[TW] For discussion of sexual assault, police violence.  

In the summer of 2010, I was sexually assaulted by a man I met online. For our first date, we decided to meet for drinks at a downtown bar. The next memory I have is waking up the next morning, half naked, and sore all over. I was a sex worker at the time. But he was not a client.

Sex work is a contentious subject and with the politicized climate surrounding sex work, it is sometimes hard to talk about sex work, especially when it comes to personal experiences. One has to consider whether they might lose friendships, family members, loved ones, or educational and employment opportunities.

The first and last time I went to the police for a separate assault, they asked me if I consumed drugs or alcohol. They also asked me where I worked. I was honest with the police about where I worked. But I did not think for a moment that they would blame my work for a sexual assault, even when the assault that did not occur in the context of sex work.

The Bedford decision dealt exclusively with adult consensual sex work. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled three laws as unconstitutional: the bawdyhouse law, the communication law, and the living on the avails law. Bill C-36, which is in response to Bedford, assumes all sex work is exploitative and inherently violent. It also assumes that targeting clients will prevent the harms that sex workers experience. Yet, Bedford found that the laws created harms in the lives of sex workers and prevented sex workers from accessing protection and safety.

The man who assaulted me during the 2010 incident later showed up at my work. I was dancer at a strip club. He was swiftly kicked out after I told my manager what happened and who he was. Bill C-36 explicitly states that if bars, such as strip clubs, hire security, then they could be charged under the material benefit section.[1] But it was the security and the manager in my bar that protected me. Bill C-36 will harm sex workers by preventing others to hire security to protect the people that work for them.

The main goal of decriminalization of sex work is to increase the safety of sex workers; meanwhile, the goal of Bill C-36 is to abolish prostitution through the criminalization of clients. But even Justice Minister Peter Mackay and Conservative MP Bob Dechert acknowledge that the Bill may not entirely abolish prostitution.[2] Sex workers and their allies highlighted that this Bill will cause more harms than anything else. If the Conservatives are admitting that their Bill will fail before it is even enacted, is it worth it to risk the lives of sex workers?

Bill C-36 assumes that targeting clients is a new approach to policing prostitution in Canada. This assumption is false. There are a number of cities in Canada that have been targeting clients without Bill C-36. Specifically, the Vancouver Police Department made this their official policy in January 2013.[3] However, it is well documented through evidence-based research that targeting clients increases vulnerability to violence among the most marginalized sex workers.[4] From this research, we also see reports of police violence, police harassment and police sexually assaulting sex workers. If the police are supposed to enforce Bill C-36 and protect victims from violence, how will the Bill protect sex workers from perpetrators of violence, like the police? Bill C-36 creates an adversarial and contradictory relationship between police and sex workers.[5]

Further, when police target clients, sex workers are forced to work in isolated areas which increase vulnerability to violence. Wally Oppal’s Missing Women Inquiry report also states that the criminal regulation of prostitution contributes to the marginalization of women through displacement and isolation.[6] This displacement and isolation is directly correlated to violence in sex workers’ lives.[7] As a result, Bill C-36 will increase the vulnerability to violence in sex workers’ lives.

Targeting clients is sometimes referred to as the Swedish or Nordic Model. Yet, in Sweden, the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare reports that sex workers feel less trusting of social services, the police and the legal system.[8] Under the so-called Nordic model, it also prevents sex workers from seeking help and protection.[9] In Norway, where a similar approach was adopted, sex workers report increased violence and insecurity.[10] As an Indigenous woman and a former sex worker, I will never feel safe to call the police. Bill C-36 will not magically change this for current sex workers, especially current Indigenous sex workers.

The most harmful section in Bill C-36 is the communication section. In Canada, outdoor sex workers constitute less than twenty percent of the entire trade.[11] But the majority of prostitution arrests in Canada are under the communication law.[12] Supporters of Bill C-36 argue that Indigenous women comprise the majority of the most marginalized and vulnerable population group in Canadian society. If this is the case, then Bill C-36 will not protect the people it is meant to protect, the most marginalized and vulnerable. Indigenous women and girls are over-policed and under-protected.

The police have a history of not protecting Indigenous women and girls. This lack of protection is evident in cases like Robert Pickton and John Martin Crawford. Pickton and Crawford were two serial killers who preyed on women in the sex trade. Crawford preyed specifically on Indigenous women. The one Indigenous woman who did go to the police after Crawford sexual assaulted her ended up being arrested instead.[13] With Bill C-36, these patterns of injustice will continue to occur.

After my sexual assault in 2010, I did not go to the police. From my experience, I learned that the police were not there to protect women like me, young, Indigenous, female and in the sex trade. Most recently, the police admitted to seeing Tina Fontaine the last time she was alive.[14] They also admitted that she was exploited.[15] If this is how the police treat the exploited, it is hard to believe that Bill C-36 will change this behaviour even in the long run.

