Read the whole article in The Times-Colonist…

Editorial: Time to reduce sex-trade risks

How long do we have to follow a failed and destructive policy before we smarten up? The Brothel Project, a well-crafted debut documentary by Victoria director April Butler-Parry and producer/writer Gillian Hrankowski, premiered at the Victoria Film Festival this week.

It raises — once again — our peculiar attitudes and laws about prostitution and their damaging effects as it follows the efforts of Jody Paterson, a Times Colonist contributor, and Lauren Casey, a researcher and outreach worker, to open a legal brothel here.

Prostitution is legal in Canada. One person can pay another for sex.

But virtually every activity associated with the transaction is not. Public communication to arrange the exchange is illegal. Owning or running or having anything to do with a brothel is illegal. “Living off the avails” is illegal.

Remarkably, the situation was much the same 130 years ago in Victoria.

The fascinating website victoriasvictoria.ca, a project of the University of Victoria history department, looks at all aspects of our history, including the thriving sex trade.

It notes that in 1881, “legally, prostitution itself was not regarded as an offence, instead it was dealt with by means of a charge for street solicitation or the operation of a ‘bawdy house.’ In effect, the test of it as an offence was the extent to which it became a ‘fact of public annoyance.’ “

The effect today, as it was then, is that the work is more dangerous than it needs to be and the participants — mostly women — are excluded from the basic rights and protections enjoyed by everyone else in society.

The risk of arrest for soliciting forces sex workers and their clients into dark and dangerous neighbourhoods at night. Instead of discussing the transaction with a client, like any other business exchange, hurried judgments must be made before climbing into a stranger’s car.

The bawdy house laws make it legally impossible for sex workers to operate a brothel like any other business. They exist, of course, surreptitiously or as massage parlours or escort agencies. They pay taxes and licence fees and advertise. But they operate in a legal shadow that penalizes workers. The laws serve mainly to make the sex trade dangerous.

And they perpetuate a view of those in the trade that makes them less than human — even disposable.

The slow and ineffectual investigation of missing women in Vancouver and the Pickton murders showed the results.

Society’s concerns about the sex trade are understandable. Human trafficking and forced prostitution do exist, with the biggest coercive factors being poverty and addiction. Those concerns must be addressed.

That would be simpler if the trade was regulated and conducted like other businesses, with access to the same workplace and legal protections.

Many people object to the trade based on personal views on the role of sex in life and relationships.

While those views should be respected, so should the right of adults to make their own choices and to be either customers or suppliers in the trade.

We have pretended to support that principle by making prostitution legal.

But we have left in place laws that serve mainly to make it dangerous and difficult and turn participants into second-class citizens.

Though this study doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know, it’s welcomed nonetheless. Read more at The Times-Colonist…

Good news: Johns are just normal guys
By Jody Paterson

A new study out of Simon Fraser University concludes that people who buy sex are no more prone to violence than anyone else.

Fewer than two per cent of the 1,000 respondents who took part in SFU sociologist Chris Atchison’s study reported ever having hit, hurt, raped or robbed the person they bought sex from.

Granted, that’s just them saying so. But Atchison noted in a Vancouver Sun story this week about his research that there was little reason for the respondents to lie, given that the survey was anonymous.

That his findings are provocative is an understatement.

“It’s an outrageous study and it really works towards normalizing sexual assault,” said Aurea Flynn of the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter, which is the go-to organization in B.C. when media are looking for a quote from someone vehemently opposed to prostitution.

“I’m really angry about the emphasis on the compassion for johns that the study provides,” added Flynn, “and I’m very concerned about its impact on the continued normalization of prostitution in Canada because I believe prostitution is violence against women.”

Read more at BCLocalNews.com…

No ‘choice’ for women in the sex trade

As a frontline worker at Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter I am not surprised at the series of excuses men use to buy women.

I am happy to see a news article that focus on the “demand” side of prostitution – that is the men. Prostitution exists because of demand. If men stopped buying and selling women, prostitution would be abolished.

We believe that prostitution is a reflection and product of women’s inequality, not a free “choice.”

Thank you for highlighting the men who drive the prostitution industry.

And for highlighting the violence prostituted women face and also that so many of the women cannot live on the abysmal welfare rates and “choose” prostitution because there are no other economic alternatives.

Daisy Kler
Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter

Looks like a john caught with this pants down is taking on the very prostitution laws themselves.  It seems that his argumet rests on policy grounds, rather than procedural grounds, so odds are he will flop when he gets his day in court. 

Ottawa Citizen reports…

British Columbia john challenges Canadian prostitution laws
Chad Skelton

A B.C. man arrested in a prostitution sting is challenging the constitutionality of Canada’s solicitation laws in what’s believed to be the first such case brought forward by a john.

The man’s lawyer, Ray Chouinard, said no john has ever challenged the law before because most would rather just plead guilty or attend “john school” to avoid attention.

But Chouinard said his client – construction foreman Leslie Blais of Maple Ridge, B.C. – believes prostitution laws put sex workers at risk and isn’t willing to back down.

“I told him if you (pursue) this case, you’re going to be famous,” said Chouinard. “He said that’s fine. He’s not embarrassed by this at all.”

Blais, 43, was arrested in May 2006 as he tried to pick up a female RCMP officer posing as a prostitute. He was charged with communicating for the purposes of prostitution.

When Blais’ case reached B.C. provincial court, Chouinard said he planned to challenge the law on the grounds it violates prostitutes’ Charter rights by putting them at increased risk of violence.

Chouinard said Blais told him he wanted to fight the case because he once worked as a waiter at a restaurant frequented by prostitutes.

“He began to know them as people, and he saw terrible things happen,” said Chouinard. “He’s seen women come back from dates beaten and bloodied.”

To help buttress his case, Chouinard asked Simon Fraser University criminologist John Lowman to testify.

Lowman has done extensive research on violence against prostitutes and has already agreed to testify in two similar charter challenges – one in B.C., the other in Ontario – in which sex workers are seeking to have the country’s prostitution laws struck down.

But Lowman refused to testify in Blais’ case, arguing he couldn’t spare the time to appear and that doing so would distract him from his work on the other two cases.

Continue reading ‘British Columbia john challenges Canadian prostitution laws’ »

Guys, pay your bills! BC Local News reports…

Seven Charged in Vicious Attack on Trail Man
By Willa Condy – Trail-Rossland News

A 52-year old man is lucky to be alive after being attacked and viciously beaten by seven men on August 13.

The male had allegedly used the services of a prostitute and had not paid for her services which led to the assault at the Groutage Apartments in Trail. During the beating his bankcard and PIN number were obtained from him. Money was taken from the man’s bank account allegedly to purchase drugs.

The victim did not report the attack to the RCMP. Members of the Crime Reduction Unit and the plain clothes General Investigation Section heard about the possible assault and conducted an investigation.

“The members just followed up and did a really good job by finding him as quickly as they did. They probably saved his life,” said Staff Sergeant Nick Romachuk, Commanding Officer at the Greater Trail RCMP Detachment.

The victim was taken to the Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital and received treatment for his injuries. He has since been released from hospital.

Seven people have been arrested and appeared in Nelson Provincial Court on August 19. An arrest warrant for one more suspect is being sought by the RCMP.