September 3, 2013

STOP the Arrests!!! SSM One year and still fighting with love and RAGE
In late August 2012, nine local women from Sault Ste. Marie, ON were charged under prostitution provisions of the Criminal Code. These provisions have been widely contested and it is anticipated that they will be overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada in the upcoming Bedford v. Canada decision. The women arrested in Sault Ste. Marie (a.k.a. the Soo) had their full names and home addresses published in every media source within the community. These arrests were reportedly fuelled by community complaints about aggressive solicitation and women residents being mistaken for prostitutes in the long stigmatized Albert and Gore Street neighbourhood (where the main stroll is located). The arrests and sensationalist media coverage waged on. One article published by the Sault Star included details on one of the original nine women who had been rearrested by an undercover officer in the same neighbourhood. The Star republished not only her name and address, but also the nitty gritty of her alleged offers of sexual services and attempts to negotiate safer sex; a clear infringement of her right to due process as protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It was clear to us that this had become a fullblown police and media-led witchhunt. As a result, STOP the Arrests!!! SSM (STA) was born.

Who the hell is STOP the Arrests!!!SSM anyway?

STOP the Arrests!!! SSM began as a two woman army and has since grown to become a larger group of sex workers (former and current) and sex worker allies who are strongly connected to their community of Sault Ste. Marie. Some members still reside in the Soo, while some of us have left to pursue work and educational opportunities elsewhere. Nonetheless, we are all still connected to and invested in our home community. Collectively, we formed STOP the Arrests!!! SSM to spearhead the campaign against sex-worker stigmatization through criminalization. This has been greatly facilitated through the backing of the Kingston Sex Workers Action Group (SWAG). We sought to redress and bring attention to human rights infringements actively directed at the street sex working community in our home community. STOP the ARRESTS!!!SSM garnered national media attention, as well as local and international support from sex worker organizations, the VAW (violence against women) sector and human rights groups from across the globe. We are particularly honoured to have received the support of Families of Sisters in Spirit, who continue to inspire all of us in the sex workers rights movement and beyond.

Whorestory
One year ago today; September 3rd, Labour Day, 2012, STOP the Arrests!!!SSM released its Open Letter which served as a call to action and awareness. In it, we made a point of naming sex work as real work worthy of recognition and acknowledgement. Our Open Letter effectively drew attention to the safety and the human rights violations that were made against the 9 women arrested in Sault Ste. Marie in midAugust. The Open Letter sought to educate the public about the criminalization, scapegoating and media harassment of these 9 women who

quickly found themselves under the public microscope. You can find our Open Letter on the SWAG Kingston website: http://swagkingston.com/2012/09/07/open-letter-in-support-of-sex-workers-who-were-arrested/ After our Labour Day launch, things took off faster than we could process. We had interviews, calls, emails pouring in, nearly consuming our own personal lives. People were talking, conversations were generated. Many people voiced their support of the 9 arrested sex workers, while others joined in the scapegoating. Sex work became a community topic. People agreed and people disagreed. Some even played dirty, though not in a good way ;), while others labelled STA as hostile outsiders. All the while, the arrests continued and so did the media publication of all the details and personal information of the arrested sex workers. Stop the arrests!!!SSM continued remaining as unapologetic as ever.

