Good afternoon. My name is Kerry Porth, and I am a former sex worker.
Given the nature of some of the discussions that have been going on, I feel it necessary to tell you that I did sex work in the context of profound addiction, poverty, and occasional homelessness.
Currently I am the chair of the board of directors for Pivot Legal Society, and for six years I was the executive director of a small charity located in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside that offers support to street-based sex workers.
In my capacity as a policy expert with extensive knowledge of the law and the evidence, I can tell you with no uncertainty whatsoever that Bill C-36 will cause great harm to sex workers across Canada.
I come to you from the community of the Downtown Eastside, a neighbourhood well known for its struggles to overcome poverty, addiction, and violence. Today I bring to you a clear message from the members of Sex Workers United Against Violence who are women, mostly aboriginal, who live and do sex work in the Downtown Eastside.
They want me to tell you they reject Bill C-36 in its entirety. They have much more to tell you and have therefore asked me to extend an urgent invitation to you, the members of the justice committee, to visit them in Vancouver so they can share their vision of a future where the human rights of sex workers are respected, where they do not feel hunted and hounded by law enforcement, where their clients are not targeted, and where they can conduct their work in dignity and safety.
Far from protecting sex workers, this bill will replicate all of the harms of the laws that were struck down in the case of Bedford v. Canada. But Bill C-36 goes even further by adding new laws prohibiting the purchase of sex, advertising sexual services, and redefines the former communication law in a way that prevents any communication between sex workers and their clients.
Pivot recently released a report entitled “My Work Should Not Cost Me My Life”, a copy of which has been sent to each of you and additional copies can be provided upon request. The report examines a recent shift in enforcement strategies employed by the Vancouver Police Department away from arresting street-based sex workers towards actively pursuing their clients. While this practice has been in operation for approximately five years, it became the official policy of the Vancouver Police Department in January 2013.
The Pivot report is based on research conducted by the gender and sexual health initiative at the University of British Columbia that resulted in a peer-reviewed study published in the prestigious British Medical Journal Open.
The BMJ Open study married findings from Sweden and other countries where the ban on purchasing sex has been implemented and demonstrate that when either party to a sex work transaction is criminalized, sex work continues to be pushed underground into a shadowy world where exploitation and violence can and do occur.
Sex workers who participated in the study report when police target their clients, they must take steps to avoid detection by law enforcement such as working in areas that are darkly lit and underpopulated, where they face risks due to their isolation. Clients have become nervous and are often scarce these days, but a sex worker who has stood on a corner for six hours and hasn't made any money cannot simply give up for the day and go home.
Many of the sex workers who participated in the study stated they are having to stay out far longer and in more desperate circumstances due to the shift in enforcement. In addition, clients who are now nervous and stressed by the fear of police pressure workers to get into their vehicle quickly or to follow their vehicle into a dark alley before negotiating the terms of the transaction. The ability to negotiate, to clearly communicate with a client prior to agreeing to a transaction, is a critical safety measure for sex workers that they are now forced to abandon.
Rushing negotiations limits the sex worker's opportunity to assess the potential client for signs of intoxication, to look for weapons or restraint devices, or to check a bad date sheet. Suggesting these sort of precautions will not prevent any violence is the same as saying to women all across Canada that all of the safety precautions they take will not prevent violence.
The client's fear of a potential sting operation means sex workers have to waste precious time needed to conduct a safety assessment trying to convince the client she is not a police officer. Historically, sex workers have had an extremely adversarial relationship with police, resulting in an extraordinarily low rate of reporting violence and exploitation. Shifting the focus of enforcement from sex workers to their clients will not change this.
For street-based sex workers who already live and work in extremely challenging circumstances, the income they earn from sex work is their livelihood. Please do not take it away from them.
I have no recommendations for amendments to Bill C-36. Instead, I suggest that this committee reject this bill in its entirety and allow the current laws to fall on December 20.
I further recommend that the government initiate a mature, national discussion that prioritizes the voices of those who have the most at stake in considering the future regulation of prostitution in Canada. I urge you to please listen to what sex workers are telling you.
Thank you.