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ex work in the DTES

ek, Contributor

t the 5-20 per cent of sex work
+t. (livingincommunity.ca)

sphere, they can still be subject to
fines and charges. To put it in simpler
terms, prostitution is still not allowed
and sex workers can still be punished
for trying to make a living. People
who support this law aim to stop
prostitution by discouraging buyers
(the demand) from participating in
the sex trade. Not only does this
model perpetuate the idea that sex
work is not legitimate work, but it
also continues to put sex workers in
dangerous positions.

The law has succeeded in
building tentative trust between
sex workers and police, but now
police are seen as a public nuisance
because they drive away prostitutes’
clients. This causes sex workers to
have less time to negotiate their
terms with their clients, which can
mean condoms and other forms of
contraception will not be used. At
the street level, sex workers have
to quickly get into vehicles so their
clients will not be fined and travel
to areas they are unfamiliar with
because the police have established
a large presence at the DTES’
prostitution hubs, which puts them
in vulnerable positions as they are
further away from their turf, and
therefore easier to exploit. Moreover,
if sex workers are forced to work
alone, they can be subjected to
sexual and physical violence and do
not have harm reduction strategies
readily available, such as writing
down a person’s licence plate if the
client tries to do anything horrific, or
simply having a presence that deters
a client from trying to be abusive. A
sense of community present at the
time of the Davie Street red-light
district is lost on the 21st century
wave of prostitution, and though this
law attempts to bring justice back to
prostitutes, it fails to do so.

The New Zealand model, in
comparison, proposes the total
decriminalization of sex work,
Buyers of sex and sex workers alike
would be able to participate in the
exchange of sex for money without
facing charges and fines thrown at
them by police. Pimps and traffickers
would still be criminalized, as they
seek to exploit and coerce people
into sex work. |t would give sex
workers the right to refuse work,
get them unemployment insurance
if they choose to exit the sex trade,
and introduce laws and regulations
that would help prostitutes stay
safe physically, medically, and
emotionally. Sex workers would be
able to conduct work with dignity
and safety in mind, because their
work would finally be treated the
same way that other work is. It would
also enable sex workers to regain
the community they once had, and
it respects a person’s choice to
consent as an adult to sexual activity
in exchange for money. This model
would directly affect street-based
sex workers in the DTES, because
they are the ones who are currently
targeted under Bill C-36. As long as
no one is being forced to have sex
with someone, | fail to see what is so
immoral about sex work or the New
Zealand model.

Although both the Swedish
Model and the New Zealand model
aim to help sex workers, only one of
the two respects a person’s choice
to be involved in the sex industry,
and protects those who do not have
many options for work. | genuinely
do not believe that criminalizing
the demand of sex work will slow
down the supply. In fact, | believe
it will only cause sex workers to go
underground, which subjugates them
to more exploitation anda higher

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likeliness for sex trafficking.

Back to Adichie’s assertion that
it is a society's view of a group of
people as victims or “the Other”
that allows for apathy to be justified,
and to make the assumption true.
By stating that all sex work exploits
women and should therefore be
criminalized, sex workers become
exploitable. By having police
criminalize sex work, it causes
distrust within the community and
leads to prostitutes not turning to
the VPD if their friends begin to go
missing. This isn’t the only thing that
keeps sex workers from turning to
the VPD, Hamilton explained. “You
don’t build trust by routinely going
down into the DTES and arresting
sex workers because they might have
an outstanding warrant for failing to
appear on possession of marijuana or
shoplifting.”

This has already happened
before in Vancouver. Every February
14 there has been an annual
Women’s Memorial March honouring
those who have gone missing or
been murdered. Many of them are
sex workers in the DTES, and they
are disproportionately Indigenous
and trans women. | hope to see that
in the future, we will be better at
protecting those who are the most
vulnerable and at-risk in our society,
rather than simply allowing this
resilient community to yet again fall
into the cracks.

| hope that there will be more
organizations—such as the PACE
society—available to help survival
sex workers get out of seemingly
impossible situations, and that the
Red Umbrella March fighting for sex
workers rights will eventually become
unnecessary, because sex workers
will already have rights equal to any
other workers out there.