If Bill C-36 defines all sex work as inherently violent, then the same argument that failed at the Supreme Court of Canada follows: sex workers who choose to engage in an inherently violent activity also agree to the harms inflicted on them. But if sex workers are going missing and being murdered, would we continue to blame them for their actions? Ironically, the same people that are supposed to protect women and girls are sometimes the sources of violence themselves. Moving from one criminal regime to another will not protect sex workers. Only the decriminalization of sex work will protect sex workers. We can learn from this differential treatment by the police that Bill C-36 will not protect women like me: young, Indigenous, and in the sex trade.

Decriminalizing sex work holds people in positions of authority to a higher standard. It tells society that we must stop blaming sex workers for their outcome, including the missing and murdered. Decriminalizing sex work also informs policing perspectives. It tells police that they must protect all women and girls regardless of the choices they make in their lives. The lives of all sex workers should matter too.

[1] http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/other-autre/protect/p1.html

[2] http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/07/07/prostitution_bill_likely_to_face_court_challenge_peter_mackay_says.html and http://openparliament.ca/committees/justice/41-2/44/bob-dechert-17/

[3] http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/pivotlegal/pages/615/attachments/original/1401811234/My_Work_Should_Not_Cost_Me_My_Life.pdf?1401811234 @ page 2

[4] http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/pivotlegal/pages/615/attachments/original/1401811234/My_Work_Should_Not_Cost_Me_My_Life.pdf?1401811234 @ page 5

[5] http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/pivotlegal/pages/615/attachments/original/1401811234/My_Work_Should_Not_Cost_Me_My_Life.pdf?1401811234 @ page 9 AND http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/public_inquiries/docs/Forsaken-ES.pdf @ page 107

[6] http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/public_inquiries/docs/Forsaken-ES.pdf @ page 111

[7] http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/public_inquiries/docs/Forsaken-ES.pdf @ page 110

[8] http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/pivotlegal/pages/615/attachments/original/1401811234/My_Work_Should_Not_Cost_Me_My_Life.pdf?1401811234 @ page 11

[9] http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/pivotlegal/pages/615/attachments/original/1401811234/My_Work_Should_Not_Cost_Me_My_Life.pdf?1401811234 @ page 11

[10] http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/pivotlegal/pages/615/attachments/original/1401811234/My_Work_Should_Not_Cost_Me_My_Life.pdf?1401811234 @ page 10

[11] http://www.parl.gc.ca/content/hoc/Committee/391/JUST/Reports/RP2599932/justrp06/sslrrp06-e.pdf @ page 5

[12] http://www.powerottawa.ca/POWER_Report_TheToolkit.pdf   @ page 5

[13] http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/former-prostitute-sues-rcmp-1.229501

[14] http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/tina-fontaine-died-because-police-cfs-failed-her-family-says-1.2777606

[15] http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/tina-fontaine-15-found-in-bag-in-red-river-1.2739141

On this particular day in June 2006, it was sunny and early in the morning. I was traveling down south for the first time. Alone. Before leaving, I was living with some cousins at the time. I sold what little I owned to help pay for a one-way ticket to London, Ontario. I told my parents that I was going down south but I didn’t tell my parents that I didn’t plan on returning.

I remember hearing the relief in my mom’s voice when I called her for the first time after arriving in London, Ontario. I didn’t call home until after a few weeks of living in London. My mom was relieved to know that I was safe and that I was okay. There are 1000+ murdered Indigenous women who will never make that last call home to let their loved ones know they are okay and there are 1000+ families/friends of missing Indigenous women who can only pray that they will receive that phone call home from their loved one.

This weekend there are multiple gatherings to remember the 1000+ missing and murdered Indigenous women that are occurring across colonial Canada. While everyone is praying for the missing and murdered, I want to remind people that we need to pray for the Indigenous women still living and working in the sex trade.

On Monday October 6, 2014, our current (Conservative) Canadian government is set to vote on Bill C-36, the protection of communities and exploited persons act. This Act is in response to the Bedford decision which was released in December 2013. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled three sections of Canada’s criminal code as unconstitutional. These sections related specifically to the criminal regulation of prostitution: the bawdyhouse law, the communication law and the living on the avails law. The ultimate goal of this Act is to abolish prostitution. Supporters of this Bill argue that it will decriminalize the women and target the perpetrators of violence. However, this argument ignores state and police violence. This is the same violence that is ultimately the source of harm in Indigenous women’s lives and the source of missing and murdered Indigenous women: the state and the police just don’t care. It is also the same violence that the SCC ruled does not negate the state’s role in the violence in the sex workers’ lives.

In approximately two weeks, Canada will be celebrating Persons day. This is the day that white Canadian women won the right to vote. Two of the five women that advocated for the white Canadian women’s right to vote are also the same women who advocated for the criminalization of prostitution and the forced sterilization of Indigenous women. The original prostitution laws were enacted under the Indian Act. These original laws targeted Indigenous women and assumed Indigenous homes (wigwams) to be disorderly.

We see history repeating itself with Bill C-36. When one reviews this Bill in its entirety, one will notice that it doesn’t decriminalize the women. Rather, it criminalizes (outright) the most marginalized and vulnerable women in the sex trade, outdoor sex workers. The supporters of this Bill argue that Indigenous women comprise the majority of outdoor workers. At the same time, they ignore the lived realities of Indigenous women in the trade: they are over-policed and under-protected. The 1000+ missing and murdered Indigenous women is evidence of this over-policing and under-protection.

