[SWAF-Potluck] March supports legal prostitution

[Lorna Gale Hannah]

Thank you for sharing the article!!


On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 11:02 AM, Andy Sorfleet <a.sorfleet at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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
>
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>
> 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
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> SWAF-Potluck mailing list
> SWAF-Potluck at lists.resist.ca
> https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/swaf-potluck
>
>


-- 
Lorna Gale Hannah
B.Ed, CSB
Somatic Sex Educator
LornaGale.com
*E.A.S.E. ~ Erotically Alive Sex Education *
*Learning That Begins Where the Learning is Felt*
*
*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/swaf-potluck/attachments/20130610/98c7d777/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: province-130609-a4a.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 24169 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/swaf-potluck/attachments/20130610/98c7d777/attachment-0002.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: province-130609-a4b.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 21628 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/swaf-potluck/attachments/20130610/98c7d777/attachment-0003.jpg>