The By Us, For Us project surveyed over 200 sex workers across Metro Vancouver and Southern Vancouver Island; it highlights essential topics like the COVID-19 pandemic, the criminalization of sex work, the ongoing overdose crisis, and the national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls.
In an interview with researcher Sylvia Machat, who wrote the By Us, For Us report, further explanation and insight were provided regarding the project’s goals.
Machat described decriminalizing sex work as “removing restrictions on the sex industry via legislation.” For example, the current legislation has criminalized the act of purchasing sexual services or the sex worker themselves hiring third parties such as divers or assistants. “Decriminalization would allow sex workers to access health and safety regulation as well as support services,” Machat added.
The criminalization of sex work means that workers involved in the sex trade do not receive the same amount of care and support as other jobs. This disadvantage limits their access to counselling, regular HIV/STI testing, and other medical services. Machat elaborated that “increased access to healthcare, particularly mental health care, would help address ongoing issues that sex workers deal with,” especially those from all backgrounds and walks of life.
Prominent findings within the report show 73% of surveyed sex workers are living with disabilities, 45% identified as Indigenous, and 60% were worried about a loved one overdosing. The report makes numerous suggestions for how the government can create solutions; these include investing in the security and safety of sex workers to eliminate the stigma. This may also open new opportunities for their collaborations with agencies and organizations.
The report notes how sex workers often face stigmatization and discrimination for their work at the hands of police and law enforcement officers. A section in the report addresses the stigma that cis-gender male sex workers face as they are often categorized as doing “women’s work.” Machat discussed how the stigma of sex work exclusively being a woman’s job has been fought against by numerous male, Two-Spirit, transgender and non-binary sex workers. “Rather than tackling this issue through police departments, male, Two-Spirit, trans, and non-binary sex workers we spoke to wanted to see support such as check-in systems, good rapport with healthcare professionals, and avenues for reporting harms experienced in sex work to sex worker support services,” said Malachat.
A suggestion Machat provided in the report regarding communication avenues between sex workers and police, is “trainings delivered to police by active and recent sex workers about the realities of the sex work industry.” The Canadian National Inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls found “state actions and actions rooted in colonialism.” Sex workers who identify as Indigenous and Two-Spirit feel disadvantaged and ignored because of colonist practices within Canadian culture. A suggestion that Indigenous sex workers have provided are resources to see medical professionals to be able to access STI screenings and “to ask sex-work related health questions openly, without fearing loss of child custody and racism.”
The By Us, For Us project aims to further educate communities about decriminalizing and sex work. Machat said, “I think the most important thing to know about the sex industry is that sex workers do sex work as a solution to costs of living in Canada.”
