Thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
My name is Sadie Forbes. I am a member of the Peers board of directors.
You should be hearing from the folks most affected by the conflation of sex work with human trafficking: sex workers. However, and we're just speaking hypothetically here, if I were a sex worker, I would not feel comfortable identifying myself in front of this committee. Because of the stigma they endure, most sex workers I know would decline to speak here, where their names and statements will be a matter of public record. I would like you to consider how this process selects out the very people you most need to hear from, and I would like to applaud the brave experiential folks who have spoken anyway.
First of all, sex work and human trafficking are not the same thing. Saying that everyone who has sex for money is trafficked is as silly as saying that the students my dad hires to work on his farm in the summer are trafficking victims. Yes, trafficking occurs in both the sex and the agriculture industries. Let's address it. We need strong labour protection for all workers.
The conflation of sex work, human trafficking, and exploitation puts sex workers at risk. Overly broad misuse of anti-trafficking initiatives violates the rights of sex workers to safe working conditions. Many sex workers rely on third parties in their work to help communicate with clients or to advertise their services. Third parties can be escort agency or massage parlour owners and managers, drivers, security staff, administrative assistants, intimate partners, and colleagues in sex work. When all sex work is exploitation or trafficking, third parties working with sex workers can be misidentified as traffickers rather than co-workers, employers, or employees. This situation pushes sex workers to work in isolation, which is neither desirable nor safe for some individuals.
Depriving sex workers of their labour rights puts them directly in danger. The exchange of sex for money is not inherently violent. When one of my friends consents to sell or trade sex, they have not consented to violence. However, predators are aware that sex workers have been isolated and stigmatized. Predators posing as clients take advantage of this, as we have seen over and over again.
Many sex workers travel for their jobs. My friends' work may take them into other municipalities and provinces or overseas. A lot of people travel for work. When sex work is conflated with trafficking, and when anti-trafficking initiatives are applied too broadly, sex workers can be charged with trafficking themselves. This happened to a woman in Alaska in 2013; she was charged with trafficking for advertising her own services on craigslist. Treating all sex workers as real or potential victims of sex trafficking denies the agency, sexual autonomy, and capability of folks who work or trade in sex.
When a real distinction is made between sex work and sex trafficking, sex workers can choose the work environments that are right for them. When their agency and sexual autonomy are respected by their government, stigma against sex workers is lessened, predators won't see them as such easy victims, and, if violence does occur, sex workers can feel confident in reporting it to the police. Also, the police can direct their resources against actual predators and actual traffickers.
Thank you.