Sex workers hit with police crackdown

MONTREAL (CUP) — Montreal sex workers are facing a police crackdown, and the legal penalties they face after arrest do nothing to help those in the trade break out of what can become a vicious cycle. The number of sex workers charged under the Criminal Code for soliciting sex has increased dramatically: between 2000 and 2002, about 500 people were charged each year; in 2003, the number nearly doubled to 992, and reached 1417 in 2004, according to statistics provided by Montreal police spokesperson Stephanie DuFresne.

Valerie Boucher, an outreach worker for the Montreal sex worker support group, Stella, and former sex worker, said the increase is due to a specific police crackdown on prostitution that began two years ago.

“In 2003, the police made a plan to get rid of sex workers on the streets,” she said. “There were a lot of steps. First they tell you to go away, then that you’re going to get a ticket, and in the end there are mass arrests.”

In an email interview, police spokesperson, Amy Gavel, did not address whether there has been a prolonged crackdown. However, she said that a clean-the-streets project entitled Avance was enacted in July 2005. It is aimed at addressing violence in the centre-sud district, especially as related to street gangs.

“It’s not specifically the domain of prostitution that is being targeted,” said Gravel. “[It is] more often the phenomenon of street gangs who cause a significant rise in criminal activities in the sector.”

However, Stella spokesperson, Jenn Clamen, said that the Avance project coincided with an increase in the policing of sex workers.

“[The crackdown] was really bad this summer,” said Clamen. “They did a huge sweep of the streets.”

In Canada, exchanging money for sex is not illegal; however, under Article 213 of the Criminal Code, solicitation of sex work is illegal, and perpetrators can face fines or jail time. Sex-workers claim that the law is hypocritical, in that it prohibits everything required to work as a prostitute, while keeping prostitution itself legal.

Boucher said that in order to enforce this law, undercover police officers have begun posing as potential clients to draw out solicitation from sex-workers in order to arrest them under the criminal code.

However, Gravel emphasised that the police did not “entrap” sex workers, which is illegal.

“[The police] use techniques that are completely legal, and don’t resort to measures that could undermine the administration of justice,” she said.

Boucher said that the police have been oppressing sex-workers for a long time. Before the crackdown, she said that sex-workers were frequently targeted for petty charges like spitting on the street, which is illegal under municipal by-laws.

One possible sentence for breaking the Criminal Code is a “restriction zone,” a designated area of the city, which the offender is prohibited from entering because they were caught soliciting sex there.

Clamen said that because the restriction zones often encompass the home of the sex-worker, the offender often has no choice but to go into the zone.

“They can’t get back to where they live, so they break [the restriction because of] the way it is implemented,” she said.

But moving is often not always a safe alternative. Boucher said that when sex-workers are forced out of their usual neighbourhood, they become more vulnerable to violence.

“Many times isolation makes the work more dangerous,” she said, citing lack of contacts and street-smarts in an unfamiliar neighbourhood.

Gravel said that restriction zones are designed to help sex workers avoid reoffending.

“Restriction zones are suggested…by a judge…to diminish the instances of relapse, and are not used excessively,” she said.

But Boucher said the zone was a common way for sex workers to be jailed for being unable to meet the requirements of the legal system, rather than for the work they do.

“In the end you don’t go to jail for prostitution, but for breaking the conditions [of your sentence],” said Boucher. “You stay in jail longer and longer.”

She said that the legal system can be a vicious cycle for sex workers.

“When you go to jail as a sex worker…you don’t get a chance to pack your bag for jail,” she said. “You lose everything, you can’t even collect your social insurance check.”

“After you lose everything, where are you going to go? To the street again.”

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