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Beneath the Red Umbrella: Comic Strips as Expressions of Solidarity with Sex Workers

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Guest Authored by: Genevieve Fuji Johnson, Kerry Porth, Addison Finch, Natasha Mhuriro, Beatrice Omboga, and Kerry Waters

Sex workers face stigma and discrimination that contributes to experiences of gender-based violence and produces barriers to support-seeking for survivors of gender-based violence. As such, there is a need to advance nuanced and accurate knowledge about sex work to counter false narratives that stigmatize sex workers and criminalize the sex industry. In this Brief, we examine expressions of solidarity in work to end gender-based violence against sex workers through comic strips.

To share accurate knowledge about sex work and dismantle myths, we – members of the Political Solidarity Team, including activists, artists, and academics – are developing a series of comic strips. In the past, team leads Genevieve and Kerry, who have been collaborating on sex worker rights and sex work governance projects for about a decade, would translate their academic work into language more accessible to the sex worker communities, service providers, and members of the broader public. We then decided that a mode of communication, much more compelling, was necessary to break down the deeply rooted stigma around sex work and sex workers. Comics, we think, are an effective communication mode for this topic because they enable us to tell a story about what sex work is, who does it, why they might do it, and the harms of stigmatization and criminalization.

By telling this story, we hope to encourage readers to shift their attitudes toward sex work and sex workers and to learn more about the industry and the sellers of sexual services. We hope to show readers that the harms associated with sex work are exacerbated by criminal laws around the industry and by anti-trafficking campaigns that conflate sex work with trafficking.

Our comic strips feature the main characters, Selina, Jaz, and Julie, who are university students, as they have conversations about the nature of sex work, the harms of criminalization, and how sex work is not trafficking. Through their relationships, they deepen their understanding of different levels of injustice against sex workers. They also learn more about themselves and each other.

Exploring the different levels of injustice against sex workers

Distinguishing between levels of injustice enables an understanding of how root causes of injustice against sex workers manifest.[1]

At the surface level are harms against sex workers that are so common and so frequent that they exist openly. For example, the physical assault of sex workers is enabled and invisibilized by criminalization of sex work because sex workers are reluctant to report crimes at the risk of further harm by the justice system. Perpetrators and potential perpetrators are aware of this reluctance and are thus more likely to prey on sex workers.

At the substratum level are prior or deeper forms of injustice. At this level, there exists both ontological and epistemological injustices:

At the bedrock level is stigma. Stigma is the very foundation of unjust laws and law enforcement campaigns around sex work. Responding to the injustice and harms that sex workers face requires addressing the stigma that upholds these systems.

Dismantling the myths and identifying harms

Common myths include sex work being understood as necessarily exploitative, coercive, and dangerous, and sex workers as necessarily not consenting to their participation in the industry. This feeds another dominant myth, which is that sellers of sexual services are in fact sex trafficking victims. The overarching myth is that sex work and sex workers do not exist; what exists are sex trafficking and sex trafficking victims.

These are myths because they are not supported by robust research literature by academics, activists, or service providers.

MYTH: SEX WORK IS ALWAYS AND NECESSARILY EXPLOITATIVE

One of the ways that sex work is conflated with trafficking is through portrayals of sex work as exploitive. This viewpoint fails to recognize that sex work is an option that people pursue for various reasons.

Similar to any job, exploitation may occur. Similar to other industries, such as agriculture, construction, and textiles, trafficking may occur. But, like these industries, sex work is not trafficking. Conflating it with trafficking feeds into the criminalization of the industry and increases the risks of violence against sex workers.  

Assumptions that all sex work is exploitative contributes to the criminalization of sex work. In sex work, like all other forms of work, there are instances and situations of exploitation. However, singling out sex work is a kind of moral panic that falsely exaggerates exploitation due to the stigma against sex work.  

As with all forms of exploitation, it is important to provide ways out. Ironically, conflating sex work with trafficking makes to more difficult for sex workers who maybe being exploited to report their experiences and get the help that they may need to end their exploitation.

