Refine by MP, party, committee, province, or result type.
Justice committee Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to address you today. My name is Kara Gillies. I have 30 years' experience in multiple areas of the sex trade. Today I am representing the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform, a coalition of organizations across Canada wor
May 22nd, 2018Committee meeting
Kara Gillies
Justice committee Yes, because we're now having to live and work in a context where all sex work is considered an inherent form of violence, when actual violence does occur, sadly the attitude is, “Well, that's what you signed up for.” That's what I'm speaking to, and it's something we see quite r
May 22nd, 2018Committee meeting
Kara Gillies
Justice committee Yes, except in cases where somebody is prepared to identify as being trafficked, which is where lies our concern about the focus and resources going into trafficking, because as I think we've heard some people say, unless you identify as being trafficked and unless that's the way
May 22nd, 2018Committee meeting
Kara Gillies
Justice committee I think it's quite clear that we take very divergent, even opposing positions on this issue. We all have very different lived experiences, and even when we have some shared or similar experiences, we interpret those very differently. It is indeed the case that the trading and se
May 22nd, 2018Committee meeting
Kara Gillies
Justice committee Yes, indeed.
May 22nd, 2018Committee meeting
Kara Gillies
Justice committee No, I think the opposite is true.
May 22nd, 2018Committee meeting
Kara Gillies
Justice committee If I can draw a parallel to the old bawdy house laws, we know that in Canada there were relatively few bawdy house convictions, but in Bedford, the Supreme Court found the fact that the law prevented us from having safe, stable places to work was a violation of our right to secur
May 22nd, 2018Committee meeting
Kara Gillies
Justice committee That would be an excellent parallel, yes.
May 22nd, 2018Committee meeting
Kara Gillies
Justice committee I'm hesitating for a moment because there are many different models and approaches to regulating sex work in different areas across the globe. I will say that some of the models, like those to which you're referring, are what can generally be called legalized models. Legalized mo
May 22nd, 2018Committee meeting
Kara Gillies
Justice committee I was 17 years of age and I found myself on my own. I struggled for a bit trying to find employment as somebody who was below the age of employment in many more traditional fields and I started working on the street. I entered into it with a lot of trepidation and a fair amount o
May 22nd, 2018Committee meeting
Kara Gillies
Justice committee It varies dramatically. It varies across subsector, on the street, in a massage parlour, in an escort agency. It varies geographically. I can say that if you are working for somebody else, you can give anywhere from 5% or 10% up to, more commonly, 50% or 60%, and in situations t
May 22nd, 2018Committee meeting
Kara Gillies
Justice committee It really varies. In municipalities—and Toronto is one of them—there are some sex work establishments that are not overtly addressed as such, and they offer, say, erotic massage or escort services, but they really are sex work services, and those that are registered and incorpora
May 22nd, 2018Committee meeting
Kara Gillies
Justice committee Typically it's, “Well, we're sorry to lose you,” and, “Goodbye.” That's where I think we need to distinguish between sex work and trafficking, because clearly, if somebody is trafficked, they can't say goodbye and walk out the door. The reality is that there are enough people wil
May 22nd, 2018Committee meeting
Kara Gillies
Justice committee Sorry, could you say that again?
May 22nd, 2018Committee meeting
Kara Gillies
Justice committee Absolutely not. I've worked for many years completely independently. I would also question the language of “pimp”. If by “pimp” one means a manager, then of course one can work with or without one. It is the case, though, that if you have somebody watching out for you, it can hel
May 22nd, 2018Committee meeting
Kara Gillies