Oppressive Police Powers

During the heightened media frenzy, Deputy Police Chief Bob Kates of Sault Ste. Marie Police Services was interviewed by the Sault Star in an article about the arrests of the 9 local women and the STOP the arrests!!! campaign. (Sault Star Sept 7th 2012; Sex worker group says Police out of line in Charging Prostitutes) Reportedly in this interview Kates claimed that the arrests were essentially a police response to community complaints. Within the same article, Kates testified it has long been the Sault Police Service's practice to release the names of those charged with crimes, along with their addresses to avoid ambiguity when it comes to identity . STA challenged the Soo police about this process while Kates continued to protect this exploitative process by naming it as tradition in his statement That's something in Sault Ste. Marie we've always done in the past and we continue to publish [the names of] those individuals who are charged with criminal offences. Kates also ignorantly voiced concerns about children playing outside and the risk of finding needles and that kind of stuff in the area. STA swiftly responded to Deputy Kates in our response to this article, which also can be located on the SWAG Kingston site: http://swagkingston.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/09/Response-to-Purvis-Kates.pdf Within communities there continues to be the assumption that sex workers bring the drug use to the area that they work in and that they are to blame for much of the communitys issues. Sex workers are stigmatized and seen as nuances to rather than members of their community. Gore and Albert is much more complex than street based buying and selling of sex. This community has a long history of oppression, poverty and drug use that predates the stroll. There is also an assumption that sex workers are all intravenous drug users that use unsafely and will dispose of their needles in your sandbox, as Deputy Kates strongly reinforced through alluding to the belief that sex workers are dangerous people who should not be exposed to children. STA reminds the police and the media that these women that were arrested ARE someones children, someones sister, and even someones mother. These 9 women and all other sex workers within the community of Sault Ste. Marie deserve the same rights as every other citizenno matter their drug use, their socio-economic status (SES) or their choice of employment. Kates statement also implied that putting sex workers behind bars and displacing them from their community with heavy bail or probation conditions will solve the issues that are found within in the neighbourhood. In addition to this, one of the major issues with these arrests and the public naming/shaming of these womens lives and choices of employment is the intersectionality between race, SES, gender, and Canadas on-going colonial project. There is an unacknowledged history of policing agencies and the justice system being inherently tied to the colonization of Canada, as well as the policing of Indigenous persons and sexuality. Historically, Canadas antiprostitution laws were first enacted under Canadas still-active, colonial legislation, the Indian Act (see: http://kwetoday.com/2013/07/30/exploration-on-indigenous-lands-and-exploitation-of-indigenous-bodies/). It wasnt until 1892, when Canadas Criminal Code of Canada was enacted, that the anti-prostitution sections were removed from the Indian Act and then placed in the CCC (ibid) (Boyer 78). This continued policing of Indigenous peoples, specifically Indigenous women and their sexualities, and its inherent ties to the colonization of Canada is all too often ignored. While the policing agencies and its members of Sault Ste. Marie state that they have good intentions to protect the lives and properties of SSM community members, these actors need to recognize the

implications of their decisions. Publicly releasing the names of these individuals without taking into account the operations of race, gender, SES, drug-use and the marginalized status of these womens choice of employment has ultimately functioned to unjustly harm and displace these fellow citizens of our community. This public naming and shaming contributes to Canadas on-going colonial project by further marginalizing, oppressing, and ostracizing these women, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, for the choices they make regarding their own bodies and lives by deciding what is right for them without them.

The Arrests Continue

Throughout the past year, STA has continued to monitor the media and the broader atmosphere relating to sex work issues within our community. The arrests have continued and the media still has not halted their publications of the arrests. Moreover, the City has continued to ignore our demands set out in our original Open Letter. There has not been one police representative or City official that has bothered to contact us about our campaign or our active concerns. In response to this inaction, STA decided to issue a press release on November 19th, 2012, entitled End the Industry of Oppressive Media in Northern Ontario, addressing our community and the powers that be in the Soo. We stated clearly that we were aware that sex workers were still being arrested, jailed and scrutinized through the medias hostile lens. Today, a year after the initial arrests, over 20 additional charges that we know of have been laid against the original 9 women arrested. This is why we continue our work! This is why we need you all to act!