MYTH: CRIMINALIZATION HELPS SEX WORKERS

There is a consensus in the international academic and civil society literature focusing on sex work and sex workers that the criminalization of the industry, including law enforcement campaigns that conflate sex work with trafficking, increase the risks of violence against sex workers.[2]

Kate Shannon observes that the growing peer-reviewed research confirms that the “enforcement of criminal sanctions targeting sex work, including communicating in public spaces, displaces sex workers to isolated alleys and industrial settings” and “away from health and support services.”[3] As Shannon and her team note, the enforced “displacement and lack of access to safer indoor work environments independently increase sex workers’ risk of physical violence and rape, and reduces their ability to safely negotiate condom use with clients….”[4] In addition, they observe how “criminal sanctions limiting sex workers’ ability to regulate safer industry practices (e.g., create unions, safer indoor workspaces. etc.) compound health-related risks.”[5]

According to an open letter signed by 300 researchers, a “large body of scientific evidence from Canada, Sweden and Norway (where clients and third parties are criminalized), and globally clearly demonstrates that criminal laws targeting the sex industry have overwhelmingly negative social, health, and human rights consequences to sex workers, including increased violence and abuse, stigma, HIV and inability to access critical social, health and legal protections.”[6]

Furthermore, the harms “disproportionately impact marginalized sex workers including female, Indigenous and street-involved sex workers, who face the highest rates of violence and murder in our country [Canada].”[7] And yet the governance regime of criminalization, which rests on the conflation of sex work with trafficking, persists in its dominance world-wide.

The following comic strip details more about the harms of criminalization:

Panel 1

At a downtown café, some friends find themselves discussing the harms of criminal laws around sex work…

Jaz: “Did you know that sex work is criminalized in Canada? Like, wow.”

Julie: “Well, sex workers need to be protected! And I thought it was illegal to buy sex, not sell it.”

Jaz: “Actually, the law makes sex work illegal! It’s illegal to sell sexual services in public, and clients and third parties are criminalized. So sex workers can’t community openly, they can’t advertise, they can’t hire security, they can’t even work together…”

Julie: “Hmm… if they can’t really communicate with buyers, how are they supposed to establish consent?”

Jaz: “Right, how can anyone consent…?”

Selina: “These laws make consent impossible. And they actually harm sex workers.”

Jaz and Julie: “What? How?”

Panel 2

Selina: “Imagine you’re trying to sell your services, but you can’t talk to prospective buyers because it’s a crime. So you can’t screen them, and you end up rushing into a situation that doesn’t totally work for you – or worse, that’s potentially violent.”

Julie: “I guess we already have laws against assault, bribery, theft, and so on that are supposed to protect all of us from violence.”

Jaz: “Exactly… why should sex work be a crime anyway?”

Selina: “Criminal laws around sexual services increase the risk of harms to sex workers. In fact, in the Bedford case, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized sex workers’ rights to health and safety. Current Canadian laws reproduce the harms in Bedford and they’re fundamentally unjust. And underlying the criminal laws are ontological injustices…”

Jaz and Julie: “Onto…what?”

Panel 3

Selina: “Ontological injustices have to do with how we understand who sex workers really are. When we think that they’re all victims who need protection, that’s a form of ontological injustice. We’re dismissing their humanity, including their decisions about what they want and need. If we don’t recognize their full humanity, then it’s harder for us to recognize their human rights.”

Jaz: “Wow… that’s intense.”

Julie: “Yea, I never thought about it like that…”

Selina: “There are also underlying epistemological injustices.”

Jaz: “… What?”

Panel 4

Selina: “Epistemological injustice is when we dismiss the knowledge of sex workers. They’re intelligent, curious, strategic, creative, thoughtful, compassionate, and skilled! Sex workers are the experts in what they need to work safely and live freely. But lawmakers, police, lawyers, and even researchers often don’t recognize them as legitimate sources of knowledge.”

Julie: “So if we’re dismissing their humanity and knowledge, it’s a form of injustice, which in turn gives rise to unjust laws. I’ve never thought about it that way. That’s awful! I’d like to do something to help. I feel like we all have a responsibility to end violence against sex workers and promote their human rights.”

Jaz: “Totally! I’ve been learning more about sex worker rights.”

Panel 5

Jaz: “Sex workers are really smart and politically organized! And there are so many organizations that are ‘by, with, and for’ sex workers. They have so much to tell us about sex work as work, how it’s not human trafficking, and about a rights-based approach to empowering sex workers. You should check out the global network of sex work projects.”

