Negotiating Sex Work: Unintended Consequences of Policy and Activism

13. Sex Workers’ Rights Organizations and Government Funding in Canada

· 287 ·· CHAPTER 13 · Sex Workers’ Rights Organizations and Government Funding in Canada Sarah Beer and Francine Tremblay Sex worker–run advocacy organizations emerged in major Canadian cities throughout the late 1970s and 1980s. These small, loosely affiliated groups supported individual sex workers at a local level and promoted their rights internationally by denouncing criminalization, stigmatization, harassment, and violence directed at people who work in the sex industry (Brock 1998). The emergent movement for sex workers’ rights was dramatically altered by the AIDS epidemic in the mid-1980s. Activists had to turn away from their original political goals and join public health initiatives to combat HIV/AIDS transmission, all the while disputing the image of sex workers as vectors of contagion (Beer 2010; Brock 1998; Jenness 1993). By the late 1980s, health-based public funding became available to various advocacy groups in order to engage in direct, meaningful involvement with marginalized communities deemed at risk of HIV/AIDS. This funding was intended to encourage research collaborations and community partnerships in order to address risk factors and achieve an integrated approach to disease prevention, especially among previously unacknowledged populations such as sex workers, drug users, and gay men (Altman 1994; Rayside and Lindquist 1992). But what does it mean for marginalized political groups to accept government funding, and how does this impact the group at an organizational level? We explore this issue by considering a case study of a long-standing and foundational sex worker organization, Stella, located in Montréal, Québec, Canada. For this, we draw on multimethod qualitative data to analyze aspects of the sex workers’ rights movement to consider two key events in Stella’s history. The first is the organization’s pivotal role in an 288 SARAH BEER AND FRANCINE TREMBLAY Inter-neighborhood Consultative Committee on Prostitution (Comité interquartiers sur la prostitution), which resulted in a criminal diversion initiative suggesting a nonjudicial approach to sex work, and the second, is their role as host to the Forum XXX: Celebrating a Decade of Action, Designing Our Future, one of the largest international sex worker events in the last twenty years. Our research shows that a period of dense activism caused Stella’s near collapse, and reliance on government funding is partially responsible for this internal breakdown. Efforts to maintain state funding necessitated a formalized organizational structure, which in turn created internal hierarchies and divisions between paid and unpaid staff. All of this negatively impacted the already precarious positions of Stella’s most marginalized members.StatefundingalsolimitedStella’scapacitytocontestthelegalclassificationsoftheirwork .Wecontendthatallofthisdoesnot,however,depoliticize Stella, or other groups like it. In addition to promoting sex workers’ rights, the services they offer are political in that they make sex workers lives safer, bring their communities together, and develop their capacity for advocacy . While there are some drawbacks to state funding, these resources have enabled Stella’s longevity, positioning the organization as a key figure in the sex workers’ rights movement. The Sex Workers’ Rights Movement Before examining the impact of mainstream funding on sex workers’ rights organizations in Canada, it is first important to contextualize the sex workers’ rights movement. In Canada, laws regarding the exchange of commercial sexual services are located within a particular legal context. In Canada, power is shared between federal and provincial governments. Parliament creates federal legislation in matters related to the Constitution , while provincial and territorial governments are responsible for local legislation, policing, appointment of prosecutors and judges, and administration of the courts. Laws can be variously enforced, but provincial and municipal governments cannot enact legislation or bylaws that infringe on federal jurisdiction or rights enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Across Canada, then, sex workers share similar grievances about the legislative structure and its impact on their work. Although the exchange of sex acts for material gain is legal (for those over the age of eighteen), RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS AND GOVERNMENT FUNDING IN CANADA 289 provisions in the Criminal Code of Canada (1985) prohibit keeping or beingfoundinacommonbawdyhouse(Section210),providingdirections or transportation to a common bawdy house (Section 211), procuring or living on the avails of prostitution (Section 212), and communicating in a public place for the purpose of prostitution (Section 213). The law prohibiting public communication most directly affects street-based sex workers , who are estimated to make up 5 to 20 percent of sex industry workers, yet account for more than 90 percent of prostitution-related incidents reported by police (House of Commons...