Sex Trade Workers in the Maritimes Talk Back

"Sex work needs to be decriminalized," says Gayle MacDonald, professor of
sociology at the university of St. Thomas in Moncton and co-author of the
new book, Sex Workers in the Maritimes Talk Back. "It's the only way to
protect the workers. The legal system is not working."

Talk Back, which MacDonald co-wrote with Leslie Anne Jeffrey, associate
professor at the university of New Brunswick, explores the lives of
sex-trade workers in the Maritimes through their own words and
understanding.

Viewed as "disposable women," sex workers are seen as marginal people.

MacDonald and Jeffrey argue that those who work in the sex trade ought to be
seen as just that - workers. They are not necessarily victims to be pitied,
but often independent women making sensible choices.

"Sex work made sense to many of our interviewees as an income-generating
strategy," they write in Talk Back ."Sex work was for many a way to preserve
a sense of self-respect and independence in the face of more limiting and
oppressive choices, such as minimum wage work and social assistance."

MacDonald compares decriminalized the sex trade to other activities that
were once illegal, like alcohol and gambling.

Dealing with sex worker takes away time and resources from police, she
argues.

"Wake up and smell the coffee," MacDonald says."The law does not work.
Women are being hurt; they are not protected." And no matter how harsh
governments crackdown on the trade,"the behaviour is not going to go away."

Shocking violence was a theme that recurred throughout their
conversations with sex-trade workers, and it has risen sharply over the past
fifteen years. Several women told of conducting the transaction with a
client, getting out of his car, and then getting run over by the client.

"What the hell is that about?" asked one woman.

MacDonald thinks this part traceable to the idea of sex workers as
"disposable women."

"As long as sex work is criminalized, I believe sex workers will be in
danger of violence from a minority of clients." MacDonald says. "As long we
talk about women as disposable people, men will feel they have license to do
what they want to them."

She says this points to a fundamentally different understanding: workers
see themselves as providing a service in exchange for money, but many
clients believe they are buying the woman, and can thus do whatever they
chose.

When sex workers do suffer violence, they can find themselves outside of
the protection of the law. Workers who go to the police after they are
attacked by a client run the risk of then being arrested themselves.

What distinguishes sex trade in the Maritimes from the rest of Canada is
the lack of money, MacDonald says. Workers can make more money in big cities
like Montreal and Calgary. In this it resembles work in general they are
"itinerant resource work, people will travel for the work."

Of the 62 women interviewed for the book, not one worked for a pimp, and
all displayed ample street smarts - "If they didn¹t know have that, they'd be
dead." MacDonald describes the women she interviewed as resilient survivors
who often do the work because of a love of the freedom it can provide,
compared to other options.

And what about the other side of the coin? Who are the clients? Anyone
and everyone, MacDonald says. Workers said they had serviced politicians,
construction workers, lawyers, police officers, you name it. One worker said
she had serviced half the cabinet in one province, and some had regulars who
they had been seeing for 10 or 15 years. Many workers spoke positively about
their clients, but despised the hypocrites.

Workers can usually tell straight away if a man uses the services of sex
worker if they are "going to the Canadian Tire," as they often tell their
partners. "Workers know who the hypocrites are," MacDonald says.

First published in the Sunday Daily News July 22 2007