[Wamvan] Fwd: Bringing the fight for safer sex work to Toronto

Tue Jun 14 11:57:11 PDT 2011

Hey everyone,

This is a draft of something I am working on for a lefty mag where I compare
the different legislative approaches to sex work and explained why I think
that decrim is the safest alternative. Please don't share it off-list
because it's just a draft, but I thought it would be easier to send this
instead of writing a long email. Please also note that this is my personal
perspective--not the perspective of WAM. I am very interested in
collaborating with feminists who support various legislative approaches to
sex work, and I think that funneling off into antagonistic camps is not very
productive:

*Comparing Legislative Approaches to Sex Work *

Sex work and the law. The debate has been raging for a long, long time.

In 1786 BCE, the Babylonian king Hammurabi legislated the protection of
prostitutes’ inheritance rights. In the Code of Hammurabi: “If a…prostitute,
receives a gift from her father, and a deed in which it has been explicitly
stated that she may dispose of it as she pleases ... then she may leave her
property to whomsoever she pleases.”
Throughout history, approaches to prostitution laws have varied drastically
depending on time and place—and not all rulers were as sympathetic to sex
workers as Hammurabi. In 5th century Spain, King Reccared I sentenced
prostitutes to 300 whips and exile, and in 1586, Pope Sixtus V infamously
mandated the death penalty for prostitutes. Improvements to sex workers’
legal status have been occurring at a slow and uneven pace.Only last year,
Pope Benedict XVI approved condom use for prostitutes “in the intention of
reducing the risk of [HIV] infection."

Prostitutes remain one of the most persecuted groups worldwide. Theodor
Adorno points out in the essay, “Sexual Taboos and the Laws of Today,” that
in Germany, where “there are a thousand reasons to be wary of persecuting
defenseless groups, prostitutes continue to be persecuted relentlessly [and]
murders of prostitutes go unpunished.”

In the most extreme examples, such as in
Iran<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4118727.stm>,
prostitutes face the death penalty. In most other countries, legal
systems criminalize
sex workers, clients (“johns” colloquially), or both sex workers and
clients, to a lesser extent.

In countries that employ a criminalization model in attempts to reduce or
eradicate prostitution activities, sex workers and clients*feel compelled to
operate “underground” to avoid persecution. From a harm-reduction
perspective, this means that sex workers and clients have to take greater
risks to their health and safety.
As a young feminist living in Vancouver, Canada, I was initially doubtful of
decriminalization models of sex work. When I thought of prostitution, I
thought of the exploitation and commodification of female sexuality within
patriarchal, capitalist societies. I thought, “Wouldn’t the removal of
criminal punishments just encourage the continued exploitation of girls and
women?” The reality, I soon realized, was more complicated than that. For
the past few years, I have been able to gain the trust of sex worker
communities in Canada and the US, and I have worked to fairly communicate
their messages and stories to the public through features in publications
such as *Herizons*, *The Nation*, AlterNet and RH Reality Check. In the
constantly raging debates about legal approaches to sex work, I’ve observed
that the fact that decriminalization has been repeatedly proven as the legal
approach most likely to lead to better health and safety for sex
workersiswidelyunder-recognized.

Patriarchy and capitalism may indeed combine to shape the environments sex
workers operate in, but this does not detract from the reasons why
decriminalization as a legal approach best promotes the health and safety of
all sex workers.

Dr. Frances M. Shaver makes the argument for decriminalization in her
report,“Legislative Approaches to Sex Work:Opportunities for Positive
Action.”<http://www.pdfchaser.com/Legislative-Approaches-to-Sex-Work%3A-Opportunities-for-Positive-Action.html>

Shaver views sex work legislation through a harm-reduction perspective.
Harm-reduction is a public health policy approach that seeks to reduce the
consequences associated with risky activities, instead of penalizing
individuals involved in these activities.

Dr. Shaver’s report concludes that decriminalization is the “legal approach
most likely to lead to the successful achievement of health and human rights
for sex workers and the communities in which they work.”

According to Shaver, decriminalization is simply the best option because it
does not forceprostitutionto operate underground. When sex workers and
clients do not have to operate secretively in fear of arrest, the government
can better enforce age limits, and sex workers can more confidently
negotiate terms with clients, and insist on use of condoms and other
harm-reduction measures.

Street-level survival sex workers are the most at risk for violence and
abuse. Sex worker advocacy groups around the world have been working for
decades to pressure governments to recognize that the criminalization of sex
work only threatens the safety of the most vulnerable of sex workers.