The Bill’s preamble says that it encourages women in the trade who experience violence to call the police. In theory, that sounds nice. However, in reality, I know it will never be safe for the most marginalized and vulnerable, other Indigenous women, to call the police. I know this from lived experiences as an Indigenous woman who has worked in the sex trade.

The Bill also has a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the Bill assumes that all prostitution is inherently violent, then I can only imagine vulnerability to violence will increase once this Bill is passed. This violence is created when the Bill ignores state and police violence, where Indigenous women are its primary targets. As a result, the Bill creates the environment for violence and exploitation to flourish while at the same time highlighting this violence is the reason the Bill needs to be enacted.

When I moved to London, Ontario, I did so in the context of sex work. Looking back on the decisions I made then, I regret not telling my family that I did not plan on returning to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario after I left. I regret not telling them because going missing and murdered was a possibility. I could have never made that last call home. Yet, I am one of the lucky ones. It is a burden for me to wake up every day knowing that I am here only because I was lucky. When the Bill says that it encourages women who experience violence to call the police, it frustrates me because I know current Indigenous sex workers will never feel safe enough to call the police. It frustrates me because I fear that more Indigenous women will go missing and murdered and people will continue to not care.

As you are praying for the missing and murdered, please don’t forget about Indigenous women still living especially the ones working in the sex trade. With Bill C-36, we will only see more Indigenous women go missing and murdered. Please remember them in your prayers.

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Note: Sadly, I fear this Bill will pass without changes. I used to cry almost everyday thinking about the harms this Bill will create. I am done crying. I want to see real change. If you are wondering how you can help, please write to your MP telling them vote against this Bill. This Bill is harmful and it will only cause sex workers to feel more isolated and alienated which will ultimately leave them vulnerable to more violence. You can find out who your MP is here: http://www.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseofCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC. You can write an email. It will only take a few minutes. 

Inspired by @furrygirl’s anti-sex work and anti-porn BINGO card, I prepared this as a discussion tool for a presentation I am giving later on this month.

Now you can play, “#c36 BINGO: Did they say it or not say it?” You pick! Everyone is a winner. If you want to be a real keener, you can guess who said it!

Note: Some quotes have been edited for length. Nonetheless, the essence of the quote is not loss.

[TW] Discussion of whorephobia

I finished my first week of law school and I am just finishing my second week.

I laughed. I cried. I swore. I drank some wine and ate some cheese. It was good.

It was also overwhelming. But I am happy that I met with someone today to ease some of that stress. I know that this journey will become more intense. I don’t really know what to think of the experience…yet. It is everything that the pre-law program prepared me for though. So I am grateful for that experience as well.

I know this is going to be somewhat of a challenge too. I’ve already had my first whorephobic experience. That was really difficult to handle. It made me sick to my stomach. I was shaking after it happened. I almost cried. In fact, I almost skipped class that day but decided against it.

“Compose yourself. You’ve handled much worse,” I thought to myself.

It happened right before class was about to start. I went into the classroom early. The room was empty for all but two other individuals. I didn’t pay much attention to them until they started talking about an event happening in Gatineau. A porn star was planning to film a scene which involved multiple people (Source).

The one (M) brought up the event and the other (F) replied basically calling the event disgusting and eventually the sex worker participating in the event was being called disgusting too. I didn’t say anything because, you know, they were having a private conversation. But they continued talking about the event, and quite loudly too. She is disgusting. This event is disgusting. Then the conversation switched over to strip clubs and strippers. Strip clubs? Disgusting. Strippers? Disgusting.

I couldn’t take it anymore. Disgusting. Disgusting. Disgusting. Disgusting. Disgusting. Disgusting. Imagine hearing that about any other population group that you identified with? Sex worker. Stripper. Porn star. Anyone who has sex outside the norm or sex for money? Disgusting.

Whatever term you want to use, to whorephobes, sex workers are all disgusting. With the recent Senate meetings on Bill C-36, this blatant fear and hate of sex workers is omnipresent. Literally. EVERYWHERE! Sex workers! Disgusting! Whorephobia dictates that sex work(ers) must be wiped out at any and all costs. Their lives and well-being means nothing.

Whorephobia is the fear of or the hate of sex workers (Source). As Thierry Schaffauser highlights: 

The most common sexist insults are “whore” or “slut”, which makes women want to distance themselves from the stigma associated with those words, and from those who incarnate it. The “whore stigma” is a way to control women and to limit their autonomy – whether it is economic, sexual, professional, or simply freedom of movement” (Source).

When other people, especially women, refer to sex workers as disgusting (or whatever other negative image that comes to mind when you hear the word “whore”), it is a way to effectively distance themselves from this whore stigma. Whorephobia also feeds into the misogyny (and transmisogyny) that triggers violence against sex workers, whether these people who reinforce whorephobia know it or not. If “respectable” women are effectively subordinated or marginalized due to colonialism and all of its racism, patriarchy, heteronormativity, then sex workers are treated as less than these women, and sometimes by other women. In other words, sex workers are treated as less than persons.

