Justice committee  Absolutely. Thank you for the question; it's really important. Certainly in the Quebec context, many of the COVID-19 measures seriously affected sex workers' capacity to do their work in a safe manner. Ultimately those sex workers had no recourse for any kind of income support du

Justice committee  That's a great question. Thank you so much, Randall. As I'm sure you all know, there are criminal laws surrounding the transmission of HIV currently in Canada. This, in combination with the criminalization of sex work, creates numerous complications for people who are surveilled

Justice committee  I agree completely with what Sandra just spoke to. I think that until this law is repealed completely the people that I work with at ASTTeQ will not be safe. They'll not be able to work safely. That does mean the decriminalization of sex work, because it's the threat of criminali

Justice committee  Well, I think those resources already do exist, and there are community supports and community organizations. Certainly, in Canada's trans communities, it's the trans sex workers that come to community organizations like ASTTeQ, because they trust that we understand the realities

Justice committee  It's certainly not just a problem in Montreal. I can speak personally at the very least for all of Quebec. We end up working with people and newcomers to Canada who are all over Quebec. As I mentioned during my initial remarks, actually in recent years it's become less and less

Justice committee  Thank you, members of the committee, for giving me the chance to testify today. I work as the coordinator of ASTTeQ, a community group in Montreal by and for transpeople. Since 1998, ASTTeQ has offered services, accompaniment, legal information and peer support, particularly