a number of us worked for 12 years to see this policy implemented....it started with the exotic dancers experiencing police violence during "organized crime task force" operations...like the police entering the clubs ID'ing the patrons and workers....taking workers outside on the street in costume for public humiliation even going as far as demanding a dancer be fired and black listed when she tried to stand up for her rights....we even had a report of sexual assault by police....
we started going as a delegation to the police board in response to that
then, they raided 63 health enhancement centers to find "trafficking victims" before the 2010 olympics....they found none.....hundreds of women were arrested, jailed and deported....during these enforcement actions they would humiliate workers by entering the work rooms quickly, catching workers having sex with clients....not providing clothing...hand cuffing and throwing workers on the floor....their excuse for all this was that there might be "bombs" in the brothels....
these sorts of tactics did the most damage in terms of undermining trust in police....and contributes to why workers won't report violence...
after a number of years going as a delegation....we were invited to join the diversity advisory committee to the chief of police....
the after about a year of the DAC ....it became clear that the issues facing sex workers were to big to be combined with other marginalized groups in a common themed meeting....so the Sex Industry Worker safety Action Group was formed....
Dancers, PIVOT, PACE Society, WISH Drop in Center, Hustle _ male workers- BCCEC (me) and SWUAV ( DTES workers) and the police all worked together on a number of levels and took action in several areas including a study which proved that hallmark sporting events do NOT increase human trafficking and this policy.
the policy openly states that the VPD are not enforcing against consenting adults and also sets standards for treatment of sex workers during any enforcement action - such as giving workers blankets or letting them get dressed....
it was a long road
i can tell you i was nose to nose with police more than once....yelling and calling them out on their shit....
it was emotional and took a real emotional toll.
i tried to get other regions to engage in the same actions but they didn't believe it would work ... it did. when the new laws came down our police chief was the president of the canadian police chiefs association and appealed for others to apply a similar policy to vancouver in terms of non enforcement and how he believed the new laws would harm sex workers. they gave a submission to both the parliamentary and senate justice committees which said as much a committed to non enforcement no matter what the federal laws became.
they have been true to their word so far and are enjoying increased reporting and better intervention in cases of violence and exploitation.
the bottom line is, they want to help. they know because of the case of the missing women, that if they try to abolish prostitution....they will only succeed in killing sex workers....these open policies are the legacy of the women who died not only at the hands of canada's most prolific serial killer....but all those others who needlessly died as well...
sorry for the long winded report....a little history for people who are newer here....i tried to find the thread where i posted it when it first came out but it must have been lost in the change over of the board...
love susie
