Brock, Kobryn-Dietrich, Tierney 2018 Updated
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Control by Proxy: The Regulation of Indigenous Peoples and Settler Labour via Canadian Anti-Sex Work Laws, 1865-2016 Tierney Kobryn-Dietrich, Bachelor of Arts Sociology Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Critical Sociology Faculty of Sociology, Brock University St. Catharines, Ontario © 2018 Control by Proxy: The Regulation of Indigenous Peoples and Settler Labour via Canadian Anti-Sex Work Laws, 1865-2016 This thesis is dedicated to the thousands of missing indigenous women across Turtle Island and to their families. Acknowledgments I would like to extend special thanks to my thesis supervisor, Dr. Tamari Kitossa, who provided me his unwavering support and wisdom throughout the entirety of this project. Dr. Ki- tossa believed in my success and in the success of this project long before I did, and for that I will forever be grateful. My experience at Brock University would not have been the same with- out him. I am also grateful for the assistance of my committee, Dr. Kate Bezanson and Dr. Margot Francis, for their inspiration, guidance and thoughtful insights. This project would not have been possible without the support of these knowledgeable and formidable academics. Additionally, I thank my parents, Kim and Stuart, who are always quick to offer me reas- surance when I am struggling. Lastly, I would like to thank my dog, Daisy, who never once com- plained despite being the sole audience member of my multiple draft readings. Abstract This study examines Canada’s history of anti-sex legislation from 1865 to 2016 and demonstrates that these laws exist primarily to maintain the ideological boundaries between whiteness and indigeneity. The study forwards a theory that accounts for the ways in which anti- sex work legislation assists in a) the appropriation of land through the removal and/or isolation of indigenous peoples and b) maintaining hegemonic control over settler labour. To this end, three time periods are identified in which violent settlement and the production of white, middle- class personhood were features of the regularization of capitalist-colonial rule, and where anti- sex work laws played a vital role in the management of instabilities manifested by indigenous activism and labour discontent: the consummation of the Canadian colonial system (1850 - 1900), industrialization (1900 - 1920) and neoliberalism (1970s - current). By examining the cur- rent and historical legislative framework regulating sex work, this study aims to demonstrate how both the legal framework and its enforcement act as proxies for controlling land and labour. Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………..…….…..i Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………..………….…ii Table of Contents..……………………………………………………………………………iii-iv Figure 1..……………………………………….…………………………………………………5 1. Introduction: The Case for Reconceptualizing the Regulation of Sex Work………..…….….1 i. Statement of Research Questions and Summary of Chapters……………………….……7 ii. Notes on Terminology……………………………………………………………….……9 A. ‘Sex Work’ versus ‘Prostitution’ …………………………………………….………10 B. ‘Abolitionism’ versus ‘Prohibitionism’………………………….………………..…12 C. ‘First Nations’ and ‘indigenous’ versus ‘Aboriginal’ and ‘Indian’………………..…13 D. ‘Turtle Island’ versus ‘Canada’……………..…………………………………….…14 2. Literature Review: The Politics of Sex Work - The Choice Versus Coercion Debate………15 i. Prohibitionism…………………………………………….…………………………..…15 ii. Sex Work as Labour Approach…………………….………………………………….…20 iii. Indigenous-Feminist Perspectives………………………..……………….……………..23 iv. Situating the Current Study: Transcending the Choice Versus Coercion Debate………..29 3. Theoretical Foundations……………………………………………………………….…….32 i. Marxist Feminism, Critical Race Feminism, Indigenous-Feminism and Gramsci’s Theory of Hegemony.…………………………………………………..….…33 ii. Liberalism, Possessive Individualism and white Middle-Class Personhood…..……..…49 iii. Theorizing The Regulation of Sex Work as a Proxy for the Regulation of Settler Labour……….……………………………………………………………………..……58 iv. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….…62 4. Methodological Approach……………………………………………………….…………..64 i. Critical Discourse Analysis……………………………..……………………………….64 ii. Applying Critical Discourse Analysis to Sex Work Research………………………..….65 5. History of Canadian Legislation Criminalizing Sex Work ………………………….………66 i. Introduction: The Arrival of Settlers and the Naturalization of ‘Race’ (1534)………….66 ii. Crisis #1: Concubinage and The Establishment of the Canadian Colonial System (1850-1900)…………………………………………………………..………….………74 A. The Contagious Diseases Act (1865)………………………………….…………….79 B. The Vagrancy Act (1869)…………………………………….