Hello, my name is Wendy  and I’m from the Bad Date Coalition of Toronto, which is an organization that advocates for the rights and safety of people who work the streets. Street sex workers. One of our main functions is producing the Bad Date Book. The Bad Date Book is a 16 page booklet that we put out monthly exposing men who have harmed sex workers. The reason that we put out this book is because crimes against sex workers rarely make it to the attention of the police, and when they do they often are not taken seriously, which leaves these men free to attack again.

The reason why I wanted to speak tonight is because a lot of the reports that we get from sex workers are from this neighbourhood, Regent Park. Over the past four years that we’ve been producing the Bad Date Book we have received reports from sex workers working in this neighbourhood who have been raped, beaten, stabbed, strangled, assaulted with weapons, and even tortured. 

The amount of violence directed towards women who work the streets is horrendous.  Statistic’s Canada states that between 1991 to 2004 over 171 sex workers – mostly those who worked the streets – have been murdered in Canada. The Toronto Police estimate that approximately 6 to 8 sex workers are assaulted in this city every night. Violence against women who work on the streets far exceeds violence faced by women in any other profession. But the police suggest that only 2% of this violence ever makes it to their attention.

As most of you woman are aware, reporting a sexual assault to the police can be a very difficult and traumatic experience for any woman to go through. Now imagine going through that experience and risking jail time as well. This is the harsh reality faced by many women working in the sex industry if they become a victim of ANY crime.

Women who admit to engaging in prostitution when the assault occurred can, and do get charged with a prostitution related offence. I’ve seen this happen all too often, and it’s one of the biggest reasons these crimes are rarely reported.

Any law that prevents a woman from reporting an assault is a law that needs to be removed. There is absolutely nothing more abhorrent then jailing woman who have been raped or assaulted.

The laws against prostitution need to be removed immediately, these laws weren’t constructed to protect society; they were constructed to harm sex workers.

By not allowing women who work in the sex industry to work from their own homes, to work with other sex workers, to hire security personal, or being able to negotiate with potential clients in the safety of the public, we create a situation where women who work on the streets become easy prey for predators seeking to act out their violent, misogynistic fantasies on women.

Laws against prostitution result in violence against women.  As a society we need to demand that the federal government remove the laws against prostitution.

But it’s not just the laws, or the police, and law enforcement that need to change, we need to change too.

Just last month a woman who was working at Shuter and Parliament St. was assaulted by a man who had picked her up in his car. Once trapped inside the man’s car, the man grabbed her by the neck and with his other hand he grabbed a knife.  The woman was somehow able to escape the man’s gripped, but was then chased by the man and assaulted again, this time on Dundas Street in front of people, and passing cars.  The woman began screaming for help, but no one stopped. As the man began bashing the woman’s head on the pavement, people still didn’t bother to intervene or help the woman.

The stigma against women who work in the sex industry is so strong that even when a woman is being assaulted in the streets, no one stops. This kind of apathy towards the safety of women working in the sex industry is what allows this violence to flourish, and tells predators that what they’re doing is okay.  Sex workers have been for far too long seen as expendable, or less than human, we need to change our attitudes towards woman working in the sex industry, we need to stop isolating women in the sex industry, we need to stop trying to run sex workers out of our neighbourhoods, and pretending that they are not a part of the community. We all need to unite, sex worker or not, against this violence.  We need to let men know that raping sex workers will no longer get you a get-out-of jail free card, that violence against sex workers is not acceptable, nor will it be tolerated.

Violence against one woman is violence against all woman, it’s time we all stand up and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!