Promises & Contradictions

A highlight of the year included an invitation to speak at a Sudbury Conference organized by Reseau ACCESS Network, called Building Inclusive Communities. The forum sought to create space for important community discussions on sex work related topics, including stigma, work safety, marginalization, trafficking, issues faced by Aboriginal communities, decriminalization, community policing, and the myths and realities of sex work. STA shared the table with some of the strongest voices in Canada in regards to sex worker rights and the decriminalization of sex work. It was an honour to be a part of such important conference where we could meaningfully engage in dialogue about sex work in the Northern context. This conference was open to service providers, police officers, health care professionals, city councillors, the general public, and centrally, sex workers. Sault Ste. Marie officers and key community organizations from the Soo also travelled to Sudbury, Ontario to participate in this event. Prior to the conference, the Soo Police glorified their participation in Building Inclusive Communities in an article published in the Sault Star named Sault to study Sudbury's fight against Prostitution which was released on April 2nd, 2013. Little did folks know that this conference was not intended to fight prostitution, as stated by the police, but to begin community discussion on including sex workers as vital members of the community. Included in these discussions were yours truly. We presented on our campaign as it tied to systemic oppression and state violence and the role that both media and Soo police have played in this. On May 16th, the Sault Ste. Marie Police department made a statement that has come to be touted as a milestone. In this statement, the Chief of police Bob Davies preened over their decision to halt the arrests of sex workers in Sault Ste. Marie and their new policy to not release the names and addresses of individuals involved in prostitution type charges. Davies declared in this public statement that the Soo police department is looking at moving away from a criminalization model with regards to sex work. Davies told the media Enforcement is not our primary objective. Right now were going to be trying to assemble the different community groups to help us out with this issue and to come up with a community plan. Davies stated that the process has already begun and that the Soo police have already connected with local organizations to work together to tackle the issues that obligate them into the sex industry.

STA is concerned about this atmosphere of saving the whore and believes that it only contributes to the whorephobia that has been taking place within our community. We wish to draw attention to the fact that, meeting with groups whose sole mandate and/or major emphasis is to abolish sex work functions as little more than pious hype that does little to address the practical needs of the local sex working community. More, as we have learned from other abolitionist type programming across this country, this kind of focus tends to force sex working individuals into situations where they have to sanitize their stories and play along in order to be considered worthy of services and included in such initiatives. Many groups such as the Elizabeth Fry Society and John Howard have, in fact, been complicit in supporting oppressive responses against our community by way of their involvement in Jane schools where sex workers are forced via the courts to participate in programming to help them move away from poor life choices. While this sounds great to many, again, it tends to place the focus on individual rather than societal change. Money talks and bullshit walks! There has also been a seductive focus on issues of human trafficking and a related conflation between trafficking and sex work. We hope it will not be lost on the citizens of Sault Ste. Marie that people with lived experience are rarely ever empowered to participate in such discussions, or to name what their sexual labour means to them. Moreover, unless we as citizens and stakeholders can make active connections between sexual trafficking and the structural factors and policies that allow other oppressive labour conditions to exist vis-a-vis our immigration policies, not to mention those affecting foreign agricultural workers and live-in caregivers, much will continue to be lost in the mix.

Victories for STOP THE ARRESTS!!!SSM & Shout Outs to our Supporters
Over the last year, Stop the Arrests!!!SSM has garnered considerable support and recognition. We were invited to speak at several forums including Wendy Babcocks 1st memorial organized by the Bad Date Coalition, KAPOW, and a number of sex worker drop-ins in different communities. Also a variety of media outlets have offered us positive coverage, including Xtra, Cut the Shit fanzine, and the Bad Date Book.

We have mad love & respect for HIV/AIDS Legal Network:

We have always admired the committed works of the Legal Network. It was an honour to foster a relationship and work alongside some of the key organizations that have been committed to sex worker rights in Canada. Sandra Chu has supported us and encouraged us to continue our campaign even during times when we have felt defeated. The support from Sandra and her team has reminded us of the importance of our work and why we need to continue fighting. Because of the work undertaken by STOP the arrests!!! SSM, including their campaign to call national and international attention to these recent arrests, there is already some community awareness of these events, and the groundwork has been laid for further advocacy. But more work needs to be done, and current and former sex workers are in the best position to educate the public through their firsthand experiences with the criminal law and its enforcement, as well as to develop ways to address the systemic human rights violations they confront. HIV/AIDS Legal Network on STA

We want to return the mad love and support we received from SWAG Kingston:
STA began as two Soo gals that were drawn together by their love and rage and desire to change the world. SWAG was the backbone that allowed the platform for this campaign. SWAG went above and beyond to support what originated as a two woman revolution and developed into something much more. We could not have gained the wide range of support received without the solidarity and backing of the folks of SWAG Kingston. SWAG Kingston states that STA responded swiftly, garnering both national and international support to create a spotlight while simultaneously working with others in their home community to stimulate action

and dialogue. Their dedicated work is ongoing, and we are very proud to have backed this grassroots initiative.