We see this “respectable” women versus the whore within the Bill C-36 debate. Just have a listen to the JUST Committee and Senate meetings. During the last panel of meetings yesterday, Conservative Senator Plett tried to tell a member of Sex Professionals of Canada that she can have sex however she wants. But Valerie Scott replied, “Only if it is free.” Conservative Senator Plett’s reply? Yes, only if it is free.

The only permissible sex for respectable women is free sex. 

The whorephobia is so obvious within these discussions. There are good women and bad women. Sex workers are amongst the latter, and they must be punished for being bad. This is, as a whole, the goal of Bill C-36: to punish bad women, to punish sex workers and to get rid of prostitution. And as a result, the goal is to get rid of all sex workers. The current Canadian government is willing to do whatever it takes to do this. Who cares about the lives of sex workers!

On the day that this discussion was overheard, I knew I had to say something after hearing the word “disgusting” being repeated over and over again. The event is disgusting. The porn star is disgusting. Strip clubs are disgusting. Strippers are disgusting.

I turned to them and asked them politely to stop talking about that event in that manner. The young woman tried to justify her comments about the event, porn stars, strip clubs and strippers by attempting to talk about Montreal strip clubs.

“In Montreal there are strip clubs…” she said.

“Oh I know all about strip clubs,” I interjected.

“Some are classy and some are disgusting…” she continued.

Then I proceeded to interrupt her explanation for calling these women disgusting and then trying to explain that some of them are even more disgusting than others, “But as your peer, can you stop talking about these women in this manner?”

She eventually stopped. But not after she tried to justify her comments about women who work in the sex trade: there are good ones and bad ones. Yet, they are all still disgusting. Welcome to whorephobia, ladies and gents, which effectively relegates some women to a certain class, a class not worthy of being treated as persons. Whether whorephobia is directed at me or not, it still affects me. I was shaking after this experience. This isn’t the first time I experienced whorephobia during my post-secondary journey. I don’t suspect it to be my last.

[TW] For violence against Indigenous sex workers.

Until the discussion around missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls begins to include the lives and realities of Indigenous sex workers, I will not be participating in any social media campaign because of whorephobia, stigmatization and criminalization.

Yes, I advocate for the decriminalization of sex work and yes, I am outspoken about this. But I will not be participating because of the personal attacks against me as an Indigenous woman and as a former sex worker.

Some of these personal attacks include having my indigeneity questioned and suggesting that I cause harm in the lives of Indigenous women. The criminalization of sex work causes more harms in the lives of sex workers, especially Indigenous sex workers. You can check out this report by Pivot Legal Society that indicate how the criminalization of sex work increases violence against sex workers. I have also been blamed for specifically causing Indigenous women and girls to go missing and murdered. Following this, I have also been blamed for supporting or causing colonization or colonialism. Um, supporting the criminalization of Indigenous peoples’ lives is supporting colonialism (and all of its beautiful institutions #sarcasm).

So what does this all have to do with whorephobia, stigmatization and criminalization of sex work?

Let’s begin by defining whorephobia.

Whorephobia is the fear or hate of sex work(ers) (Source).

People literally believe that sex work(ers) cause harm to children, families, marriages, schools and society as a whole (as per the JUST meetings in the Canada). Those who believe that sex work(ers) causes these harms to these individuals and institutions also believe that the harm and violence they experience as a part of whorephobia is their own fault (“they engaged in a risky activity and to avoid this risk they should not engage in this risky activity” as per the AG’s argument at all levels of court in Ontario and then at the Supreme Court of Canada). People who also believe that sex work(ers) cause these harms also believe that whorephobes are doing a favour to society, “Just cleaning up the neighbourhood” (which is a good thing for communities and society). These arguments can be paralleled with the fight for marriage equality (people actually believed gay marriage would harm children, families, marriages, schools and society as whole).

This whorephobia is then legitimized through criminalization (including the most recent Bill C-36). This criminalization contributes to the stigmatization of sex workers. This stigmatization then affects other areas of sex workers’ lives. Sex workers, through the legitimization of whorephobia via criminalization which then contributes to stigmatization, face threat of arrest (even for non-sex work related offences), losing their children, losing other forms of employment (or not being obtain other forms of employment), losing out on educational opportunities, not being able to travel/cross border. Just to name a few.

The decriminalization of sex work won’t cause all harms to end tomorrow. But it is a step in preventing the harms listed above. Decriminalization of sex work tells society that sex workers are capable of deserving the same protection as others regardless of how they earn their income. When we criminalize sex work(ers), they are viewed as either the victim or an offender within the eyes of the criminal justice system. However, both labels still inform police perspectives about sex work(ers): they are engaging in a harmful activity and society needs to be protected from sex work(ers) as opposed to sex work(ers) deserving protection. Anybody remember Pickton? But do you recall John Martin Crawford? Crawford was a serial killer who preyed specifically on Indigenous women. He also sexually assaulted an Indigenous sex worker and it is assumed while under police watch. Yet after the sex worker went to the police for help, she was arrested instead. Sex workers are viewed as not deserving of protection and within the context of the criminal justice system, they are seen as simply a means to an end–the criminalization of their lives and income is to protect communities and protect society. The decriminalization of sex work is one of the many necessary steps to both destigmatize sex work and delegitimize whorephobia. The decriminalization of sex work tells society that sex workers are persons too.*

Being out as a supporter of sex workers’ rights and out as a former sex worker, I know that I am not included in the mainstream discussion surrounding #MMIW because of this whorephobia. As others have tried to tell me, I am the cause of MMIW and I support colonialism.