Julie: “Maybe I can volunteer for a local sex work organization…”

Jaz: “How about we attend the Red Umbrella March for sex work rights in June? Looks like there’s a petition for sex worker rights we can sign too.”

Selina: “Yeah, there are lots of ways to show up for sex workers. Volunteering, attending marches, donating money, speaking up against stigmatizing stereotypes. Research can also support sex work empowerment, as long as it’s done in solidarity with sex workers, centering their voices, experiences, and expertise.”

Selina afterword: “Hey, you can read more about all of this in GF. Johnson and K. Porth ‘Sex Workers Rights are Human Rights: An Approach to Solidaristic Normative Theory,’ forthcoming in International Feminist Journal of Politics.”

Illustrations by Addison Finch.
Text by Genevieve Fuji Johnson, Kerry Porth, Nadine Flagel, Beatrice Omboga, Chris Atchison, and Addison Finch.
AnUnusualAcademic.com (Sept 2021)
©2021 Genevieve Fuji Johnson

Click here to download the comic in full size!

Understanding the intersections: A focus on im/migrant and racialized sex workers  

Im/migrant sex workers face especially high risks of violence. Like Black and Indigenous sex workers and other sex workers of color, they are frequently subjected to racism; furthermore, they are tenuously positioned by their citizenship, immigration, and employment status. Butterfly, a support and advocacy organization based in Toronto, writes that migrant sex workers “face not only the criminalization and stigmatization which are directed at sex workers, but also racism and discriminatory immigration policy.”[8]

Alison Clancey, Executive Director of SWAN Vancouver Society, a support organization for newcomer, migrant, and immigrant women engaged in sex work, notes “the increased criminalization of the entire sex industry via the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA), and of the migrant sex industry via the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), namely 185(b), which prohibits employment in businesses related to the sex trade such as strip clubs, massage parlours or escort services”; this criminalization creates a hostile environment in which im/migrant sex workers seek to evade law enforcement which are seen as unsafe.[9] Despite government responses to sex work being framed around protection, Clancey goes on: “PCEPA and IRPA have become tools to prosecute rather than protect some of the most marginalized women in the sex industry who are at heightened risk of human trafficking.”[10]

Conflation of sex work with trafficking further alienates migrant sex workers form law enforcement, making them more vulnerable to violence.

Clancey further identifies that given “the number of women who have experienced punitive law enforcement measures, including anti-trafficking enforcement, it is not surprising that none of the im/migrant sex workers we approached in Toronto reported that they would call the police if they experienced violence, harassment, abuse or exploitation.”[11]

Potentially violent perpetrators, including traffickers, know how precariously positioned migrant sex workers are. They effectively operate with impunity, targeting im/migrant sex workers who they know are very reluctant to call authorities.

In research published by SWAN, 95% of Chinese sex workers based in Toronto and Vancouver stated that they would not seek assistance from law enforcement. [12]

Tara Santini, Sandra Kon Hu Chu, and Elene Lam also write that sex workers often “avoid police because of the risk of immigration detention and deportation resulting from numerous regulations, including not only sex work related criminal offences, but also sex work-related and other immigration regulations.”[13] The Canadian Alliance points out that im/migrant “sex workers have been targeted by law enforcement who often work hand in hand with Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).”[14] Referring to the work of Butterfly, the Alliance notes that in 2015, the Ottawa Police Service released information about a raid on massage parlors that resulted in the deportation of 11 women. As Butterfly writes, since Asian and migrant sex workers are forced to avoid the risks of detection by police, they often work in isolated conditions thus making them more vulnerable to violence against them. Butterfly articulates a few examples:

For example, one sex worker involved with Butterfly described being robbed four times in a week. Another sex worker was sexually assaulted three times in one week. More than 60% of migrant sex workers have experienced different forms of violence, yet they are not able to call the police as they are afraid that they or their co-workers will be arrested. Some women have been seriously injured, yet cannot freely access medical help or legal recourse. In the past two years, three Asian sex workers have been killed in the Hamilton and Mississauga area of Ontario. Even sex workers who have immigration status live with the fear that seeking help will increase the attention and surveillance on their workplace, putting them or their coworkers at heightened risk. It is very difficult for migrant sex workers to access legal support, since there are few legal professionals who have experience dealing with the complex intersections between criminal law (both sex work and trafficking laws) and immigration law.[15]

The following comic strip details the conversation of Selina, Jaz, and Julie as they develop their friendship and mutual understanding and learning. Selina shares her experiences of being “rescued” by cops and a social worker while she’s working in a rural community; Jaz continues to sharpen their analysis of the harms of law enforcement targeting sex work; and Julie continues to open herself to accepting and understanding sexual exchanges that are consensual but outside dominant societal norms.  

