Brief for Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights
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Brief for Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights re: Human Trafficking Submitted by: Kylee Nixon, Mental Health Therapist, Alberta Health Services, Camrose, AB, MSW, RSW. March 13, 2018 1. Making the divide between trafficked and non-trafficked women (and men) is not helpful due to the harmful effects of being there by ‘choice’ or not being on the same continuum of harm and trauma. People are involved in the harmful predicament of prostitution of whatever kind due to a lack of choice, the existence of a mostly unregulated industry, and the unfettered demand by men for sex-buying. 2. Poverty (often intergenerational) and prior sexual/physical abuse are why the vast majority of exploited people are in the situation, and these factors along with the resulting profound physical and psychological trauma from being exploited must be a part of comprehensive and robust exiting services. Many prostituted women are supporting families. 3. Opportunities to exit must be extended to all exploited people regardless of fitting into narrow definitions of trafficked. Exiting services must be informed by feminist analysis which sees prostitution as male violence. Too often government funds go to agencies who use a harm reduction approach while minimizing violence and lacking in advocacy for challenging male demand for paid access to women. 4. Comprehensive/effective exiting services are non-existent for many women (and men) outside of major urban centres (and underfunded in densely populated areas). 5. non-implementation of current federal law PCEPA at local levels (eg. the licensing of body rub parlours by municipal governments http://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/advocates- push-for-mandatory-i-d-for-men-at-body-rub-parlours , police not criminally charging men for purchasing sex) is contributing to rampant trafficking and prostitution in Canada, both urban and rural locations. 6. The current societal acceptance of a class of women being available in all areas of the country for purchase by any man who wishes to do so, negatively affects all of us, especially women and girls, and most directly vulnerable women and girls (racialized, poor, trauma survivors). As a result of a lack of publicity/implementation around our current law which decriminalizes prostituted individuals and criminalizes buyers, women involved are unwilling to seek services for fear of repercussions. In my experience women are extremely reluctant to disclose prostitution/sexual exploitation due to fear of being cut off from secure (though poverty-level) income provided by the government, fear of children being taken by the government, fear of social exclusion, and a lack of support (especially financial) for exiting. Sue McIntyre's supporting research http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/csj-sjc/crime/rr02_4/rr02_4.pdf is helpful in understanding youth street prostitution. In my experience in rural and small city work with young adults seeking mental health support, prostitution starts in adolescence and continues into adulthood between adult women and men via the internet. One woman's prostitution income can be a source of income benefiting the extended family in cases of intergenerational poverty, especially female intergenerational poverty. Domestic violence is always a factor either historically in the family of origin, or currently, as is exposure to the effects of violence and prostitution on children in the home. In these situations, the government's assumptions that prostituted individuals can be 'sent back to families' via police funding initiative (http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/fund-fina/cj-jp/fund-fond/ini.html) are not effective or useful. In my view, interim funding that lasts at least 2 years, parenting support for exiting individuals and their children (day care and support for basic needs), addiction and mental health supports, and support for education and/or employment. Agencies providing supports must be systematically educated about prostitution as male violence against women and their children. Most importantly, wide spread implementation and information to men that it is illegal to rent women for sex is needed. There must be a cultural shift in the demand for any meaningful change to take place. All sexually exploited/prostituted women I have seen in my practice as a therapist have been mothers. About 2/3rds were sexually abused/assaulted as minors, and 2/3rds were first prostituted as minors. More than ¾ of the women were residing at the women’s shelter in the small city where I live, and at least ¾ were members of a racialized minority (mostly First Nations). The psychological effects on a prostituted woman who has been sexually abused in childhood and/or neglected followed by prostitution are: C-PTSD (nightmares/flashbacks, fear and avoidance of situations that trigger memories or are now associated with potential danger, hyper vigilance, large gaps in memory around the trauma (often years of memories are missing), dissociation, pernicious and persistent low self-worth, view