Until the discussion around #MMIW begins to include Indigenous sex workers, I fear that only more Indigenous persons, including women/girls, trans persons or two spirited folks, will continue to go missing and murdered and as for those who are in the sex trade, society will continue to not care because… they deserved what they got.

So I won’t be participating until the lives and realities of Indigenous sex workers are included in the #MMIW discussions.

 

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*There is the argument within the C-36 debate that it will protect women and girls by not arresting them. However, Bill C-36 does not condone the selling of sexual services. When a specific behaviour is not allowed or accepted, then it may be viewed in a criminal manner (in other words, Bill C-36 still views prostitution as a criminal activity). Bill C-36 then operates on the assumption that it will offer protection of sex workers through the decriminalization of sellers and criminalization of buyers/managers. But the assumption that sex work is “bad” will inform policing and societal perceptions about sex work: sex workers shouldn’t be engaging in the activity in the first place. Any response to the Bedford decision should be centered in the lives and realities of sex workers: sex workers, especially Indigenous sex workers, are deserving of protection regardless of the choices they make and the lives they live. 

Well, here I am sitting at home on my First Nation and I am just thinking about my next journey in life. I am heading off to law school this fall and I am quite excited. I am also nervous but the excitement really overshadows the nerves/anxiety.

I wanted to write this post as a follow up to all the other posts about I’ve written so far about my new journey. I have written about it here, here and here. The one post I talked about how expensive it is just to apply to law school. I am not even talking about paying for actual law school here folks. I am talking about just applying: paying to take the LSAT, attempting to attend any information sessions that potential schools are hosting (like the Canadian Law School Forum hosted in Toronto once a year), then paying to apply to the law schools you are interested in attending.

I was accepted on a conditional acceptance where you have to fulfill certain conditions in order to have a full acceptance. The conditions for me were to attend a pre-law program geared toward Indigenous law students. I am not mad for having these conditions. I am very thankful actually. Attending this program would have only been accomplished if it had been a condition. That’s a different story.

But this also means that I couldn’t work during the summer. Well, it meant I couldn’t work the job that I wanted to work at, which is this summer program working in Alberta as a youth mentor in Indigenous communities. I worked in this program in 2013 and I had a blast! I will be aiming to applying in 2014 if another opportunity doesn’t present itself (that’s how awesome this program is). I am moving to Ottawa in about two days. Moving is fuckin expensive. I’ve moved many times. This time I actually have a place to live and move to. When I first moved to London ON, I didn’t know anyone and I didn’t know where I was living (I also wasn’t going for school).

Now that I am on my way to law school in Ottawa, I thought to follow up with all these pre-law posts.

I will still emphasize that it is hard work and that it is still a shitty thing that there are barriers in just applying to law school that exist. It is frustrating because my school has a social justice focus but there are no scholarships for Indigenous students. It is also frustrating because for my virtual orientation the dean of the school said, “Law school is for everyone.” Sure, only everyone who is anyone that can afford to apply in the first place.

For me, I could only apply to two law schools because that’s all I could afford. Fortunately, one of them was my top choice. It wasn’t exactly the end of the world. I also couldn’t just apply to more law schools, which was some of the advice that I received. Useless. I was broke after just applying to two schools. It was frustrating to receive this advice and then it was also frustrating with having to deal with questions from my peers, “Oh your band isn’t paying for it?” I have to pay for it first. If I couldn’t pay for it first, then I couldn’t apply at all. I just wanted to scream at this advice and these questions.

Then when I attended the Canadian Law School Forum in Toronto, the only reason I could attend that was because it was two hours away. I had some questions that I wanted answered that were not really being answered anywhere else. Can I apply to law school and should I apply to law school if I have a criminal record (no convictions though)? The short answer was yes, I can and I should. So, I did. But this question wasn’t really being answered anywhere else by anyone else who could answer it truthfully. Many people offered the advice, “Well maybe you should try to get a pardon now” and this advice came in my second year when I actually started to think about life after undergrad. That was also not very helpful advice as the cost to apply for a pardon was the same amount as my rent at the time. So my decisions boiled down to two choices: rent or pardon. 

Following this, one of the individuals at the Forum was wondering why more Aboriginal students didn’t attend the event. Well, since there is only one forum held in Canada for all of Canada which is hosted in Toronto, that creates some major barriers to getting to the event. I only could afford attending because the bus ticket cost less than $60 and I had a place to stay at no cost. Not everyone is in my position though.

What I am beginning to understand and see is that there are some major issues with understanding accessibility from many perspectives and not just while in law school. 

In the end, being accepted to law school has been quite a learning experience. I cried. I laughed. I grew frustrated many, many times. Now that I am officially going, I wish I started working on this in first year or at the latest, in second year. In first year, I still had no idea what I was doing.

