my name is sue davis,
some of you may know who i am from all of the media we have been doing for the sex worker cooperative and of course around the trial. i am also involved in both of the charter challenges being brought forward, one through pivot and one through osgood law school.
i noticed some of you have been discussing how we can make the hobby legal. well, over the last few years some of us have been working on a plan to exactly that end. we want safety for all sides, pooners and sp's alike.
i testified in the first challenge in july and it seems that the laws coming down is a foregone conclusion, what is implemented in it's place is all that remains to be seen. we are asking for full de crim and self regulation like any other industry enjoys
our plan is a 2 tiered plan involving localized stabilization through sex industry worker cooperative development. i know people have heard about the girls in victoria are doing but they are opening a massage parlour, which is great! there need to be more jobs in this industry. however it is not a cooperative, one cannot claim to be coop and predetermine what the membership will vote to do with profits. the girls in vic stated to the media and me that they would be redirecting any profits to drug treatment.... i don't know one sp who would vote to spend money on drug treatment...
the different levels or genres of sex work including but not limited to;
street level or survival,escort, massage,adult film, exotic dancers,male hustlers, could all be supported in different ways by coop development- this is not a jam us all into one place idea, but more a support people where they are comfortable. we have been working with the sex workers from the DTES and have formally incorporated canada's first sex worker cooperative- the west coast coop of sex industry professionals- the workers in the east end came up with 5 enterprises that they felt could support them coming together as a community-coop brothel-safe place to work-catering-consulting-i have trained 200 new recruits for vpd-rcmp-dnd-all should have the chance to do the presentations and get paid-catering-arts and publishing- we built a museum exhibit and wrote a book on the history of sex work in vancouver and plan to open a supper club style place like back in the day-
the brothel is looking like it will be a rent the room kind of thing where workers won't have to be members to rent the rooms but must be a member to vote on what to do with any profits- think of it as sharing expenses rather than profit-they need some where to work so they share expenses to make that happen-this is just what the girls in the east end want
the industry association is to stabilize the safe work environments that still exist and ensure fair play by all involved; including sp's pooners,police,business owners,etc.
here are the recommendations from a report we did called labor on the margins on specifically these issues
Establish a consortium of sex industry stakeholders to develop an Industry Association and negotiate where there are areas of commonality. ie. violence, consumer theft, health and safety, and industry stability.
Relevance
Sex Industry Workers
• Stability for the sex industry means jobs and safe places to work. If the industry bands together behind some basic minimum standards, the greater community will no longer be able to attack business owners arbitrarily. This will mean fewer closures of these businesses and more places to work. The systematic vilifying of business owners has lead to the loss of most safe work options for sex industry workers and pushed some workers to chose work options beyond their personal physical boundaries (17 show lounges have closed in the last couple of years and forced some exotic dancers to chose other forms of sex work such as escorting) The minimum standards aspect will mean that workers can distinguish which businesses are good to work for and which may not be. The Industry Association will provide a tool for sex industry workers to make safe decisions about their work.
Sex Industry Business Owners
• Stability for the sex industry means a business owner’s lively hood and hard work will no longer be subject to uninformed scrutiny by police, license inspectors, and so called “good will” groups promoting the abolition of the sex industry.) History has shown us how the greater community has targeted business owners and cast them as pimps, abusers, traffickers and “organized crime”. An Industry Association could de-mystify our industry and advocate on behalf of longstanding businesses that have provided safe and stabile work environments distinguishing them from those who may be of a less honorable cast. New business owners could also be educated on the minimum required standards and insure a level playing field for all.
Sex Industry Consumers
• Stability for the sex industry means that consumers will be able to engage sex workers use a business’s services secure in the knowledge that they will be treated with dignity and respect and be able to engage in these activities safely. Also, a consumer would be able to support ethical business practices and the businesses that uphold them.
Greater Community outside of Sex Industry
• Stability for the sex industry means that the greater community will no longer have to wonder about conditions within the industry or be forced to impose uninformed actions against it. Through development of minimum standards and occupational health and safety training the greater community can be comfortable in the knowledge that sex industry workers are being given the tools to make safe decisions and have safe places to work.
• This will remove the burden of sex industry governance from people whose actions have historically (for more than 100 years) had disastrous effects for the safety and quality of life of Vancouver’s sex industry workers.
• The greater communities concerns are generally centralized around the street level sex trade. The public sex acts, violence, unwanted advances from consumers and condom mess reflect the lack of safer indoor jobs in the sex industry. The systematic removal of these safer indoor environments must be halted to stem the number of workers entering the dangerous street level trade. It is hoped that through education and industry stabilization the numbers of sex industry workers working in harmful conditions will dramatically decrease.
Develop Standardized Health and Safety Training for Sex Industry Workers and consumers in partnership with ALL stakeholders including business owners.
Relevance
Sex Industry Workers
• Standardized Health and Safety Training will give sex industry workers clear and concise information about their work. It will give them the tools to make safe decisions about engaging business owners, engaging consumers, safe sex, their emotional health, and about finding support should they need it.