of the world as dangerous while viewing actual dangerous situations as normal, chronic fatigue from sleep impairment, engaging in self-harm, ongoing struggle with mood swings and irritability, feelings of social exclusion to the point of being unable to socialize with others or keep a job, and parenting struggles due to trauma. Please see the work of Ingeborg Krauss on trauma as precondition and result of prostitution (http://www.trauma-and- prostitution.eu/en/2016/11/05/trauma-as-the-pre-condition-and-consequence-of-prostitution/). Physical health effects are also common: autoimmune diseases (rashes, fibromyalgia, and arthritis), pelvic inflammatory disease, hepatitis, and addictions (substances and gambling), other longstanding body pains and conditions from assaults, and anxiety-related diseases like irritable bowel syndrome and colitis. All are common among survivors of prostitution, whether still involved or not. What are the psychological effects of prostitution on men? PTSD are not among them. Men are not flocking to therapists in droves over their guilt about buying sex from women. There is research (http://prostitutionresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Very-inconvenient-truths-sex- buyers_sexual-coercion_and-prostitution-harm-denial_Farley-in-Logos1.pdf) showing that men who buy sex don't care whether or not the woman is ‘trafficked’ as defined by the committee. If men do attend therapy regarding prostitution, it’s likely because their female partners are suffering and have told them they have to go in the hopes that the behaviour will stop. There are little to no repercussions on men, though women certainly feel the effects that support for sex-buying in Canadian society encourages: male entitlement, sexism and inequality as inevitabilities thanks to the constant supply of a class of women available as rental bodies for men. As prostitution acts involve violence (at the very least coercion), our society's complicity means we are accepting male violence against women as inevitable. How can it mean otherwise? Comprehensive exiting services for women and men are needed. In the rural/small city area where I work there are general services available (income support, assured income for the severely handicapped, social housing, education support, childcare support, and mental health services). Victims of trafficking and prostitution however require specialized support and understanding. As the institutions that serve vulnerable populations -police, schooling, child and family services, health care, government funding and housing- turn a blind eye to the way prostitution is built upon male demand for paid sex overwhelmingly from women, exploitation, sexual abuse and poverty, they are unable to respond adequately to this situation. How can a prostituted woman feel that there is support for her to exit when service providers have bought into the narrative that women have chosen this as a career path? Service providers and Canadian citizens in general need to know the real reasons that women and girls as well as men and boys become involved in the sex-trade. The current support for viewing prostitution/exploitation as 'sex-work' is impeding progress toward a society of individuals who are safe from prostitution and other forms of male violence. As women currently involved in prostitution are actively relying on the income for survival, they often promote the activity as work like any other. Viewing the sex-trade this way is certainly more bearable for the active participant than calling it violence. It may be easier for society in general to think of prostitution as a job like any other, but we a pay a price: we agree to sanction space for abuse, assault, and coercion- by men and primarily toward women. For the sex-buyer, it is most certainly self-serving and beneficial to support the sex-trade as work like any other job. It is important to listen to those who have exited to understand the effects of prostitution on the exploited person, for example Trisha Baptie of Eve Vancouver, CEASE in Edmonton, Bridget Perrier and Natasha Falle of Sex Trade 101 in Toronto. From a 2007 report on prostitution in northern Alberta: “When Cheryl King did a situation assessment for the Grande Prairie Citizen Action Committee on Prostitution, the sex workers she interviewed told her precisely what they needed to escape. A safe place to wash and sleep, daycare, long-term counselling, and drug rehabilitation beyond the typical three-week programs, which provide no transitional aid, forcing addicts back into the conditions in which they first got hooked. King says none of this can happen without immense government and community support. Rescuing an individual is an investment, and can’t be viewed in terms of immediate profits. In simple terms, this requires a great deal more public funding for support programs, social service operating costs and salaries.” http://www.albertaviews.ab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/The- Hidden-Face-of-Prosperity-Cheryl-Mahaffy.pdf http://www.ceasenow.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Affordability-Gap-Infographic.png I look forward to the Canadian government taking action on this issue ASAP.