By offering these conversations, we hope to contribute positively to the movement to end the injustices against sex workers by decriminalizing and destigmatizing sex work world-wide:

Panel 1

Then something bad happens: Selina gets stung…

Selina: “Hey… remember how we were talking about the differences between sex work and sex trafficking a couple of weeks ago? Well, you’ll never believe what happened to me this past weekend…”

Julie: “Oh no…”

Jaz: “What happened, Selina?”

Selina: “I went out of town to work in a hotel for the weekend. I travel around the province when I can to do sex work; I can charge more as the ‘new girl in town.’”

Panel 2

Selina: “Everything seemed fine. I screened clients and booked appointments. But, at 8:00 Friday night, there was a knock at my door and, when I opened it expecting my date, I found two cops and a social worker.”

Jaz: “What?! That’s not cool.”

Selina: “Yeah, right? I was totally shocked.”

Panel 3

Selina: “They kind of pushed their way in, saying: ‘We’re here to help you, don’t worry, everything is ok…’ and I’m like, who are these people!? WTF is going on? Why are they here?!”

Julie: “Were you scared?”

Selina: “Yea, I was, Julie. I had just told you and Jaz about these types of trafficking stings, but I never thought I’d be caught up in one.”

Jaz: “Are you ok? What happened?”

Selina: “I’m fine now… They said they were there to do a ‘welfare check’ on me, to make sure I wasn’t being trafficked. I told them I was fine and that I was working.”

Panel 4

Selina: “But they kept asking me a whole bunch of intrusive questions.”

Officers: “What’s your legal name? What’s your date of birth? Do you have a boyfriend? Are you working for someone else? Is anyone controlling you? Can we see your ID?

Selina: “Then they gave ma a bunch of brochures on how to exit the sex trade. They said they could find me a safe place to stay. As if! I live on campus in graduate student housing! You know, they actually thought they were rescuing me.”

Panel 5

Julie: “So the cops look at online ads and set up fake appointments to try to find trafficking victims?”

Selina: “Yes. I’ve heard from other sex workers at the drop-in centre that they look for ads with young, racialized sex workers. They don’t even realize that a lot of these ads use stock photos! But I guess I fit that bill.”

Jaz: “Wow, I can’t believe that happened to you, Selina. How are you feeling about it now?”

Selina: “I was scared, confused, then humiliated. Now I’m angry. After they left my room, they stayed parked outside. I thought they were going to try to arrest my clients, so I cancelled all my appointments for the weekend. I lost a lot of money. But, honestly, I’m just reluctant to engage with the cops at all, even if I had something to report.”

Panel 6

Jaz: “It sounds like what you told us about criminalization: these rescue initiative just give sex workers another reason to distrust the cops.”

Selina: “Yea, and since perpetrators of violence know we’re reluctant to report, these initiatives actually increase the risks of violence.”

Julie: “That really sucks. What are you going to do?”

Selina: “Short term, eat cup of noodles. Long term, I don’t know. This string was difficult for me. I’m worried about the fact that staff in most hotels are being trained to look for and report so called ‘signs’ of human trafficking. If you’re a racialized sex worker like me, working in hotels, it’s just a matter of time before you’re caught up in a sting.”

Panel 7

Selina: “The bottom line is I want to do sex work and do it safely. I get paid $20 an hour as a Research Assistant and $250 an hour for a date. Without the sex work, I can’t cover all my expenses. The cops don’t care about me, and they don’t respect sex workers; they won’t even let me do my job. It’s like they think they can take these really intrusive steps in the name of ‘rescue.’”

Julie: “Is there anything I can do that isn’t a gesture expressing my own need to be a white saviour??”

Selina: “Nope!! But I’ll let you know if I need one… seriously though, just being a friend and listening to me vent has been super helpful.”