Sex Industry Business Owners
• Standardized health and safety training would mean business owners could prove they had provided their employees with the information necessary to work safely. Most business owners do provide training for employees and are very conscious of the safety of their workers. However, they have never been able to demonstrate their attention to this most important aspect of the sex industry. Through a standardized training system developed in partnership with ALL stakeholders (including business owners) these ethical, safe and healthy business practices could be recognized and supported.
Sex Industry Consumers
• Standardized health and safety training will also include information for consumers. Because of criminalization, consumers have been cast as somehow dysfunctional, rapists, and perverts. This makes it difficult for them to ask for information about their sexual health and the risks involved with engaging in the sex industry. This will provide consumers the tools to make safe decisions when purchasing sex industry services. Also, consumers engaging sex industry workers or businesses who are members of the industry association can be assured that the workers are well versed in safe and healthy sex work practices.
Greater Community outside of Sex Industry
• Standardized health and safety training will allow the greater community to be confident that all sex industry stakeholders have been given the tools they need to protect their health (including exiting and support services), safety and stability while engaging in the sex industry.
Develop and implement a certification process in partnership with all stakeholders to stabilize and promote sex industry businesses (inclusive of independent workers as businesses). Design an industry association seal or brand to distinguish those businesses that support and have received certification for the negotiated health and safety standards and training.
Relevance
Sex Industry Workers
• Developing a certification process in partnership with all stakeholders will allow sex industry workers to insure their concerns and insight are addressed and included. An industry association seal will allow workers to distinguish which businesses support safe work environments and support the minimum negotiated standards.
Sex Industry Business Owners
• Developing a certification process in partnership with all stakeholders will allow business owners to insure their concerns and experience are included, that the process is accessible and within reason as far as the operation of sex industry businesses. An industry association seal would allow businesses to distinguish themselves in the market for consumers and potential employees as businesses who support safe work environments and the minimum negotiated standards.
Sex Industry Consumers
• The industry association seal will allow consumers to make ethical choices in the sex industry businesses they choose to support.
Greater community outside of Sex Industry
• The industry association certification process and industry association seal will allow the greater community to make informed decisions about any actions taken against the sex industry. Blanket assumptions about our industry and the businesses engaged in it from the past have had disastrous results for our industry. The certification and seal will protect those businesses who do support health and safety from being targeted and allow the greater community to support actions in relation to the sex industry from a better informed perspective.
some of you may know who i am from all of the media we have been doing for the sex worker cooperative and of course around the trial. i am also involved in both of the charter challenges being brought forward, one through pivot and one through osgood law school.
i noticed some of you have been discussing how we can make the hobby legal. well, over the last few years some of us have been working on a plan to exactly that end. we want safety for all sides, pooners and sp's alike.
i testified in the first challenge in july and it seems that the laws coming down is a foregone conclusion, what is implemented in it's place is all that remains to be seen. we are asking for full de crim and self regulation like any other industry enjoys
our plan is a 2 tiered plan involving localized stabilization through sex industry worker cooperative development. i know people have heard about the girls in victoria are doing but they are opening a massage parlour, which is great! there need to be more jobs in this industry. however it is not a cooperative, one cannot claim to be coop and predetermine what the membership will vote to do with profits. the girls in vic stated to the media and me that they would be redirecting any profits to drug treatment.... i don't know one sp who would vote to spend money on drug treatment...
the different levels or genres of sex work including but not limited to;
street level or survival,escort, massage,adult film, exotic dancers,male hustlers, could all be supported in different ways by coop development- this is not a jam us all into one place idea, but more a support people where they are comfortable. we have been working with the sex workers from the DTES and have formally incorporated canada's first sex worker cooperative- the west coast coop of sex industry professionals- the workers in the east end came up with 5 enterprises that they felt could support them coming together as a community-coop brothel-safe place to work-catering-consulting-i have trained 200 new recruits for vpd-rcmp-dnd-all should have the chance to do the presentations and get paid-catering-arts and publishing- we built a museum exhibit and wrote a book on the history of sex work in vancouver and plan to open a supper club style place like back in the day-
the brothel is looking like it will be a rent the room kind of thing where workers won't have to be members to rent the rooms but must be a member to vote on what to do with any profits- think of it as sharing expenses rather than profit-they need some where to work so they share expenses to make that happen-this is just what the girls in the east end want
the industry association is to stabilize the safe work environments that still exist and ensure fair play by all involved; including sp's pooners,police,business owners,etc.
here are the recommendations from a report we did called labor on the margins on specifically these issues
Establish a consortium of sex industry stakeholders to develop an Industry Association and negotiate where there are areas of commonality. ie. violence, consumer theft, health and safety, and industry stability.
