this is why we are working so hard to be at the table here in vancouver to ensure things like this don't happen here as well.
edmonton licensing is completely high barier in that it breaches confidentiality of both pooner and sp, requires us to be criminal record free, is totally too expensive for an escort entering the industry and assumes we need to be "protected" or watched over all the time. it assumes we don't know how to protect ourselves and the fact that the MP license is $200 means that these business owners have alot of power over workers. what if a worker refuses to engage in dangerous work? could she be fired?blacklisted?forced onto the street?
this is the kind of licnesing we have in vancouver now. in order to work independently, we must maintian an office( commercial space). we must be in the office when answering phone calls, we must buy an escort sevice licnese and an escort license in order to work for our own escort service.
Current License Fees
Social escort service: New license: $1043, Renewal: $993
Social escort: New license: $183, Renewal: $133
officer space- $500/ month- X12= $6000
total- $7126
this is why no indy escorts take part in licnesing here. we are proposing a system of professional accreditation similar to the "serving it right" accreditation required for waitresses and bartenders who serve alcohol. we suggest a one time accreditation (not a yearly license renewal) based on an open book test, with confidentiality attached, for a low fee of say $10 bux.
all police actions taken in etown to "protect" sex workers are based on the myths of us being pimped,abused,on drugs, and of course too stupid to undertsnad the risks we are taking. these actions are the same things that ended in the trial in the case of the missing women in vancouver. i hope etown are prepared for the aftermath of such uninformed actions.
i mean really, how does a fine or criminal record help a person? or save them from the "dangerous" sex industry? so many times police have justified their asctions with "it's for your own good". it's a joke!!
alos, bobo your statements about the safety of indy workers is incorrect. it has been shown in research that indy workers are the safest and have greatest control over their working conditions. the fact that they are being forced into MP"S is sad and i would hope etown pooners would try to support indy woirkers.
the following is what we are proposing in vancouver, please remember-nothing is written in stone and all of this is up for discussion.
opening the doors- executive summary
In the spring of 2009, the City of Vancouver Mayor and Council directed all city departments to identify where they interact with the sex industry, review current policies and practices and develop plans to address safety issues arising related to survival or street level sex work.
The BC Coalition of Experiential Communities (BCCEC) has been working on these issues steadily for 7 years and has done extensive research and consultations with sex industry community members as to ways in which we could;
• increase the safety of Vancouver sex industry workers
• stem the tide of workers forced to work in the dangerous street level sex industry
• ensure workers have the tools to make safe decisions about their work and access to resources
• expose unethical businesses engaging in human trafficking or the exploitation of youth and
• address safety issues in communities affected by the street level sex industry.
The following is a summary of plans for sex industry stabilization proposed by the sex industry community and how those plans emerged.
Project Background and Rationale
During the .Developing Capacity for Change Project.-coop development work shops, Vancouver sex workers expressed how a trade association and a branding or certification process could support safer work conditions over all and stabilize the existing safer indoor venues that exist now. The development of occupational health and safety training was also seen as a way to give people entering and in the sex industry the tools to make safe decisions about their work. It was agreed that all stake holders including business owners and consumers should be engaged to contribute to the design of the future of our industry.
The Labour on the Margins Project, union development work shops facilitated by the BC Federation of Labour followed and indeed there is support amongst the sex industry community for finding ways to stabilize our safety through development of an industry association.
BCCEC members agreed that the creation of occupational health and safety training for the sex industry was the first step towards achieving the goals outlined in the Labour on the Margins Project.
With support from Vancouver Coastal Health, Northern Health and the Vancouver Foundation and over a period of 2 ½ years, the BCCEC facilitated a collaborative process engaging many sex industry constituencies in occupational health and safety community development activities.
The “Trade Secrets- Occupational Health and Safety in the Sex Industry” project is now partially complete in draft form and can be seen on line at www.tradesecretsguide.blogspot.com .
The Current Project
As a result of criminalization, the sex industry is very secretive about its practices and unwilling to open up for fear repercussions from the reactions of the mainstream community. This has lead to much speculation about conditions within the sex industry but no discussion on what to do about it.
Some fears are well founded and indeed some people experience exploitation, violence and/or dangerous conditions while working in the sex industry.
A little known part of sex industry culture is that older or more experienced workers become business owners and share their knowledge with less experienced workers in an unofficial word of mouth traditional training as to health and safety training in the sex industry.
Everyone agrees that no sex industry worker should have to face the first day of work alone or without the tools to make safe decisions about their work.
The systematic targeting and elimination of safe work environments for sex industry workers through blanket enforcement actions has proven to be one of the largest contributing factors to the ever increasing risk to the safety of sex industry community members and the communities were sex work takes place.
