So she started escorting across Ontario, and eventually made enough to put herself through school and support her son. Sex workers have long dealt with stigma and judgment from society, and potentially risky working conditions. It follows efforts by other police forces to crack down on so-called johns in a highly public manner ever since a law made it a crime to buy, but not sell, sex. Last summer, police in Cape Breton conducted their second mass anti-prostitution sting that netted charges against 18 men who were accused of trying to buy sexual services.
As with the first operation, the police force released the names of all the men, who range from 26 to 85 years old. Letricia resents when people describe all sex workers as victims. If they really want to catch people trafficking, they should have more of an open door policy with sex workers and their clients because their clients are the ones who are going to give them the information that someone is being trafficking, or forced against their will.
In , the previous Conservative government implemented Bill C , which aimed to end the demand for sex work and protect sex workers by, in part, making it illegal to buy sex and advertise for sexual services. For Kerry Porth, a former sex worker who works as a policy researcher at Pivot Legal Society in Vancouver, the outing, and the rhetoric coming from the police and some advocacy groups makes the mistake of assuming that all sex work is trafficking.
And actions that target customers prevents sex workers who are in the industry by choice from taking precautions to keep themselves safe, and they may take on clients who they may not feel confident about. She acknowledged that while sex trafficking and exploitation does exist, criminalizing and targeting the buyers through stings and other techniques decreases the likelihood that customers will report it to police.
Follow Rachel on Twitter. Feb 26 , pm. Letricia says sex work saved her life. She got married young and ended up in an abusive relationship.
