Are Canadian laws putting escorts at risk?

[MandalayBay 575]

My significant other discovered this article in Toronto Now Magazine a month or so ago. I was finally able to find it online and would love to hear everyone's thoughts.

 

http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=169559

[Annessa 22743]

I dont know whether to agree with the motion of this article or spit at it.

 

there are some valid concerns from detectives with forces that I have corresponded with in the past in TO but I feel that the article seems written by a highschool child with just as much assumptions as they claim they are trying to dissolve in this article. This article is anything but productive.....the better street-walkers will force themselves into dark alleys making them a target etc etc......I'd like to know where this bloke pulls all his facts from, as the most atrocious assumptions seemed to have no valid sources...

 

bringing up drugs and low self esteem....and the only means that us SPs do what we love is not for love...but for a desperate means to make cash the only way we know how to to support our families. ???? For goodness sake, NOW magazine......you are not helping our cause here!

 

some good points were raised. but I'm EXTREMELY disturbed with the immature approach this novice writer has barged in with and with the disgusting comments left by readers in the comments section. This article stole about 5 minutes of my life away and I plan on collecting later when we prove these idiots wrong someday.

[YoungStud 468]

I found the article to be reasonably balanced and rather predictable in its sources. Alan Young, Valerie Scott and Wendy Leaver get quoted a lot on this topic. Then, of course, throw in a feminazi from where else, socially polarized Vancouver, a woman who knows far better than they do how other women should be leading their lives, (the kind of person who would really like to be able to make other women live they way she wants them to, because she knows best) to provide "another viewpoint".

[Susie 1472]

Then, of course, throw in a feminazi from where else, socially polarized Vancouver, a woman who knows far better than they do how other women should be leading their lives, (the kind of person who would really like to be able to make other women live they way she wants them to, because she knows best) to provide "another viewpoint".

 

yay!!!i love the word feminazi!!!!

[Annessa 22743]

yay!!!i love the word feminazi!!!!

 

lol...agreed.

[bylogger 136]

In discussing this article should we look at it from a "rights", a "my morality", or from a "quality of journalism" perspective? The starting point can change the argument.

 

"rights" Feminism (be it the right wing or left wing variety) provides differing platforms. For example, is sex for money an exploitation of women? Or is it an exploitation of men? Do women have the right over their body, and if so, why can they not deny or provide sex if they so choose?

 

"my morality" this alone is a huge debate, whether humanist, or religionist. In my morality it is about not doing "harm", be this emotional or physical. On one hand the act itself is purported to destroy the healthy mind of the sex worker (male or female), on the other hand it is another skill, another trade, as dangerous as coal mining. As a skill it is certainly to be respected. Think of it as dance and applied psychology rolled up (or roled up if you prefer the pun) in a very effective package. As many men on this list know sex providers (paid or in kind) have varying levels of skill, and that skill is developed, not something we are all born with. (Oops, this may be deviating from morality)

 

"quality of journalism" rarely are the journalists experts in their field. They interview people who may have opinions, rather than facts. To present a "balanced" view they need to include the voices of those who have hard line stances that may not truly represent the situation. Hmmm.

 

So what to do about the journalists? Well, the sex worker initiatives could certainly empower the field. But only if the word gets out in a positive manner. If a police officer gets shot in the line of duty, she is a hero. If a sex worker gets killed, he was not. So maybe the sex workers need to write columns for main stream media about their experiences, their perspectives. Like the homosexual community, to gain acceptance is going to be an emotional, and difficult ride.

[Andee 220524]

I believe as an escort, the only thing I would maybe need to worry about is the "bawdy house" provision. I know it not always enforced such as in the case of where someone works out of their private residence and basically minds their own business.

 

I say this because I know an SP in Ottawa whose neighbour's son came across her website and the mother called the police. Apparently the police investigated her (she knew about while it was going on). After a few weeks, the police told them they would not be laying charges because in their opinion no laws were being broken and that if Ms. X was entertaining her male visitors in alleged manner that what when on behind closed doors in her private residence was no body's business.

 

They added the fact that no prosecutor of judge would look consider this case. Which leads me to believe that perhaps there are precedents (case law) to this law. I know of a swingers club in Montreal called Club D'Orange who's bawdy house charges were overturned and perhaps this has had an effect.

 

I believe it is more commonly enforced in situations where one or many people are working out of an establishment, and have high traffic, noise, or complicated with other problems to which the police have been alerted, eg. women being trafficked, assaulted, drug dealing/usage, etc. This would give police good reasons to lay charges, and rightly so.

 

So, in my case, I really do not think I have a lot to worry about.:lol:

[VedaSloan 119179]

The first paragraph put me off.

 

"You're working the street, you're not expensive."

 

Ugh.

 

 

I skimmed the rest. The laws DO undermine our ability to work safely, just as they violate our human rights, both under the Canadian Charter and the International Charter of Human Rights.

 

Instead of thinking of something smart to say, I'll just include this quote from the short story "Staged" by Janelle Galazia:

 

"With a few notable exceptions, people do not get into the sex industry for reasons that have anything to do with desire for sex, any more than a person enters janitorial work for a love of cleaning. The exchange between worker and customer is a complicated negotiation of need, illusion, denial, boundaries, and specific neuroses; but central to the exchange is cash. By keeping the debate about sex work focused on sex, and not work, the true nature of the issue is obscured. The arguments rage around ideas of obscenity, appropriate and inappropriate sexualities, representations of femininity, notions of morality: Important issues in their own right, but in the context of the sex work debate they function more as a smoke screen that keeps us from confronting what is really going on. In this framework women are sluts instead of workers, or victims instead of cognizant participants in an economy. The real question here is, why are our options so lame? What are the economic realities that make the sex industry the most viable choice for many people?

That's where feminism comes in. That's where outrage becomes appropriate. The wage gap, welfare "reform", sexist and racist hiring practices, the decline in the real value of minimum wage, lack of universal access to healthcare or rehab services, and the widening disparity between the rich and the poor: These are the things that undermine the social fabric and degrade the status of women more than me tramping around in heels could ever hope to. We have to ask ourselves, what is so compelling about blaming naked women for their own oppression? What kinds of confrontation are women avoiding by interrogating each other rather than actual power structures?"

[YoungStud 468]

Really excellent quote Erin.

 

I'm going to check out this author when I have a chance.

[VedaSloan 119179]

Really excellent quote Erin.

 

I'm going to check out this author when I have a chance.

 

That short story was in an anthology entitled "Working Sex: Sex Workers Write About A Changing Industry" edited by Annie Oakley.