Dr. John Lowman’s study, “Violence and the Outlaw Status of (Street)
Prostitution in
Canada<http://24.85.225.7/lowman_prostitution/HTML/violence2/LOWMAN_VIOLENCE_AND_THE_OUTLAW_STATUS_OF_STREET_PROSTITUTION_IN_CANADA.pdf>,”has
found that enforcement patterns are related to violence patterns, so that as
enforcement increases, sex workers are displaced and pushed into more
dangerous circumstances.

Joyce Arthur, a member of FIRST <http://www.firstadvocates.org/> (Feminists
Advocating for Rights and Equality for Sex Workers), tells the *Platypus
Review* that “most survival sex workers are young people whom society has
failed to protect. Decriminalization of sex work is the basic first step so
we could put into place more harm-reduction measures for survival sex
workers.”

Canada is an interesting case to consider because Canada may be in the
process of re-formulating their approach to prostitution law in favor of a
harm-reduction approach.

Prostitution has always been legal in Canada, but activities related to sex
work, such as the operation of brothels and communication for the purposes
of sex work, are illegal.Therefore, Canada falls under the “partial
criminalization” model.

In September 2010, Canada’s Ontario Superior Court struck down several
anti-prostitution laws. In a 131-page
ruling<http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Ontario+strikes+down+three+trade+laws/3595428/story.html>,
Justice Susan Himel wrote that "Canada’s laws force prostitutes to choose
between their liberty and their right to security of the person as protected
under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."

While decriminalization may be best for harm-reduction, decriminalization in
other countries (such as America) is a remote possibility.

 The idea of the government sanction of prostitution is a very controversial
and divisive issue, and this is certainly the case among the Left.

I have seen feminists and leftists gather at networking events only to
verbally attack each other because of different perspectives on sex work. I
think that this is very unfortunate, because ultimately, a common goal that
abolitionists and decriminalization advocates share is the reduction in
violence and exploitation of sex workers.

Thinkers from the Left need to learn about the real lived experiences of sex
workers and clients before advocating for certain legal approaches to sex
work.

Unfortunately, because of the great stigma that sex workers face, many keep
their work secret from even their closest friends and family. When sex
workers’ voices are silenced, stereotypes about sex work are free to
perpetuate.

Efforts to promote decriminalization and to fight stigma against sex workers
goes hand in hand. When sex workers feel safe to disclose their identities
without fear of persecution, more people will be forced to understand that
not all sex workers are degraded, violated victims.

**Note:*I use the term “sex worker” and “client” in place of “prostitute”
and “john”, because it is a term that sex workers and clients have told me
that they prefer and because “sex work” also encompasses jobs such as
modeling, web cam work, stripping, and erotic massage—which are less
stigmatized because they may not involve sexual intercourse. However, in
this article, I use the term “prostitute” from time to time to reflect the
language in the laws I refer to in this article.

On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 11:02 AM, Kalamity H <kalamityh at hotmail.com> wrote:

