Pivot Report A Cry From The Heart

Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun
Tuesday, March 02, 2004

Poor people who sell sex on Vancouver streets say their constitutional rights are being violated by police enforcing the Criminal Code of Canada.

The Pivot Legal Society in a 37-page report released Monday has called on Ottawa to reform those laws that make prostitution, which in theory is legal, in practice a crime.

Entitled Voices for Dignity: A Call to End the Harms Caused by Canada's Sex Trade Laws, the report argues sex assault, stigma, lack of access to police protection, social inequality, torture and murder can all be linked to the prohibitions.

It is based on 91 affidavits from current and former street prostitutes who describe in harrowing detail being beaten, robbed, held hostage and narrowly escaping death.

In particular, the report suggests these laws are to blame for two recent high-profile cases in the Lower Mainland -- the alleged Port Coquitlam pig farm murders and the reputed sadist who preyed on scores of women on the Downtown Eastside.

"It is unconscionable to allow the violence to continue at these rates -- it is at epidemic levels," said Katrina Pacey, president of Pivot.

"These laws violate the expression, liberty, security and equality provisions of the charter of rights and freedoms. They cannot be justified in a free and democratic society."

Specifically, she said the non-profit volunteer legal group wants sections 210 and 211 (the bawdy house provisions), 213 (the communicating provision) and much of 212 (the procuring provision) struck down.

"Our findings based on the affidavits demand that the criminal laws surrounding sex work be repealed to improve the safety of sex workers," Pacey said.

Cristen Gleeson, legal counsel for Pivot and a co-author of the report, added that the laws should be reformed because they violate the basic human rights of sex workers.

And on the surface it is hard not to disagree.

But -- there's always a but, isn't there?

First of all, the Supreme Court of Canada considered the constitutionality of the prostitution provisions in 1990 and ruled them reasonable and justifiable.

If you ask me, that's why Pivot is making this a public campaign rather than launching a court case to have the laws struck down.

This is a political fight, not a rights issue. The constitutional rhetoric is a stalking horse for Pivot and other Downtown Eastside sympathizers to win more services and programs for poor people.

Second, this report isn't about the sex trade -- it's about a tiny but very visible and sordid side of it. For me this is not a survey of the sex industry in town, it's a cri de coeur from its lowest rung.

Survival street prostitution is a major issue in the Downtown Eastside and it's a good thing for Pivot to draw our attention to the complicated, multi-faceted problem.

But I think this report fudges two separate and distinct issues -- sex-trade work and subsistence sexploitation.

One may be an occupation, the other is an act of desperation: One an economic activity that could be regulated, the other a measure of what a human being will do to survive.

It is possible, I think, to have a public policy discussion about what kind of laws or regulations should be in place for those who want to legitimately sell sexual services.

And we probably need to have that dialogue.

Yet escort services and so-called massage parlours operate unfettered as far as I can tell and they are not what this report is about.

By far the vast majority of the people arrested by Vancouver police under these laws are charged because they are causing a nuisance on the street.

To focus on the sex laws as their nemesis when they are mired in poverty, struggling with addiction and hampered by other social ailments is misguided. It confuses citizens about what governments should be doing.

I think there are problems with our sex laws, but I do not believe we can get rid of them as long as we are faced with international procurement rings, incidents of sex slavery and the on-going sexploitation of children, women and men.

Those who engage in subsistence sex will not be aided by a change to the sex laws but only by addressing poverty, inadequate housing, violence, poor health, addiction and bad policing.

Let's be honest, even without the criminal law, I'm willing to bet almost every one of these people would be prohibited from any legitimate sex industry because of addiction, disease or mental illness.

Sex isn't a work option for them, and I believe reports like this that frame it as such are wrong-headed.