………………………84 C. The Indian Act (1876)………………………………………………………………..89 iii. Crisis #2: Industrialization (1900-1920)……………………………………..………..101 A. The White Slavery Panic (1909)……………………………..……….……………107 B. White Women’s Labour Laws (1912)…………………………………..………….108 iv. Crisis #3: Neoliberalism (1970 - present)…………………………………..………….114 A. Charter of Rights and Freedoms Challenge (1972)……………………..…………125 B. Bill C-49 (1985)…………………………………………………………..………..127 C. Bill C-36 (2014)……………………………………………………………………130 v. Conclusion: The Role of Anti-Sex Work Legislation and the Reproduction of the Capital- ist-colonialist System………..…………………………………………………147 6. Conclusion: Looking to the Future…………………………………………………..……..152 i. Limitations and Directions for Future Research……………………………….………158 References……….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….………………….155 Figure 1 !1 Introduction: The Case for Reconceptualizing the Regulation of Sex Work At first glance, the Canadian state’s interest in criminalizing sex work seems primarily about the regulation of gender and sexuality. As such to most researchers, anti-sex work legisla- tion appears to be concerned with the regulation of morality in private relationships and the pro- motion of the nuclear family form. I agree with the majority of sex work research which asserts that the regulation of sexuality through anti-sex work legislation is key to maintaining patriarchal social relations (see Backhouse 1986; Bright 2003; Strange and Loo 1997; Chambliss 1964; Helps 2007; Lowman 2011a; Ranasinhe 2010, 2012). Such work highlights how anti-sex work laws subordinate women, contributing to the unequal social relations that naturalize the superior- ity of men as well as the existence of the capitalist-colonialist system more generally. This study, however, makes a substantive departure from the monistic preoccupation with gendered relations of ruling. I assert that anti-sex work legislation is also rooted in the regulation of indigeneity and the social control of labour. This contribution to the literature on sex-as-work derives, in part, from engaging with the work of the few authors to examine Canadian sex work legislation from a feminist-indigenous perspective (Hunt 2013; Sayers 2016). By establishing a tri-partite rela- tionship between the ruling relations of gender domination, capitalism and its imperative to regu- late labour and land and resource expropriation essential to settler colonialism this study asserts that these laws exist primarily to maintain the ideological boundaries between whiteness and in- digeneity in ways that sustain capitalist exploitation. While the regulation of sexuality plays an important role in anti-sex work legislation, this study reveals that the state's desire to regulate sexuality is rooted in the complex and dynamic interaction between ableism, colonialism, het- eronormativity, imperialism, sexism and racism. !2 In view of this, it comes as no surprise that Canada’s violent transformation into a settler colony has been intimately linked with the regulation of sex work. As this study demonstrates, anti-sex work laws are enforced in Canada during periods of colonial instability with the aim of sustaining hegemonic dominance of capital accumulation and white superiority. These are peri- ods in which violent settlement, the production of white, middle-class personhood and the con- cretization of the nuclear family were features of the regularization of colonialism, capitalism and nationhood. This study accordingly examines three major periods where anti-sex work laws were a major imperative used to manage instabilities manifested by indigenous activism and labour discontent: the consummation of the Canadian colonial system (1850 - 1900), industrial- ization (1900 - 1920) and neoliberalism (1970s - current) (See figure 1). Beginning with the arrival of Canada’s first settlers, this study explores how unions be- tween white settlers and indigenous women were common (Carter 1997; Anderson 2000). Cana- da’s first settlers forged strong relationships with indigenous communities and benefitted greatly from their knowledge of botany, medicine, agriculture, and so forth (Van Kirk 1996). As a result of U.S. independence, transformations from a staples economy to one of agriculture and the emergence of nation-building, the presence of indigenous-settler relationships eventually began to pose a threat to the capitalist-colonialist system (Carty 1999). The state feared, for example, that the children of indigenous-settler unions would gain legal ownership of property (Erickson 2011; Carty 1999) in ways that would contest white settler domination and the Crown’s mo- nopoly over land. These issues were concretized by a moral discursive formations that centred that sexual- ized the already negatively raced and gendered bodies of indigenous women (Barman 1997; !3 McClintock 1995; Carter