Prostitutes of Ottawa-Gatineau Work Educate and Resist

Professor Chris Bruckert speaks out again. Co-authored by Frederique Chabot.

Sex workers around the world have been organizing into groups to defend their interests and campaign for their rights since the 1970s. By speaking out about their work and their lives, individuals in the sex workers' rights movement have sought to challenge stereotypes and misconceptions, inserting their voices in a conversation that has historically been "about them, without them". It was not until February 17th 2008, however, that POWER (Prostitutes of Ottawa-Gatineau Work Educate and Resist) was founded - the National Capital's first sex workers' rights organization.

POWER recognized that in order to appropriately respond to, and be relevant for, a broad cross-section of the sex working community, it was imperative that the group be knowledgeable of the specific challenges confronting local sex workers labouring in the industry's different sectors in the Ottawa-Gatineau region. Accordingly, POWER researchers interviewed 43 adult sex workers - male, female and transgendered - labouring in the erotic dance, out-call, in-call and street-based sectors of the Ottawa area. Challenges: Ottawa-Area Sex Workers Speak Out is the result of this community-based research initiative. The report begins by describing the research Methodology used and provides information on how the data was collected and analyzed. The second chapter, Situating the research, positions the research project within the local context, legal parameters, academic conversations and activist dialogues. The remainder of the report presents the findings in six chapters. We recognized that the sex workers who took the time to share their stories with us are the "experts of their own lives" and it was by respectfully attending to what these individuals had to say and the challenges they identified that the authors came to understand the complexity of sex workers' lives. The six "findings" chapters, therefore, foreground the narratives of these men and women while drawing on the insights from the rich body of community and university-based empirical research that exists in Canada.

Sex workers speak about labour site challenges presents an overview of the Ottawa-area sex industry. Suggesting that sex work is an occupational category rather than a job description, the authors highlight the diversity of labour practices, processes and organizational structures. In this chapter, relationships with both managers and clients are explored. The chapter concludes that, while it is impossible to speak of universal challenges, the impact of the stigmatization and criminalization significantly conditions the labour experience.

Sex workers speak about safety, security and well-being, begins with a discussion of health and safety risks encountered by Canadian workers in general before reflecting upon the specific threats to the well-being of sex workers (physical and sexual health; physical and sexual violence). Cognizant of these risks, sex workers are not passive but actively seek to minimize the physical, sexual, financial and health risks that they confront. To this end, they develop strategies in an effort to maximize their security. Tellingly, however, one resource that sex workers, and most especially street-based workers, do not access is the criminal justice system itself. Sex workers speak about the police documents what Ottawa-area street-based sex workers' say about law enforcement and categorizes these concerns as: harassment (verbal abuse, "call-outs" and "calling to account)"; physical violence (assault, excessive use of force during arrest, "jack-ups" and "starlight tours"); sexual misconduct; destruction/confiscation of property (including the removal of condoms) and "outing". The chapter situates these collective experiences within a human rights framework and reflects on the possibility that Ottawa police are engaging in social profiling and failing to use the power that we, as a society, entrust them with in a responsible and ethical manner.

Read the POWER report Prostitutes of Ottawa-Gatineau Work Educate and Resist

Hope you enjoyed this heavy reading material from the nation's capital.

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