>  Hey All!
> The Swedish or Nordic model isnt actually all that different from what has
> been seen before elsewhere, despite how it has been marketed, and it has not
> actually had the positive outcomes attributed to it. Scroll down to the
> bottom of this to get the full PDF of this resource:
> http://www.plri.org/resource/swedish-sex-purchase-act-claimed-success-and-documented-effects
>
> Kalamity
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2011 08:09:24 -0800
> From: janagee at gmail.com
> To: wamvan at lists.resist.ca
> Subject: Re: [Wamvan] Fwd: Bringing the fight for safer sex work to Toronto
>
>
> Hello WAM people ...
>
> I just wanted to add some other data regarding legalizing prostitution ...
> i have not seen
> it mentioned as of yet and thought it would be important to share ...
>
> The Nordic Model regarding 'legalizing' and decrim has gotten alot of
> positive press, from
> what i have heard ... here are a couple of links:
>
>
> http://action.web.ca/home/catw/readingroom.shtml?x=130078&AA_EX_Session=aa55ea8468d3694dc944fbf8ffb46836
>
> http://www.object.org.uk/the-prostitution-facts     -    browse down the
> page for info ...
>
> http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial
> /story.html?id=d950ae67-2954-4866-8be7-5fcf67c3e831
>
> Important work on these issues ... sending strength to KP of Pivot ...
> in kind regards,   jana  j
>
> On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 12:30 AM, Frieda Werden <frieda.werden at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> Thanks for sharing this, Tami.  I know you think I am posting too much in
> one day, but my reasoning is that there is to be a WAMVan discussion on
> prostitution tomorrow night (now, tonight, actually), and I'm offering
> information resources for studying up to discuss.  Elaborating on what you
> posted, here are two further articles of interest:
>
> This story from Canadian Press ran in Huffington Post (a
> libertarian-leaning online US publication).  It gives very interesting
> highlights of key points in the arguments made in court today and suggests
> that the court is likely  to decriminalize:
>
> http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/06/13/prostitution-case-ontario-court-appeals_n_876228.html
>
> But, here's the editorial that appeared in The National Post (a
> Conservative paper):
>
> http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/06/13/national-post-editorial-board-fixing-our-broken-prostitution-laws/
> The editorial writer criticises the basis of the Crown's appeal and ends by
> advocating for legalization.  As mentioned in my previous post, this is a
> third position, the other two being decriminalization (which is like what we
> have for abortion) and abolition (often now legislated around the world as
> demand-side control: illegalizing the buying but not the selling of sex).
> Decriminalization is likely, in my opinion, to trigger a demand for
> legalization - i.e., government regulation of prostitution as an industry.
> Those concerned about prostitutes' rights will want to get out in front of
> this to try to prevent the regulations from being draconian and too costly
> for independent operators, leading to the dominance of prostitution
> franchises in the legal realm and creating a new illegalization for others.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 12:11 AM, Tami Starlight <tamistarlight at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: *Katrina Pacey - Pivot* <kpacey at pivotlegal.org>
> Date: Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 12:25 PM
> Subject: Bringing the fight for safer sex work to Toronto
>
>
>
>     Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.<http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=9a451e878eeec0a3e584da1a3&id=2a7470c0c0&e=0de74ccece>
>   <http://pivotlegal.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9a451e878eeec0a3e584da1a3&id=39265c4143&e=0de74ccece>
>    Dear Tami,
>
> Yesterday, when my plane touched down, I felt a flutter in my stomach. I
> have come to Toronto to make submissions before the Ontario Court of
> Appeal.  I am here on behalf of Pivot, PACE and the Downtown Eastside Sex
> Workers United Against Violence Society to intervene in the case of *AG
> Canada v. Bedford, Lebovitch and Scott*.
>
> You may remember that last September, Justice Himel of the Ontario Superior
> Court heard the case and struck down three laws related to adult
> prostitution; the communication law, bawdy house law and living on the
> avails law.  She found that these laws violate sex workers’ constitutional
> right to safety, liberty and freedom of expression. Now the federal
> government is appealing that decision.
>
> Pivot, PACE and SWUAV felt it was really important to put our full support
> behind the sex workers who have made this case possible. For the past
> several months, our amazing legal team including Joseph Arvay QC, Elin
> Sigurdson, Kat Kinch, Lisa Glowacki, Lisa Kerr and Maia Tsurumi, has been
> busy preparing  our submissions.
>
> On Thursday, I will do my best to convince five justices of the Ontario
> Court of Appeal that these laws have a very significant and negative impact
> on sex workers' safety, and particularly those sex workers at street level.
> Our submissions will focus on the violent and disempowering circumstances
> experienced by sex workers in the DTES. I will argue that by striking down
> these laws, sex workers in all aspects of the industry will be able to take
> steps to reduce the violence and other harms that they currently experience
> as a result of criminalization.
>
> It’s sure to be a very interesting week. We will hear from the Attorney
> General of Canada, the Attorney General of Ontario and Alan Young who is
> counsel for the three courageous sex workers who brought this challenge
> before the Court. Then the intervenors will have their chance to speak,
> including Maggie's, POWER, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, the BC
> Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, the BC Civil Liberties Association, and
> the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
>
> After it’s all over, we will await a decision and then, even if we are
> successful, it’s likely to be appealed again to the Supreme Court of Canada.
> Meanwhile, I will be heading to Montreal on Friday to meet with local sex
> workers to discuss how to carry on the fight for sex workers rights in
> Canada.
>
> Wish us luck!
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Katrina Pacey
> Litigation Director
>
> To read our factum, go to:
>
>
> http://www.pivotlegal.org/sites/default/files/pdf/2011%2005%2004%20Factum%20of%20PACE%2C%20SWUAV%20and%20Pivot.pdf<http://pivotlegal.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=9a451e878eeec0a3e584da1a3&id=86af10e008&e=0de74ccece>
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> WINGS: Women's International News Gathering Service www.wings.org
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-- 
Joanna Chiu

Freelance Writer
joannachiu.com <http://www.joannachiu.com/>
twitter.com/joannachiu

Organizer, WAM! Vancouver
wamvancouver.wordpress.com
twitter.com/wamvancity
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