This research explores the experiences and perspectives of women providing front-line service in organizations and agencies, both feminist and mainstream, whose mandate includes support for women experiencing violence, particularly women in prostitution.
We know from members of our group and from women who access our services that the sex industry is inherently exploitative, it both expresses and reinforces women’s inequality in society. Many of the stated purposes of this bill, as expressed in the preamble, are consistent with our analyses and we are encouraged by and in support of this intent.
The Women’s Coalition emphasizes that prostitution is both a practice of sex discrimination against women in prostitution, and also reinforces the inequality of all women. Prostitution reflects a hierarchy based on sex in which women are expected to satisfy men sexually on demand, with money and other forms of coercive power substituting for consent. Women cannot achieve social and political equality when prostitution is accepted as “women’s work.”
As women and girls indigenous to this land, who have resisted centuries of colonial oppression, we assert our right to our lands, cultures, laws, and body sovereignty. We reject any ruling that interferes with these unalienable rights. We pledge to continue in the proud tradition of our Mothers and Grandmothers and to continue to fight for our children and grandchildren.
The details of this case highlight how girls who have been victims of male violence are vulnerable to further sexual abuse and how men use coercion, threats and violence to recruit girls and women into prostitution and to keep them there.
NWAC has a particular interest in this appeal because it is concerned about the high levels of sexual exploitation and sexual trafficking of Aboriginal women and girls occurring right across Canada. Aboriginal women, women in low income situations, those suffering from mental health and adictions issues, are working in prostitution because of systemic racism and classism, as well as a fundamental power imbalance and issues of inequality which are at the root of prostitution.