The Groundswell Fund: Thanks for sponsoring this sex worker led revolution. This funding has aided us
in coordinating a sex worker conference in Sault Ste Marie. The conference is slated for this coming December. Stay posted for updates!

Bedford vs Canada and the National Atmosphere

In Canada, the act of buying and selling of sex between consenting adults is not illegal. Contradictorily though, the Criminal Code prohibits almost every act involved in sex work, making it virtually impossible to legally engage in sex work. This creates undue stress and vulnerability for those of us who do sex work to make a living. These laws also function to hypocritically punish and alienate the very people to whom politicians and law enforcement dedicate so much of their time paying lip service. Denying rights on the basis of suffering, or belonging within a marginalized group functions as its own convenient feedback loop. When someones own marginalization is used as justification to exclude them from decision making, their lack of participation in shaping the public narrative perpetuates that very marginalization. We should vigorously question these tendencies. On September 28th 2010, Bedford was brought before the Superior court of Ontario by three sex workers: TerryJean Bedford, Amy Lebovitch, and Valerie Scott. The Superior Court of Ontario struck down three sex worker related laws in the Canadian Criminal Code (CCC) (s. 210 Common bawdy house; s. 212 (1)(j) Living on the avails; and s. 213 (1)(c) Communicating for the purposes of prostitution). Sex workers and allies celebrated Judge Himels landmark ruling that would effectively decriminalize sex work. Justice Susan Himel ruled that these laws violate the right to liberty and security that is guaranteed in Section 7 of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Himel exposed that harm done to sex workers outweighs any harm done to the community in respect of these laws. On March 26th 2012, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that, Section 213, communicating for the purposes of prostitution, does not violate the prostitutes rights and is a reasonable limit on the right to expression. This means street based prostitution, where prostitutes solicit business in public, still remains effectively illegal. This represents only a partial victory for the sex workers rights movement as the amendments leave the most vulnerable workers at risk. On June 13th 2013, Bedford vs. Canada went before the supreme court of Canada to ultimately decide on the constitutionality of the aforementioned prostitutions laws . Strong evidence was brought before the courts showing how these oppressive laws create systemic barriers and state sanctioned violence, forcing sex workers to work in unsafe and isolated environments and placing them further on the fringes of society. Calls for Canada to follow countries such as Sweden and Norway in criminalizing clients (sex buyers) and third parties are wilfully ignorant of the continued harms posed to sex workers by criminalized and over-policed environments. There is no evidence showing criminal sanctions targeting clients have any impact on reducing harms to sex workers or the conditions within which a sex worker works. Further, such models have no real effect on deterring the demand for sex work. Instead, approaches aimed at being punitive to clients continue to reproduce fear of police all around. The longstanding themes remain, with sex workers continuing to provide services in clandestine locations, placing them at continued risk for violence and undermining their ability to negotiate the terms of transactions.

We with STOP the Arrests!!! SSM anxiously await to hear the final decision from the Supreme Courts, and the resulting direction the sex work laws will take. We anticipate the SCCs decision will be in line with Justice Himels ruling, resulting in a move towards a decriminalized system that includes striking down the communicating law (s.213) which has over targeted the most visible and marginalized population of sex workers. We look forward to moving towards a decriminalized system where sex work is respected as real work and where those that choose to engage in sex work, however constrained those choices, wherever they exist on the continuum (yes, it is our place to name that for ourselves!), can do so free from fear of arrest and public persecution. Until that day, STOP the arrests!!! SSM will continue our campaign to end the arrests of sex workers in Sault Ste. Marie and beyond. We will continue our work until sex work is recognized as real work on Labour Day and every other Day. In Love and Rage,

Stop the arrests!!! SSM

Keep in the know with STOP the ARRESTS!!! SSM and updated on upcoming action dates via our facebook page. Or, you can contact us at stopthearrestsssm@gmail.com