[SWAF-Potluck] March supports legal prostitution

[Andy Sorfleet]

Over all very positive coverage of the event. I think Kerry was mistakenly
paraphrased on a couple of points in here, but pretty great article
otherwise!

Thank you to everyone who gave their support. as

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http://www.theprovince.com/
VANCOUVER PROVINCE
Sunday, June 9, 2013

Thandi Fletcher



p. A4.

March supports legal prostitution

Sex-trade workers want same basic rights and protections as people in other
lines of work

[image: Inline image 1]
[photo caption]
Kerry Porth, former sex-trade worker and now a board member for the Pivot
Legal Society, gets ready to march in downtown Vancouver on Saturday.
Photograph by: Arlen Redekop, Png, The Province

When Kerry Porth remembers her life as a sex worker in Vancouver, she can't
help but wonder how she survived when so many other prostitutes died a
gruesome death at the hands of notorious serial killer Robert Pickton.

"They were women just like me," Porth told The Province.

"Looking back, realizing just how much risk I was at. It was a real
eye-opener."

[image: Inline image 2]
[photo caption]
Supporters gather at the start of a march in downtown Vancouver in a show
of solidarity for the three former sex-trade workers who are challenging
Canada's prostitution laws.
Photograph by: Arlen Redekop, Png, The Province

Porth was one of dozens of activists who marched through downtown Vancouver
on Saturday ahead of a highly anticipated Supreme Court case this week that
will determine the future of Canada's prostitution laws.

The case, to be heard Thursday, stems from a 2012 Ontario Court of Appeal
ruling that struck down a ban on bawdy houses in the province, but upheld
the law against communication for the purposes of prostitution, effectively
making street prostitution illegal.

On Saturday, about 40 activists marched through downtown Vancouver with
protest signs and red umbrellas in hand. The colourful activists, decked
out in red sequins and feather boas, drew a crowd as they made their way
down busy Granville Street chanting slogans like "My body, my business!"

The march was one of six taking place in cities across the country showing
solidarity with the three sex workers -- Terri-Jean Bedford, Valerie Scott
and Amy Lebovitch -- taking on the controversial laws.

Katrina Pacey, a lawyer with Pivot Legal Society who will be travelling to
Ottawa to speak at Thursday's hearing, took part in the march with her
young daughter and two-month-old son in tow.

The aim of the event, she said, is to raise awareness that sex workers
deserve the same basic rights and protections as workers in all other lines
of work.

"That's the world I want my kids to grow up in," she said.

For Vancouver's sex-trade workers, Porth -- who helped organize the march
and is a board member for the Pivot Legal Society -- said activists are
especially worried about the communication law.

That law forces street prostitutes into isolated areas, away from people,
she said. In the case of Pickton, Porth said, the law forced his victims
"into the darkest areas of Vancouver, where they were picked off one by
one."

What likely saved Porth's life in the four years she was a sex worker, she
said, was that she saw most of her customers at her home, unlike many of
Pickton's victims, who spent their nights on the streets waiting for johns.

Porth -- who believes Canada's prostitution laws have been "an utter
failure" -- wants to see Canada to follow the lead of countries that have
legalized prostitution, such as Germany and the Netherlands, where
registered sex workers pay taxes and receive health benefits.

"I don't think we need a giant, heavy-handed federal law to govern what is
actually consenting behaviour between adults," she said.

Former prostitute Jennifer Allan, who also helped lead the march, spent 15
years in the sex trade. Having worked both on the streets of the Downtown
Eastside and in brothels, Allan said she is hopeful decriminalizing
prostitution would bring about services to help vulnerable prostitutes get
off the streets.

"I can tell you that the girl standing on the street corner in the Downtown
Eastside does not want to be there," she said. "That's not her dream job.
The Downtown Eastside is the place where the dangerous offenders come to
find their prey." tfletcher at theprovince.com

Copyright (c) The Province
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