Expert panellists came together to highlight the differences between sex work and human trafficking at panel discussion at Carleton University on March 11.
The event was organized by students in a community engagement class to raise funds for the Willow Women’s Center in Vanier—an organization that provides a safe space and harm reduction services for women who do street-level sex work in Ottawa.
“I’ve never studied trafficking, but the funny thing is as soon as you’re a sex work researcher, everybody asks me about trafficking,” said Megan Rivers-Moore, an associate women’s and gender studies professor at Carleton, of the misinformation surrounding the two terms.
“You kind of end up having to think about and talk about trafficking even though it is not the thing that you want to be thinking and talking about.” — Megan Rivers-Moore, Carleton University women’s and gender studies professor
Rivers-Moore added focusing on the idea of a perceived trafficking victim prevents people from looking into other forms of exploitative or violent conditions of work.
“We have to ask what do we lose in feminist politics when we start to focus on this idea of a victimized woman that we can save?” she said of the conflation between sex work and trafficking.
Panellists voiced their frustrations around the lack of government and agency action on protecting sex workers and instead focusing on rescuing perceived victims of trafficking.
“I am not pro-trafficking, but pro-choice,” said Jennifer, a co-facilitator at the Willow Women’s Center who shared her past sex work experience as an exotic dancer.
“You feel the shame, you feel the stigma, and you need to keep pushing it down to survive each day.” — Jennifer, Willow Women’s Centre co-facilitator and former exotic dancer
She described a “near-death” experience of being abused and raped while working on the street and feeling alone while going through a sexual assault trial.
“I felt like I really had to make changes. Something had to be done. There was nobody and nothing here in Ottawa,” she said.
The centre creates an important resource for the community of sex workers, said Kristen Gilchrist-Salles, a co-facilitator at the Willow Women’s Centre.
“We try and create a space where you’re loved and you matter and you have value in our community.” — Kristen Gilchrist-Salles, Willow Women’s Centre co-facilitator
Gilchrist-Salles said women who come to Willows are often harassed by the police looking for traffickers, adding there have been instances of police officers waiting outside to arrest women on their way out.
Rivers-Moore also said anti-immigration sentiments across North America fuel the conflation of sex work and trafficking, adding police are conducting “immigration raids under the guise of anti-trafficking.”
“What they’re finding is you know, lots of sex workers trying to make some money and some migrant workers trying to make some money,” she added.
Mackenzie Mumby, a fourth-year public affairs and policy management student said the event helped open his eyes to the realities of being a sex worker and a non-citizen.
“Because you’re a non-citizen, because you’re a migrant sex worker, you’re inherently perceived as being a victim,” he said, adding that’s not always the case.
Mumby said attending the event helped him see sex work as just “another job.”
“I guess I was one of those ignorant people who saw sex trafficking and sex work sort of merging.” — Mackenzie Mumby, Carleton University student
Dominic Santos, a Carleton criminology and criminal justice graduate who attended the event, said he also found it enlightening to hear the lived experiences of sex workers that “you don’t really get” in a normal academic environment.
“This was a really enriching opportunity for me to get that perspective so that if I ever am in a position where I am crafting policy, to not only have people who are affected by things like this be contributors, but also be leaders,” Santos added.
All panellists agreed decriminalization is key to making sex work safer.
“Sex work should be considered as work, as another form of labour,” said panellist Dr. Eloy Rivas Sanchez, who is an instructor and researcher of migrant and Indigenous organizations at Carleton University.
“People who are engaged in sex work should have the right or the possibility to do the work in an environment that is safe.”
Featured image by Marieta-rita Osezua.
