in Winnipeg last year.

Lawyers for the prosecution and defense jointly recommended that D'Asti-Brideau serve a four-year prison sentence, but disagreed on how much time he should be credited for while in pretrial detention.

Typically, offenders are given credit for 1.5 days for each day they served before sentencing.

Prosecutor Nicole Roch argued that D'Asti-Brideau was not entitled to “enhanced credit” because he contacted the victim by phone hundreds of times while in custody, thereby defying a court order prohibiting him from contacting the woman.

Court records show that D'Asti-Brideau was charged with human trafficking, obstruction of justice, pimping, receiving material benefits and threatening for crimes he allegedly committed while in custody.

“While in custody, there were hundreds and hundreds of telephone calls to the protected person … and within the context of those telephone calls, there was significant continued manipulation of the victim and continued criminal conduct,” Roch told Provincial Court Judge Murray Thompson. “The endless and relentless communication with the victim represents an endless and relentless attempt to continue to exploit the victim.”

Defense attorney Tony Kavanagh urged Thompson to maintain the increased credit because D'Asti-Brideau will have to face the new charges at a later date.

Thompson sided with the prosecution, saying that D'Asti-Brideau's enhanced sentencing credit was intended to provide an incentive for offenders to “behave appropriately” while incarcerated.

For each day he spent in custody, D'Asti-Brideau was given one day credit, leaving him with almost 22 months of his sentence remaining.

According to an agreed statement of facts previously submitted to the court, D'Asti-Brideau was first arrested by the RCMP on January 19, 2021, after a concerned citizen observed an apparent physical altercation between D'Asti-Brideau and the woman in a rental car on the perimeter.

An RCMP officer stopped the vehicle at the intersection of Highway 7 and noticed that the woman looked sickly and had bruising under her eyes. He detained D'Asti-Brideau, who was yelling at her.

After refusing to give a statement to the police, she flew back to Quebec.

D'Asti-Brideau was convicted of weapons offences related to the January arrest and was jailed until June 2021. In June 2022, he was rearrested on human trafficking charges in Kamloops, BC, where he was again found in the company of the woman.

The court heard that the woman became addicted to unspecified drugs at age 16 and later met D'Asti-Brideau at a party at age 19, about six months after she began sex work in Quebec.

The woman spoke little English and had never travelled outside of Quebec. She had no driver's license or credit card. Her only identification was a provincial health card.

“She had no significant work experience and was still addicted to drugs,” Roch said at a court hearing last year. “D'Asti-Brideau was older, had traveled outside Quebec and spoke English.”

Early in their relationship, D'asti-Brideau rented a car in Quebec and drove with the woman across Canada to British Columbia before renting another car to drive to Winnipeg, Roch said.

“His intent was to assist (her) in advertising sexual services and to persuade potential clients to meet with her at the Hilton Garden Inn on Sterling Lyon Parkway … to receive sexual services in exchange for money,” she said.

They arrived in Winnipeg on January 17, 2021, and the woman rented a hotel room next to the Outlet Collection mall. They chose this mall because it did not require a credit card to check in.

Over the course of two days, advertisements for her sexual services were posted online. The contact number attached to the ads was D'Asti-Brideau's phone number, and numerous people contacted her through the ads.

She would be paid and the money would be kept in D'Asti-Brideau's vehicle or in the room safe.

Her income supported D'Asti-Brideau and paid for meals, gas, hotels, Airbnb reservations, cannabis and rental cars. He convinced her to continue working in the sex trade, Roch said.

“On January 19, (the victim) told D'Asti-Brideau that she was fed up with sex work and wanted to return to her mother in Quebec,” Roch said, leading to an argument via text message.

D'Asti-Brideau committed threats, psychological manipulation and emotional abuse, Roch testified in court, reading text messages from him, including threats to kick down the door of his hotel room.

From Quebec, the woman's mother called a taxi to help her leave while she contacted friends to try to return to her home province.

D'Asti-Brideau persuaded her to stay with him and sent the taxi. They got into the rental car and drove to the perimeter, where he was initially arrested.

D'Asti-Brideau insisted that he and the victim had a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, even though he controlled her work in the sex trade, Thompson said Friday.

“It was clear to me that it was an exploitative relationship,” Thompson said. “He wasn't staying for love, she was his livelihood.”

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Dean Pritchard
Court Reporter

Dean Pritchard is a court reporter for the Free PressHe has been reporting on the justice system since 1999 and works for the Brandon Sun And Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.

Every report Dean produces is reviewed by an editorial team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the Free PressTradition since 1872 of producing reliable, independent journalism. Read more about Free PressLearn about the history and mandate of and how our newsroom works.