Fourth World Conference on the Abolition of the Death Penalty Prostitution A march was held in Montreal on Saturday to honour survivors of sexual exploitation.
“The goal of this conference is to bring together all those working on the front lines supporting survivors to end the sexual exploitation of women and girls,” explained Jennie-Laure Sully, community organizer at La CLES.
Participants in the numerous seminars and panel discussions have another goal: to create a world without prostitution.
La CLES works with multiple people and organizations working in the sex industry to achieve the same goal. “A world without prostitution is possible,” Sully said, adding, “as long as we believe in equality between men and women, equality between the North and the South.” She told Global News, “Prostitution disproportionately affects women in the global South, disproportionately affects poor women, disproportionately affects indigenous women.”
April Eve Wiberg, a First Nations woman from Alberta who has been sexually exploited for commercial purposes, agreed. She said First Nations women and girls “have always been viewed as objects” since contact with Europeans. She added, “We need to return to our traditional roles as First Nations peoples and not feel like we have to sell our most sacred things in order to survive.”
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Wiberg was touched by the enthusiasm at the event. These events are important to her because they give her the opportunity to share her story. “The more I speak out, the more likely I am to be reached out to other survivors who may be suffering in silence and not realizing there are so many people supporting me,” she explained.
A counter-protest was also held at Emilie Gamelin Square, where pro-sex work activists opposed the congress.
Adore Goldman, a sex worker and activist with the Sex Workers Autonomous Council, said they were not against survivors participating in the protest march. “I think we all have experiences working in the sex industry and most of us have experienced violence in the sex industry,” she explained.
But sex work advocates argue that the solution to ending violence is not to abolish the sex trade altogether.
“We're not denying that exploitation exists in the sex industry,” Goldman said. “But we're saying that exploitation exists across the industry and that the way we fight exploitation is by organizing as workers.”
Canada's Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act does not criminalize prostitution, but purchasing sexual services is a criminal offense.
Pro-sex work activists argue that criminalizing any aspect of the sex trade puts sex workers at risk. On the other hand, prostitution abolitionists like Sully argue that the bill, while good on paper, falls short in enforcement.
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