tr Douglas First Nations Centre Gets Upgrading New Interim Coordination Hopes to Improve and Add Services Nicole Burton, OP News Editor As Douglas College’s new acting coordinator for the First Nations Students Centre, Mae Bickley has a lot to look for- ward to in the coming semester. In addition to regular upkeep around the First Nations Office (located in Rm 4830B at the New Westminster Campus and Rm A1061 at the David Lam Campus in Coquitlam), Bickley plans to up the Centre’s presence on campus and on the Douglas College website in the coming months. Bickley is a member of the Tsimshian Nation and began her career as a program coordinator while working in B.C. high schools. She joined Douglas’ student services staff team in the Summer of 2006. “Tm currently working on the First Nations Centre web- site, which really needs some updating,” she said. “In addition, we want First Nations students at Douglas to know that we have our own MyDouglas account. I don’t just want to say, ‘Are you aware that we have this [service]?’ but I want people to be able to wse the service.” Bickley estimates that there are roughly 100 Indigenous students currently enrolled at Douglas, but she admits that this number doesn’t include everyone. “Some Aboriginal students who, for example, don’t have Status cards, are not enrolled specifically as First Nations stu- dents and are not receiving the same funding and benefits as some of our other students.” Bickley explains that this is one of many reasons she wants to start a Buddy system through the First Nations Centre. Through such a service, new Indigenous students could pair up with others who have passed through a year or two in the school and know the ropes. “This system could be especially useful for some members of Douglas’ First Nations community who are coming to Douglas from a reserve or small community up north, and it’s their first time in a big city,” she explained. “In a situation like that, connecting to another person in your community who shares some of your experience as an Aboriginal person can help more than words can say.” ‘Community sharing’ is also an important objective for the semes- ter, Bickley adds. This means a sharing between both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in the Douglas College community. She hopes to begin this by putting together a schedule of workshops and forums on Indigenous culture, arts and crafts, history, and current issues facing First Nations commu- nities in BC and across Canada. These programs and activities would be open to everyone at Douglas. As the First Nations Centre coordinator, Bickley is also charged with hiring a student assistant to help with work in the Centre. For students interested in hearing more about this position, the can look it up on www.workopolis.com as information becomes available. For information on upcoming workshops, First Nations Centre-sponsored events, or any of the First Nations Centt services, students are encouraged to visit the office or give Mae Bickley a call at 604-527-5565 in New Westminster or 604-777-6188 at David Lam Campus in Coquitlam. Sex Work Should be Decriminalized, Says Legal society calls for same rights and protections for sex workers as for othe1 Kevin Tilley, The Peak (Simon Fraser University) as ., S % BURNABY (CUP)—Prostitution should not only be decrimi- nalized, but sex workers should be afforded the same rights and protections as other employees, says a report from Vancouver-based Pivot Legal Society released June 20. Entitled “Beyond Decriminalisation”, the report examines the legal ramifications of dectiminalizing sex work in B.C., and proposes that sex workers be entitled to Employment Insurance, have the right to unionize, and be subject to all 4 THE OTHER PRESS SEPTEMBER 14 2006 health and safety regulations currently in place for other employees in the country. Katrina Pacey, a lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society and one of the authors of the report, argues that the proposal of decriminalizing prostitution in Canada was insufficient because “we realized that there was a whole wide range of legislation that would become applicable because [sex work] wouldn’t be a black market anymore.” Rather than impose a heavy licensing scheme and restrict sex work to a “red light district” — as in Amsterdam — the authors of the report advocate for a more liberal program where brothels would operate like other businesses and sex workers like other employees. The society claims that this would offer greater protection for both sex workers and their clients. This is the Pivot Legal Society’s second report on sex work and law reform. In 2004, they released a report arguing that sections of the Criminal Code concerning prostitution should be repealed because they violate the human rights of people involved in sex work. “Our laws are killing people [because] they’ve created the social and legal milieu in which predatory, misogynist men can prey on women,” said John Lowman, one of the authors of the report and a professor in criminology at Burnaby’s Simon Fraser University. Lowman pointed to the steady rise of deaths in the sex industry in the last few decades as evidence. Robert William Pickton, who has been charged with killing 26 women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, is one of the manifestations of this trend. Sex-industry serial killers are sus- pected to be operating in Edmonton and Niagara, and hun- dreds of women are missing from the Prairie provinces. Violence against sex workers, meanwhile, continues to be a problem across the country. “T think the urgency is so overwhelming in terms of the extraordinary situation we’re seeing in many Canadian citie; We’re beyond the words ‘urgent action is needed,” said Lowman. While numerous models exist around the world in term of dealing with sex work, the Pivot Legal Society is looking specifically to the model recently introduced in New Zealai as the one closest to the ideal. “It’s a model that is being strongly supported by sex w« ets internationally. [New Zealand] decriminalized it in 2003 but didn’t impose really heavy regulation as a result of the reform,” explained Pacey. The result, they say, has been an environment that is re tively safe and open to monitoring, while protecting the human rights of the sex workers at the same time. The need to look for alternate models with regard to s« work is all the more urgent given the 2010 Olympics, whic will be held in Vancouver. Other Olympic host cities such as Athens experienced upsurge in sex work during the games, while the 2006 Wor Cup in Germany has attracted a reported 40,000 sex work: into the country to meet the increased demand during the event. The authors of the report were puzzled by Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan’s conspicuous absence from the launcl the report, especially given his claim that sex work would I one of his primary issues as mayor. Should the report fail to elicit the appropriate response from government, Katrina Pacey and the Pivot Legal Soci have an alternative strategy in mind: “One thing we’re wor ing on is going before the court with a group of plaintiffs constitutionally challenging the criminal laws in Canada [cc cerning prostitution].” A successful constitutional challenge would have the courts strike down the sections of the criminal code conc ing prostitution.