Red Light Labour: Sex Work Regulation, Agency, and Resistance

Description

In 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Canada v. Bedford that key prostitution laws were unconstitutional. Red Light Labour addresses the new legal regime regulating sex work by analyzing how laws and those who uphold them have constructed, controlled, and criminalized sex workers, their clients, and their workspaces. This groundbreaking collection also offers nuanced interpretations of commercial sexual labour from the perspectives of workers, activists, and researchers. The contributors highlight the struggle for civic and social inclusion by considering sex workers’ advocacy tactics, successes, and challenges. A timely legal, policy, and social analysis of sex work in Canada. Dedication Contents Foreword • Valerie Scott Acknowledgments 1 Contextualizing Sex Work: Challenging Discourses and Confronting Narratives • Elya M. Durisin, Emily van der Meulen, and Chris Bruckert Part 1: Law and Policy Contexts: The State and Beyond 2 Sex Work Policy: Tracing Historical and Contemporary Developments • Emily van der Meulen and Elya M. Durisin 3 Bedford v. Canada: A Breakthrough in the Legal Discourse • Brenda Belak 4 Municipal Regulation of Street-Based Prostitution and the Impacts on Indigenous Women: A Necessary Discussion • Naomi Sayers 5 From Average Joe to Deviant John: The Changing Construction of Sex Trade Clients in Canada • Ummni Khan 6 Pimps, Partners, and Procurers: Criminalizing Street-Based Sex Workers’ Relationships with Partners and Third Parties • Kara Gillies and Chris Bruckert 7 New Risk-Spaces, New Spaces for Harm: The Effects of the Advertising Offence on Independent Escorts • Andrea Sterling 8 Misrepresentations, Inadequate Evidence, and Impediments to Justice: Human Rights Impacts of Canada’s Anti-Trafficking Efforts • Tamara O’Doherty, Hayli Millar, Alison Clancey, and Kimberly Mackenzie 9 Perceptions of Sex Work: Exploring the Narratives of Police and Regulatory Officials • Frances M. Shaver, John Bryans, and Isabelle Bhola 10 Protecting Victims Sexually Exploited through Prostitution? Critically Examining Youth Legal and Policy Regimes • Steven Bittle Part 2: Diverse Experiences: Examining Places, Spaces, and Types of Work 11 Indigenous, Indoors, and Incognito: Th oughts and Experiences of an Irish and Ojibwe Female Sex Worker • Elizabeth James 12 Myths and Realities of Male Sex Work: A Personal Perspective • River Redwood 13 Champagne, Strawberries, and Truck-Stop Motels: On Subjectivity and Sex Work • Victoria Love 14 “The Paradox?!”: Racialized and Indigenous Sex Workers’ Encounters within a Capitalist Market • Menaka Raguparan 15 Double Punishment: Immigration Penality and Migrant Trans Women Who Sell Sex • Nora Butler Burke 16 “Harassing the Clients Is Exactly the Same as Harassing the Workers”: Street-Based Sex Workers in Vancouver • Andrea Krüsi, Brenda Belak, and Sex Workers United against Violence 17 Everybody Knows Everybody: Sex Work in Rural and Small Communities • Stacey Hannem 18 Hypocrisy in “Sin City”: Space, Place, and Sex Work Stigma in St. John’s • Laura Winters and Gayle MacDonald Part 3: Sex Workers’ Resistance: Building Alliances and Subverting Narratives 19 Canadian Feminism and Sex Work Law: A Cautionary Tale • Mariana Valverde 20 Whorganizers and Gay Activists: Histories of Convergence, Contemporary Currents of Divergence, and the Promise of Non-Normative Futures • Becki L. Ross 21 Fighting for Homewood: Gentrifi cation and the History of Violent Struggle over Trans Sex Workers’ Strolls in Canada • Morgan M. Page 22 Do Black Sex Workers’ Lives Matter? Whitewashed Anti-Slavery, Racial Justice, and Abolition • Robyn Maynard 23 Migrant Sex Workers’ Justice: Building Alliances across Movements • Elene Lam and Chanelle Gallant 24 Will the Real Supporters of Workers’ Rights Please Stand Up? Union Engagement with Sex Work in Canada • Jenn Clamen and Kara Gillies 25 Sex, Lies, and Committee Hearings: Challenging Prostitution Propaganda • Kerry Porth 26 Action, Advocacy, and Allies: Building a Movement for Sex Worker Rights • Sarah Beer Afterword Appendix: Prostitution-Related Criminal Code Provisions List of Contributors Index