During the Living in Community Project (www.livingincommunity.ca) which engaged all stake holders in designing an action plan to address the immediate issues facing communities and sex workers, residents and business owners impacted by street level sex work expressed their greatest complaints were;
The residual mess- condoms and other garbage
The public violence- every one agrees that the level of violence endured by survival sex workers is unacceptable.
sex in plain view- looking out your window and seeing sex workers and customers together.
Unwanted attention from sex consumers endured by women who are not sex workers
And their children being faced with sex workers on the street while out in the community or on the way to school
During the Living in Community Project consultations, it became clear that some enforcement actions are complaints based and that many of these complaints come from residents and business owners in communities affected by sex work. The irony here is the things they are complaining about are being caused by the systems response to their complaints in particular when those complaints are in reference to a legal and legitimate business and aimed at the eradication of that business solely based on it’s being a sex industry business.
The closure of sex industry or “sundry” businesses in Vancouver has meant sex industry workers cannot find jobs within the safer indoor industry and are forced into the dangerous street level trade.
So, how do we distinguish an ethical sex industry business owner or worker from those who are exploitative, ensure sex industry workers have safe places to work and see safety is increased in neighbourhoods impacted by the disorderly street level sex industry.
CUPE- Canadian Union of Public Employees members suggested that a system of professional accreditation could provide a starting point from which ethical workers and business owners could be identified and a review board could base decisions.
BCCEC members took this under advisement and began to explore other professions that require minimum accreditation to work in that particular field. For instance- police officers must be accredited by the police association in order to work as police officers to ensure they are receiving what mainstream society considers to be appropriate training or on the other end of the spectrum a waitress must be accredited with “serving in right” in order to serve alcohol.
BCCEC members the speculated on a design for a system creating transparency and accountability in the sex industry and including the following components;
In terms of transparency
Transparency
Revising / Creating processes for Licensing and Professional Accreditation
BCCEC members agreed that passages adapted from “Trade Secrets” could be expanded upon or refined to become the foundation of the processes for professional accreditation.
BCCEC members propose making accreditation mandatory and tied to sex industry business licensing. A trade mark would identify workers and business owners taking part in the licensee program to police and to sex consumers.
Educating Sex Consumers and promoting ethical purchasing habits.
BCCEC members have published a first edition of educational materials for sex consumers “for our clients”.
Additions related to new by-laws, professional accreditation and complaints processes will be necessary to ensure sex consumers have the information they need to support ethics in the sex industry.
edmonton licensing is completely high barier in that it breaches confidentiality of both pooner and sp, requires us to be criminal record free, is totally too expensive for an escort entering the industry and assumes we need to be "protected" or watched over all the time. it assumes we don't know how to protect ourselves and the fact that the MP license is $200 means that these business owners have alot of power over workers. what if a worker refuses to engage in dangerous work? could she be fired?blacklisted?forced onto the street?
this is the kind of licnesing we have in vancouver now. in order to work independently, we must maintian an office( commercial space). we must be in the office when answering phone calls, we must buy an escort sevice licnese and an escort license in order to work for our own escort service.
Current License Fees
Social escort service: New license: $1043, Renewal: $993
Social escort: New license: $183, Renewal: $133
officer space- $500/ month- X12= $6000
total- $7126
this is why no indy escorts take part in licnesing here. we are proposing a system of professional accreditation similar to the "serving it right" accreditation required for waitresses and bartenders who serve alcohol. we suggest a one time accreditation (not a yearly license renewal) based on an open book test, with confidentiality attached, for a low fee of say $10 bux.
all police actions taken in etown to "protect" sex workers are based on the myths of us being pimped,abused,on drugs, and of course too stupid to undertsnad the risks we are taking. these actions are the same things that ended in the trial in the case of the missing women in vancouver. i hope etown are prepared for the aftermath of such uninformed actions.
i mean really, how does a fine or criminal record help a person? or save them from the "dangerous" sex industry? so many times police have justified their asctions with "it's for your own good". it's a joke!!
alos, bobo your statements about the safety of indy workers is incorrect. it has been shown in research that indy workers are the safest and have greatest control over their working conditions. the fact that they are being forced into MP"S is sad and i would hope etown pooners would try to support indy woirkers.
the following is what we are proposing in vancouver, please remember-nothing is written in stone and all of this is up for discussion.
opening the doors- executive summary
In the spring of 2009, the City of Vancouver Mayor and Council directed all city departments to identify where they interact with the sex industry, review current policies and practices and develop plans to address safety issues arising related to survival or street level sex work.
The BC Coalition of Experiential Communities (BCCEC) has been working on these issues steadily for 7 years and has done extensive research and consultations with sex industry community members as to ways in which we could;
• increase the safety of Vancouver sex industry workers
• stem the tide of workers forced to work in the dangerous street level sex industry
• ensure workers have the tools to make safe decisions about their work and access to resources
• expose unethical businesses engaging in human trafficking or the exploitation of youth and
• address safety issues in communities affected by the street level sex industry.