Relevance
Sex Industry Workers
• Stability for the sex industry means jobs and safe places to work. If the industry bands together behind some basic minimum standards, the greater community will no longer be able to attack business owners arbitrarily. This will mean fewer closures of these businesses and more places to work. The systematic vilifying of business owners has lead to the loss of most safe work options for sex industry workers and pushed some workers to chose work options beyond their personal physical boundaries (17 show lounges have closed in the last couple of years and forced some exotic dancers to chose other forms of sex work such as escorting) The minimum standards aspect will mean that workers can distinguish which businesses are good to work for and which may not be. The Industry Association will provide a tool for sex industry workers to make safe decisions about their work.
Sex Industry Business Owners
• Stability for the sex industry means a business owner’s lively hood and hard work will no longer be subject to uninformed scrutiny by police, license inspectors, and so called “good will” groups promoting the abolition of the sex industry.) History has shown us how the greater community has targeted business owners and cast them as pimps, abusers, traffickers and “organized crime”. An Industry Association could de-mystify our industry and advocate on behalf of longstanding businesses that have provided safe and stabile work environments distinguishing them from those who may be of a less honorable cast. New business owners could also be educated on the minimum required standards and insure a level playing field for all.
Sex Industry Consumers
• Stability for the sex industry means that consumers will be able to engage sex workers use a business’s services secure in the knowledge that they will be treated with dignity and respect and be able to engage in these activities safely. Also, a consumer would be able to support ethical business practices and the businesses that uphold them.
Greater Community outside of Sex Industry
• Stability for the sex industry means that the greater community will no longer have to wonder about conditions within the industry or be forced to impose uninformed actions against it. Through development of minimum standards and occupational health and safety training the greater community can be comfortable in the knowledge that sex industry workers are being given the tools to make safe decisions and have safe places to work.
• This will remove the burden of sex industry governance from people whose actions have historically (for more than 100 years) had disastrous effects for the safety and quality of life of Vancouver’s sex industry workers.
• The greater communities concerns are generally centralized around the street level sex trade. The public sex acts, violence, unwanted advances from consumers and condom mess reflect the lack of safer indoor jobs in the sex industry. The systematic removal of these safer indoor environments must be halted to stem the number of workers entering the dangerous street level trade. It is hoped that through education and industry stabilization the numbers of sex industry workers working in harmful conditions will dramatically decrease.
Develop Standardized Health and Safety Training for Sex Industry Workers and consumers in partnership with ALL stakeholders including business owners.
Relevance
Sex Industry Workers
• Standardized Health and Safety Training will give sex industry workers clear and concise information about their work. It will give them the tools to make safe decisions about engaging business owners, engaging consumers, safe sex, their emotional health, and about finding support should they need it.
Sex Industry Business Owners
• Standardized health and safety training would mean business owners could prove they had provided their employees with the information necessary to work safely. Most business owners do provide training for employees and are very conscious of the safety of their workers. However, they have never been able to demonstrate their attention to this most important aspect of the sex industry. Through a standardized training system developed in partnership with ALL stakeholders (including business owners) these ethical, safe and healthy business practices could be recognized and supported.
Sex Industry Consumers
• Standardized health and safety training will also include information for consumers. Because of criminalization, consumers have been cast as somehow dysfunctional, rapists, and perverts. This makes it difficult for them to ask for information about their sexual health and the risks involved with engaging in the sex industry. This will provide consumers the tools to make safe decisions when purchasing sex industry services. Also, consumers engaging sex industry workers or businesses who are members of the industry association can be assured that the workers are well versed in safe and healthy sex work practices.
Greater Community outside of Sex Industry
• Standardized health and safety training will allow the greater community to be confident that all sex industry stakeholders have been given the tools they need to protect their health (including exiting and support services), safety and stability while engaging in the sex industry.
Develop and implement a certification process in partnership with all stakeholders to stabilize and promote sex industry businesses (inclusive of independent workers as businesses). Design an industry association seal or brand to distinguish those businesses that support and have received certification for the negotiated health and safety standards and training.
Relevance
Sex Industry Workers
• Developing a certification process in partnership with all stakeholders will allow sex industry workers to insure their concerns and insight are addressed and included. An industry association seal will allow workers to distinguish which businesses support safe work environments and support the minimum negotiated standards.
Sex Industry Business Owners
• Developing a certification process in partnership with all stakeholders will allow business owners to insure their concerns and experience are included, that the process is accessible and within reason as far as the operation of sex industry businesses. An industry association seal would allow businesses to distinguish themselves in the market for consumers and potential employees as businesses who support safe work environments and the minimum negotiated standards.
Sex Industry Consumers
• The industry association seal will allow consumers to make ethical choices in the sex industry businesses they choose to support.
Greater community outside of Sex Industry
• The industry association certification process and industry association seal will allow the greater community to make informed decisions about any actions taken against the sex industry. Blanket assumptions about our industry and the businesses engaged in it from the past have had disastrous results for our industry. The certification and seal will protect those businesses who do support health and safety from being targeted and allow the greater community to support actions in relation to the sex industry from a better informed perspective.
