By: Lucaiah Smith-Miodownik, News Writer
Content warning: mentions of disappearance, murder, and serial killer Robert Pickton.
At the Standing Committee on City Finance and Services on May 20, Vancouver Green Party councillor Pete Fry introduced a motion aiming to uphold “the City’s responsibility to maintain adequate, community-connected capacity to support sex worker safety.” Fry included a call to reinstate a second sex work social planner, after the role was slashed to only one active position earlier this year. The motion passed with amendments, which eliminated this commitment. The Peak corresponded with Fry, WISH Drop-In Centre Society, and the City of Vancouver for more information.
Those in the support position “function as liaisons and planners working directly with people and organizations with lived and professional experience,” Fry explained. They “specifically are not representing or reporting to law enforcement — with a focus on understanding and identifying risks and trends, and creating safe environments in work places and urban realm.”
These positions came as direct recommendation from a Commission of Inquiry, led by former attorney-general Wally Oppal. Their 2012 document Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry was designed “to inquire into the failures of policing forces between 1997 and 2002 who were investigating the disappearance and murder of dozens of women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and particularly the police investigation of serial murderer Robert William Pickton.” Pickton “was charged with murdering 26 of the women” — although he claimed to be responsible for the death of 23 more — and was found guilty on six counts of murder, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia. He died in 2024 serving life in prison.
This document highlighted many negligent police behaviours surrounding the murder investigation while it was ongoing, as well as systemic issues that led to the vulnerability of women working in the sex trade, including being unhoused and substance use issues. Oppal made a total of 65 recommendations to the government to take “action to directly address women’s vulnerability to violence and serial predation.” One of these recommendations was “that the City of Vancouver create and fund two community-based liaison positions to be filled by individuals who have experience in the survival sex trade.”
Fry’s proposal also acknowledged the immediacy of reinstating the second position, given the city’s upcoming summer events. “There are reasonable and credible concerns about increased risk of violence and harm to sex workers around FIFA events, driven by heightened policing, displacement, venue-area controlled zones, and the erosion or loss of safety supports and peer infrastructure,” the motion reads. Similarly, “during the Olympics in Vancouver sex workers faced heightened police harassment without arrest.”
The original motion also noted that “sex worker safety advocates, SWAN Vancouver, report calls relating to violence and safety concerns increased by 64% between 2024 and 2025, with further increases projected for 2026.” They note that “increasing housing scarcity, economic pressure, escalated violence, service defunding, and the loss of peer-led organizations have compounded new risks for sex workers.” Recently, the sex worker support organization PACE “permanently closed its 24/7 Vancouver drop-in centre after 30 years of operations due to a lack of funding,” according to CBC. Vancouver currently has no 24/7 sex worker support centre. According to Halena Seiferling, executive director of Living in Community, this leaves many with nowhere to go, as “most organizations aren’t open and operating when sex workers need to access them,” as reported by CBC.
Still, the second sex work social planner role was originally cut as part of the city’s effort “to shave costs in response to a direction from mayor Ken Sim’s ABC Council majority to freeze property taxes this year,” according to CBC. The amended motion, which was proposed by ABC councillor Lisa Dominato, included “no commitment to rehiring the worker.” Dominato asserted “that instead of having two sex-worker support staffers there should be a focus on safety across multiple city departments,” according to the Vancouver Sun.
The Peak reached out to councillor Dominato for comment, but did not hear back by the publication deadline.
The City of Vancouver noted that “for the past several years, the city’s work related to sex worker safety has been delivered within a broader planning focus on community and gender safety, including women’s equity, 2STGD+ [Two-Spirit, Trans, and Gender Diverse] safety and inclusion, and MMIWG [Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls] responses.” The City said to The Peak, “As part of this work, some functions are changing or being realigned while ensuring service priorities continue to advance. Community and gender safety, including efforts to support sex workers and related organizations, continues to be a priority in the city.”
For Fry, however, “the role of the sex-support worker is a highly demanding and difficult job that helps protect this community in ways that other departments, such as the police, can’t,” he shared with The Vancouver Sun.
WISH Drop-In Centre Society, whose mission is to “improve the health, safety, and well-being of women who are involved in Vancouver’s street-based sex trade,” echoed concerns regarding the City’s decision. “Council heard almost an hour of testimony from 20 people with lived experience who spoke about ways the sex worker safety planners provide an essential resource for both individuals and sex worker serving organizations. They received hundreds of emails as well,” the organization told The Peak. “It’s really hard to reconcile the amount of public support shown for these knowledgeable workers with the decision to cut their two-person department.
“There is so much misunderstanding about sex workers’ rights, and discrimination related to sex work stigma, that specialized knowledge is required to have an impact on sex worker safety”
— WISH Drop-In Centre Society