The following is a summary of plans for sex industry stabilization proposed by the sex industry community and how those plans emerged.
Project Background and Rationale
During the .Developing Capacity for Change Project.-coop development work shops, Vancouver sex workers expressed how a trade association and a branding or certification process could support safer work conditions over all and stabilize the existing safer indoor venues that exist now. The development of occupational health and safety training was also seen as a way to give people entering and in the sex industry the tools to make safe decisions about their work. It was agreed that all stake holders including business owners and consumers should be engaged to contribute to the design of the future of our industry.
The Labour on the Margins Project, union development work shops facilitated by the BC Federation of Labour followed and indeed there is support amongst the sex industry community for finding ways to stabilize our safety through development of an industry association.
BCCEC members agreed that the creation of occupational health and safety training for the sex industry was the first step towards achieving the goals outlined in the Labour on the Margins Project.
With support from Vancouver Coastal Health, Northern Health and the Vancouver Foundation and over a period of 2 ½ years, the BCCEC facilitated a collaborative process engaging many sex industry constituencies in occupational health and safety community development activities.
The “Trade Secrets- Occupational Health and Safety in the Sex Industry” project is now partially complete in draft form and can be seen on line at www.tradesecretsguide.blogspot.com .
The Current Project
As a result of criminalization, the sex industry is very secretive about its practices and unwilling to open up for fear repercussions from the reactions of the mainstream community. This has lead to much speculation about conditions within the sex industry but no discussion on what to do about it.
Some fears are well founded and indeed some people experience exploitation, violence and/or dangerous conditions while working in the sex industry.
A little known part of sex industry culture is that older or more experienced workers become business owners and share their knowledge with less experienced workers in an unofficial word of mouth traditional training as to health and safety training in the sex industry.
Everyone agrees that no sex industry worker should have to face the first day of work alone or without the tools to make safe decisions about their work.
The systematic targeting and elimination of safe work environments for sex industry workers through blanket enforcement actions has proven to be one of the largest contributing factors to the ever increasing risk to the safety of sex industry community members and the communities were sex work takes place.
During the Living in Community Project (www.livingincommunity.ca) which engaged all stake holders in designing an action plan to address the immediate issues facing communities and sex workers, residents and business owners impacted by street level sex work expressed their greatest complaints were;
The residual mess- condoms and other garbage
The public violence- every one agrees that the level of violence endured by survival sex workers is unacceptable.
sex in plain view- looking out your window and seeing sex workers and customers together.
Unwanted attention from sex consumers endured by women who are not sex workers
And their children being faced with sex workers on the street while out in the community or on the way to school
During the Living in Community Project consultations, it became clear that some enforcement actions are complaints based and that many of these complaints come from residents and business owners in communities affected by sex work. The irony here is the things they are complaining about are being caused by the systems response to their complaints in particular when those complaints are in reference to a legal and legitimate business and aimed at the eradication of that business solely based on it’s being a sex industry business.
The closure of sex industry or “sundry” businesses in Vancouver has meant sex industry workers cannot find jobs within the safer indoor industry and are forced into the dangerous street level trade.
So, how do we distinguish an ethical sex industry business owner or worker from those who are exploitative, ensure sex industry workers have safe places to work and see safety is increased in neighbourhoods impacted by the disorderly street level sex industry.
CUPE- Canadian Union of Public Employees members suggested that a system of professional accreditation could provide a starting point from which ethical workers and business owners could be identified and a review board could base decisions.
BCCEC members took this under advisement and began to explore other professions that require minimum accreditation to work in that particular field. For instance- police officers must be accredited by the police association in order to work as police officers to ensure they are receiving what mainstream society considers to be appropriate training or on the other end of the spectrum a waitress must be accredited with “serving in right” in order to serve alcohol.
BCCEC members the speculated on a design for a system creating transparency and accountability in the sex industry and including the following components;
In terms of transparency
Transparency
Revising / Creating processes for Licensing and Professional Accreditation
BCCEC members agreed that passages adapted from “Trade Secrets” could be expanded upon or refined to become the foundation of the processes for professional accreditation.
BCCEC members propose making accreditation mandatory and tied to sex industry business licensing. A trade mark would identify workers and business owners taking part in the licensee program to police and to sex consumers.
Educating Sex Consumers and promoting ethical purchasing habits.
BCCEC members have published a first edition of educational materials for sex consumers “for our clients”.
Additions related to new by-laws, professional accreditation and complaints processes will be necessary to ensure sex consumers have the information they need to support ethics in the sex industry.