I am thankful for all the lessons learned, the people I’ve met, including the ones who realize these barriers exist. But I also want to highlight that barriers exist even before one is accepted to law school. Writing the LSAT wasn’t cheap and if you don’t have the extra funds to fork over, you have to ensure that you write well on the first try (obviously you should aim high and work hard even on your first try but you know sometimes we don’t always do good on the first try).

My only advice to people thinking about law school is this, start early. If you know you want to attend law school early, start researching the process now and begin looking at prep books (if you can’t afford the $600-1000 LSAT prep classes). I know the prep books are also kind of expensive but there are a lot of practice exams online. Check out LSAT prep accounts on social media too. Sometimes people will advertise they can give away their prep books (I gave mine to the Indigenous services at my university). Check out other blogs written by and for potential law students. If you are unsure, talk to someone who you look up for some guidance or who is in law school. Reach out for help! There are tons of people who want to help others succeed. Just don’t feel like as if you are alone in this process. It can be alienating and isolating but don’t let it get to you by isolating yourself further. Ask for help and reach out to others.

 

And always remember, you are worth it!

Just because we don’t have guns killing us, tanks rolling into our communities or the military and militarized police showing up in our backyards (when in fact we have in the past had this happen and we do have this happen in our communities, just look at Oka, Elsipogtog, etc), it doesn’t make what is happening to Indigenous peoples especially Indigenous women and girls (who are going missing and murdered continuously with no mention in the media sometimes) in Canada any less important and it most certainly does not make the violence that is happening in our lives and in our communities any less than what is going on else where in the world. 

 

Lately I’ve been experiencing a lot of stress, like a lot. Sometimes when I am on social media, this stressed is further triggered and becomes anxiety because of the things I am reading. Most recently, there were losses within the community of Winnipeg, Manitoba which (no matter where these incidences happen) always affect me: the reporting of missing and murdered Indigenous persons, especially Indigenous women/girls. 

What happened in Winnipeg was the loss of two individuals, one gentle soul who overcame some things in his life and offered to help others like him and another who was only 15 years of age, in state care and reportedly a repeat runaway (as reported by the policing agency in the MSM). The thing that got to me was the victim blaming/shaming that the policing agency participated in which is (without a doubt) disgusting but not a surprise, sadly, when it comes to MMIWG. It literally made me sick to my stomach. When stuff (and by stuff i mean, being stressed out) like this happens, I tend to run more often.

When I read the article where the policing agency blamed Tina Fontaine for what happened to her, I went to bed a little anxious and I was hoping to wake up feeling a little better. Though I did wake up feeling a little better and though I did decide to go for a run (a stress reliever for me), I was triggered all over again. During my run this morning, there was a black truck that pulled over onto the side of the road that I was running on and that was facing me (I was running in the direction toward it before it pulled over). I decided to slow down a bit. The truck continued to remain idle on the side of the road. I thought it was going to turn down the road but it didn’t. I decided to then reduce my run to a walk. I remembered that I didn’t tell my family I was going for a run. But I assumed they knew that I was out for a run because when I am not in the house, this is where I am: out running. I was triggered with these feelings of stress/anxiety/anger because this truck… literally sitting there on the side of the road (and I was running on a major highway–it sounds crazy but really it isn’t… it’s much safer than having to deal with the Rez dogs and any potential animals like bears). This truck, I had no idea what it was doing and I had these feelings of, you know, what if something bad happened if I did get closer to the truck. Would I go missing/murdered too? This is a reality for Indigenous women/girls, the reality of going missing/murdered even in their own community. It really freaks me out too because there have been multiple incidents while I am running on my usual route that black trucks (I don’t know it’s just creepy that they are always black) either that swerve off the road to the point I have to jump off the pathway I am running and out of the pathway of the truck or that try to get my attention while running like I don’t want your attention, I am fuckin running…leave me alone! It especially freaks me out because I have been in a previous car accident where I was hit by a car (while walking from what I’ve been told) and I don’t remember anything that happened. This all makes me super attentive to things that go on around me when I am running especially as it pertains to vehicles. Bad experience turned good, maybe?! I don’t really know… 

So the above plus all these other stresses that I am dealing with (moving, starting law school, personal shit, etc.), I have really been pulling out the “things to do to keep my sanity” list during the last few weeks. I thought to make a post about some of the things I do to help deal with stress and share with others. I know that these may not be for everyone or that some are not very affordable but you can alter them to suit your needs or you may be inspired to create your own list! 

Even though I am writing this post within the context of experiencing stress and triggering other emotions, I don’t mean to downplay other kinds of emotions that you may be experiencing like anger, sadness, etc. I sometimes use these activities as ways to deal with anger/sadness (much better coping methods that I learned along the way). 

