Back in the shadows

>> Decriminalization of prostitution isn’t on the agenda for the feds or feminist groups

STIGMA KILLS: Stella’s Claire Thiboutot

by SAMER ELATRASH

What’s the oddest marriage in Canada? Possibly, it’s the match between the Conservative Party and some feminist groups, who realized that they weren’t so different on the issue of decriminalizing prostitution. Oh, they may quarrel over funding cuts, but when it comes to prostitution, they’re so cozy that they finish one another’s sentences.

Michèle Roy, spokeswoman for Le Centre d’aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel (CALACS) says, “We consider prostitution a form of violence and exploitation of women,” adding that only johns ought to be charged with a crime. Art Hanger, a former undercover detective, now a Conservative MP from Alberta who sat on a parliamentary subcommittee on solicitation laws, says prostitution is “a form of exploitation and abuse against women.”

It’s as though Dirty Harry stormed the chapel with a glowing Andrea Dworkin on his arm. In the report issued by the subcommittee last December, the Conservative members said that decriminalizing prostitution would signal that, “The commodification and invasive exploitation of a woman’s body is acceptable.”

Dangerous trade

Sex worker groups had been banking on the report, which took three years to prepare, after the subcommittee listened to testimony by dozens of researchers and sex workers. When the report came out, sex workers panned the subcommittee for not recommending that prostitution be decriminalized.

Their reaction was shared by Libby Davies, a Vancouver MP with the National Democratic Party, who presented to parliament the motion that started the subcommittee in 2003.

“I am very disappointed with that report,” she says. “I fought tooth and nail on that committee. I wanted it to make clear recommendations on decriminalization. A lot of sex workers put a huge amount of good faith in that process.

“There was no escaping in the committee, even for the Conservatives, that the status quo is unacceptable,” says Davies. “The evidence shows that law enforcement has not resolved the issue, and has been harmful.”

Prostitutes are threatened with a disproportionate risk of violence. At least 171 prostitutes were killed between 1991 and 2004, according to Statistics Canada, and almost half the murders remain unsolved. The subcommittee reports said that three-quarters of prostitutes surveyed in Vancouver said they experienced violence. “We are talking about violence in part created by the law itself,” says Davies.

The solicitation laws, which make it illegal to run a bawdy house and to communicate for the purpose of prostitution, push sex workers underground, and deter them from reporting abuse, sex worker groups say. “Decriminalization would help alleviate the stigma,” says Claire Thiboutot, director of Montreal sex worker rights group Stella. “A lot of sex workers are not reporting violence.”

“Many of the subcommittee members were unwilling to take a stand because prostitution remains a sensitive issue,” says Kara Gillies, coordinator for Toronto sex worker group Maggie’s. “They’re leery about promoting ‘immoral’ behaviour. It’s shocking to me they could be so cowardly.”

Infighting paralyzes

One of the problems faced by sex worker groups across the country is the lack of support from some feminist groups, which in Quebec has effectively paralyzed this province’s largest women’s group, the Fédération des femmes du Québec.

“We are requesting that the federal government stop decriminalizing women themselves, so they don’t end up being in prisons,” says FFQ organizer Nancy Burrows. But she admits that “there’s no consensus” even within the FFQ, which counts both Stella and CALACS as members.

“They’re sitting on the fence,” says Thiboutot. “There’s a lot of tension between groups. They don’t want to exclude any group from the federation.”

The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day, on March 8, is violence against women, and it takes place to the backdrop of the grisly evidence emerging from the Vancouver trial of Robert Pickton, who stands accused of murdering 27 women, most of them prostitutes. But sex worker groups seem to have lost hope in lobbying the government. “Because the government of Canada has failed to take action, sex workers have to take action. They’re endangering our lives,” says Gillies.

Sex workers groups are planning to challenge the solicitation laws in an Ontario court in the near future, Gillies says. However, even a victory in the courts would not repeal the laws, says Hanger, who also chairs the parliamentary Justice Committee. “We’re law makers,” he says. “We’re not here to respond to the whim of any court or group,” adding that the Prime Minister “would review what the court has to say.”

That doesn’t dampen Thiboutot’s opposition to the laws. “The violence is unacceptable,” she says. “We won’t take it any more.”