[Witness speaks in Algonquin]
My name is Lanna Perrin and I'm here representing Maggie's indigenous drum group, a part of Maggie's, which is also a part of the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform.
I have been doing sex work since I was 16 years old, and I believe there are three reasons why people get into the sex trade: choice, circumstance, and coercion. Speaking for myself and knowing my stories and those of a lot of my indigenous sisters and brothers, most of the reasons we get into sex work are primarily circumstantial. Under the desperate decisions are things like these: we want to pay our bills, we want to pay our rent, we want to take a trip, I want to buy a $200 pair of Jordan running shoes for my son who is being bullied for being poor and for being brown.
I must appeal to your wallet, as a single mother with less than a college education. I could work a minimum-wage job at 40 hours a week at a place where I'm not valued, where I'm not happy, and where I can barely make ends meet. For five hours a week I could be happy, my client could be happy, and I could buy my son his $200 pair of Jordan running shoes and send my daughter on a nice grade 8 grad trip.
The laws that are in place right now isolate sex workers. Escort agencies, massage parlours, and sites like craigslist have been shut down, forcing sex workers to work alone in secrecy and in more isolation, going to street-level sex work where we are more vulnerable and likely to become trafficked and exploited.
Even with all this anti-trafficking money that is being poured into agencies right now, a place where once a sex worker was able to go and access services is turning her away unless she signs a paper and becomes a stat saying that she's willing to exit. If she does not want to exit, she's turned away. If she does want to exit, she's not offered housing, training, or education. The only thing she is offered is a support group once a week.
Being a sex worker has given me financial independence and allows me to travel and enjoy my life and raise my children in dignity. Sex workers are anti-trafficking and need labour rights to keep us safe. As a sex worker and an indigenous woman, I know that not a lot of sex workers or indigenous people will call the police, because the police are the foot soldiers of the laws that have oppressed and victimized us.
It is my true belief that decriminalizing sex work will allow people to work safely and securely, and we will be able to call the police and be taken seriously and not treated like hookers.