1. Go for a run! But make sure you tell someone when/where you are going (tell a friend/family member before you leave and then when you get home safely). 
2. Go for a walk (and do the same as above: tell someone). 
3. Watch a movie (your favourite movie, Netflix, go to the theatre)! 
4. Write! 
5. Start a journal. 
6. Research places you would like visit and plan your dream vacation! 
7. Research places you would like to volunteer and maybe volunteer on a project (I choose to volunteer on projects because they are usually short term commitments and do not add additional stress to your already existing stresses/stressors). 
8. Call a friend. 
9. Go visit a friend or a family member.
10. Watch TED Talks. 
11. Start a blog (even if it is just a private one at first)! 
12. Learn to meditate (mindfulness meditation really helped me). 
13. Try baking a new recipe! 
14. Make some art. 
15. Have a shower. 
16. Paint your nails. 
17. Doodle. 
18. Sit by the water and listen to the water. 
19. Sit outside in the sun and listen to the birds. 
20. Reach out for help!

The last one is really important especially for me. I have a hard time asking for help and when I need it–I freak out and can’t really deal. But the more I experience and the more I learn from these experiences, the more I realize that you can’t do it all by yourself and that it is important to reach out for help from people you trust. 

Don’t forget people love you, care for you and will want to help you during your hard times and also your good times–we sometimes need help during the good times too 😉 

This is a follow-up post to my previous one entitled “Advice for Sex Workers: Don’t talk to strangers.” In that post, I discuss a quote from a policing agency in response to assaults on escorts attending out-calls (where a sex work goes to a client’s house as opposed to hosting calls at a secure location). The quote indirectly suggested that the reason sex work is risky because sex workers are going to strangers’ houses. But what the quote inadvertently does, however, is that is agrees that out-calls are risky and out of the two options available to sex workers, out-calls versus in-calls, it is the risker of the two.

In the Bedford decision, Chief Justice wrote that third party violence or violence of johns does not negate the role of the state in making prostitutes vulnerable to violence. Within the context of Bill C-36, the only non-criminal way to do sex work would be criminalized and sex workers would be forced to make riskier and more harmful decisions about how they operate. In other words, the inherent risk of going to outcalls does not negate the state’s role in making sex workers vulnerable to that risk.

With the above stated, advice for sex workers within the context of C-36 would be (broadly speaking), “Don’t talk to strangers.” Section by section?

The bawdy house section? Don’t go to strangers’ homes and don’t invite strangers into your place.

The communication section? Don’t talk to strangers and don’t let strangers talk to you. 

The advertising section? Don’t let strangers contact you and (again) don’t let strangers talk to you.

The purchasing of sexual services provisions? Don’t let strangers give you money… basically.

While all this seems like good advice for sex workers (#sarcasm) to avoid risky or harmful situations, this isn’t the only advice that would come out of the Bill.

From MacKay’s presentation at the JUST meetings about prostitution, we are introduced to the government’s position on prostitution. It can be summed up as the following:

• Prostitution is an underground activity
• Prostitution is inherently violent
• Prostitution and human trafficking are intricately connected
• Prostitution is associated with organized crime[1]

MacKay also admits that there are no statistics given the underground and elusive nature of prostitution. So we aren’t really sure what he knows about prostitution if there are no statistics and if it is so elusive and hidden.[2] But that’s beside the point.

From other sources, we are told that other sex work-related situations (working in a massage parlour and working in an agency) or other types of sex work (like stripping or more generally anyone in the adult entertainment industry which is pretty fuckin broad) are also connected to human trafficking.[3] The RCMP characteristics of human trafficking victims present a theme and more concisely, this theme can be phrased as, “Don’t trust friends or boyfriends.” This isn’t the first time that I have discussed findings about human trafficking from the RCMP.

But this isn’t about the RCMP’s reports. This post is about this theme of focusing on friends/boyfriends of those who work within the sex trade.

Based on reports from the RCMP, it can be concluded that the RCMP views all sources of sex work as sources of human trafficking—stripping, agency work, parlour work, independent work. This is troublesome and rightfully so because it assumes that even people that a sex worker may trust faces risk of criminalization. Yes, some friends/boyfriends are not good people but should we assume that all sex workers’ friends/boyfriends (and others close in their lives) are a threat to their safety and well-being?

In the RCMP link cited above, the following are some additional characteristics that point to friends/boyfriends of those who work in the sex trade:

• In defining sexual exploitation (as a form of human trafficking), the RCMP writes, “Most or all of the money is controlled by their pimp/boyfriend/trafficker.”
• The RCMP further highlights that potential victims are recruited through potential (pretend) boyfriends.
• These potential/pretend boyfriends then are able to recruit their victims because of our “hyper-sexualized” society where similar messages are disseminated to potential victims through television commercials, the internet (namely, social media), music videos and music lyrics!
• Sooooo…don’t let your children watch television, use the internet or watch music videos or listen to music because….TRAFFICKERS! [4]

Additionally, the RCMP tells us (as taken directly from their site) that:

• Many traffickers prey on victims who are looking for the promise of a better life, a job opportunity or a romantic relationship.
• [Victims may] not know they are being victimized because they have a relationship with their trafficker – it could be their boyfriend or friend;
• [Victims may] not appear to need assistance because they have a place to live, food to eat, nice clothes, medical care and even a “paying job”;[5]

If there is no distinction between different kinds of sex work (that is to say, all forms of sex work are exploitative), then it follows that there is no distinction between sex work and human trafficking. However, these statements, especially ones from MacKay, that prostitution and human trafficking are intricately connected fail to take into consideration other kinds of human trafficking. Although the RCMP distinguishes between different kinds of human trafficking, it still attempts to link all forms of sex work as sexual exploitation by literally naming all forms of sex work as being connected to human trafficking.

So what would the advice from the RCMP look like for sex workers? Don’t trust your friends or your boyfriends (let alone trusting anyone in your life).

Even though this may seem outlandish and out there, the theme of boyfriends/friends (even spouses) becoming potential pimps is embedded within the narrative surrounding Bill C-36 and also human trafficking narratives in general.

Together, this post and my previous post, the advice for sex workers would be summarized as: Don’t talk to anyone (Don’t talk to strangers and don’t talk to people you may trust).

So you got that—irresponsible sex worker—you don’t talk to anyone, mmkay?

These narratives, that sex work is inherently violent because of johns (strangers) and pimps (boyfriends/friends), call attention to an issue regarding Bill C-36, which isn’t really being acknowledged. This issue is the further isolation and alienation of sex workers from society. The isolation and alienation of sex workers from society happens directly through the criminalization of sex work—sex workers are pushed further to the periphery because of false assumptions about sex work. Such assumptions include sex work is bad for society and bad for children which completely ignores the fact that many sex workers are mothers/fathers and are a part of society themselves, as persons, too. They are your neighbours, your friends, or even your family. These false assumptions are so embedded within these discussions Mr. Dechert even went as far to suggest that sex workers are lurking around playgrounds awaiting to approach their next client (Source). Really, Dechert? As the following quote demonstrates, it is hard to believe that sex workers can be literally found almost everywhere (schools, parks, playgrounds, daycares) but at the same time are “hard to reach” because of the underground nature of the trade? Remember, MacKay?

Dechert then suggested that Bill C-36 was giving the power back to sex workers (See image below). In fact, it does the exact opposite because it still criminalizes working outdoors; it still criminalizes working indoors; it still criminalizes strategies that reduce risks (ie-screening); and it still criminalizes sharing of resources among sex workers.

Dechert blatantly states that he does not want to make sex work any easier for sex workers (See image below). Dechert even states he isn’t even sure prostitution can be eliminated. I mean, isn’t that the entire goal of the Bill (again, see image below)? 

Yet, how Bill C-36 intends to make sex work more difficult for sex workers does so at the risk of criminalizing sex workers’ safety strategies. While Dechert and others who support the Bill claim to be only attacking the “demand” side, Bill C-36 also attacks the supply side (if we were to apply the demand/supply logic to these statements) by making it more difficult (essentially more risky and more harmful) for sex workers. Bill C-36 then makes sex work more difficult at the risk of sex workers’ health, safety and lives, which is a complete contradiction to Bedford.

I will also add that the decriminalization of sex work is never about making sex work easier for any one (client, pimp, trafficker or sex worker). The goal of decriminalization is for the safety and security of sex workers! In addition to all of this, sex workers, whether they are indoor or outdoor workers, will be severely limited in their ability to screen clients because clients will be less inclined to give screening information wherein screening, especially for outdoor sex workers, was a key to reducing risk and increasing safety—the heart of the Bedford decision. Like I said, Bill C-36 is making sex work more difficult at the cost of sex workers’ health, safety and lives.

Dechert is right about one thing: Sex work is not like any other business[6] because it will still be criminalized and the government itself will still benefit from the income of sex workers.[7] Certainly, however, sex work is nothing like using or selling heroin, where Dechert continuously makes reference to in his statements regarding Bill C-36 (Source)

In the end, Bill C-36 will increase sex workers’ risk to violence by alienating and isolating sex workers further from society through increased marginalization and vulnerability. The message is that Bill C-36 will help the victims but it does so by creating victims, which seek to legitimize the belief that prostitution is inherently violent. Bill C-36 also tells sex workers not to risk communicating with anyone (don’t talk to strangers) and to avoid having close relationships with others in their personal lives because those personal relationships risk being criminalized too (don’t trust your friends/boyfriends). Even though Dechert and others try to suggest that Bill C-36 distinguishes from those sex workers who freely choose to engage in sex work and from those who are victims, the government and others fail to distinguish the two from each other as they define all prostitution as inherently violent (Source). 

Again, the SCC said that third party violence and violence of johns does not negate the role in making sex workers’ vulnerable. Bill C-36 does exactly just that: it makes sex workers vulnerable to violence through further alienation and isolation.

[1] See previous post for citations https://kwetoday.com/2014/07/28/260000-plus-per-year/

[2] See previous post for citations https://kwetoday.com/2014/07/28/260000-plus-per-year/

[3] http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cycp-cpcj/ht-tp/index-eng.htm

[4] http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cycp-cpcj/ht-tp/index-eng.htm

[5] http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cycp-cpcj/ht-tp/index-eng.htm

[6] http://openparliament.ca/committees/justice/41-2/44/bob-dechert-16/

[7] CRA has a special industry code for sex workers to use when filing their taxes which ultimately goes to benefit the government (who is exploiting who now!)