Illustrations by Addison Finch.
Text by Kerry Porth, Beatrice Omboga, Kerry Waters, Natasha Mhuriro, Nadine Flagel, Chris Atchison, C Icart, Addison Finch, and Genevieve Fuji Johnson.
Special thanks to Jenn Clamen, Alison Clancey, and Elene Lam.
AnUnusualAcademic.com (2023)
©Genevieve Fuji Johnson

Click here to download the comic in full size!

Support sex workers!

Stigma against sex workers is harmful and contributes to the enabling of gender-based violence against sex workers. To end this violence, gender-based violence organizations and service providers must act.

Some actions you can take include:

• Educate yourself, your peers, and your co-workers about what sex work is and how criminalization exacerbates the harms associated with it.
• Combat myths about sex work that are present at individual, organizational, and societal levels.
• Center sex workers as individuals with agency, rights, and knowledge.
• Involve sex workers at all levels in work to end stigma and gender-based violence against them (e.g. events, committees, Board of Directors) and remunerate sex workers for their participation in sharing their expertise.

Ultimately, ending violence against sex workers comes down to empowering sex workers!

You can download the comic strips shared and more comics from the Political Solidarity team at https://anunusualacademic.com/

For more information, contact Genevieve at genevieve_johnson@sfu.ca.

Citation: Johnson, Genevieve Fuji, Porth, Kerry, Finch, Addison, Mhuriro, Natasha, Omboga, Beatrice, and Waters, Kerry. 2024. Beneath the Red Umbrella: Comic Strips as Expressions of Solidarity with Sex Workers. Learning Network Brief. London, Ontario: Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children.

References

[1] Genevieve Fuji Johnson and Kerry Porth, “Sex worker rights are human rights: An approach to solidaristic normative theory,” International Feminist Journal of Politics, 25, 1 (2023), 101-126.

[2] Gillian Abel et al.,“Open Letter: 300 Researchers Call for Decriminalization of Sex Work in Canada” Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights (March 27, 2014), 1-2; See also Vicky Bungay et al., “Strategies and Challenges in Preventing Violence Against Canadian Indoor Sex Workers,” American Journal of Public Health 108, 3 (2018), 393–398; Rosie Campbell et al., “Risking Safety and Rights: Online Sex Work, Crimes and ‘Blended Safety Repertoires’,” The British Journal of Sociology 70, 4 (2019), 1539–1560; Putu Duff et al., “Poor Working Conditions and Work Stress among Canadian Sex Workers,” Occupational Medicine 67, 7 (2017), 515–521; Anne E. Fehrenbacher et al., “Exposure to Police and Client Violence Among, Incarcerated Female Sex Workers in Baltimore City, Maryland,” American Journal of Public Health 110, S1 (2020), S152–S159; Jamie J. Hagen, “Compounding Risk for Sex Workers in the United States,” NACLA Report on the Americas 50, 4 (2018), 395–397; Candace N. Hill, “Selling Sex: The Costs of Criminalization,” Quinnipiac Health Law Journal 21, 1 (2018), 131-158; Adina Landsberg et al., “Criminalizing Sex Work Clients and Rushed Negotiations among Sex Workers Who Use Drugs in a Canadian Setting,” Journal of Urban Health 94, 4 (2017), 563–571; John Lowman, “Violence and the Outlaw Status of (Street) Prostitution in Canada,” Violence Against Women 6, 9 (2000), 987–1011; John Lowman, “Deadly Inertia: A History of Constitutional Challenges to Canada’s Criminal Code Sections on Prostitution,” Beijing Law Review 2 (2011), 33-54; Canada, Parliament, House of Commons, Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, Evidence, 41st Parl., 2nd sess., Meeting No. 33 (July 7, 2014), 11-12; John Lowman et al., Violence Against Persons Who Prostitute: The Experience in British Columbia (British Columbia: Department of Justice and Solicitor General, 1995); Lucy Platt et al., “Associations between Sex Work Laws and Sex Workers’ Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Quantitative and Qualitative Studies,” PLOS Medicine 15, 12 (2018), e1002680; Amy Prangnell et al., “Workplace Violence among Female Sex Workers Who Use Drugs in Vancouver, Canada: Does Client-Targeted Policing Increase Safety?” Journal of Public Health Policy 39, 1 (2018), 86–99; Kate Shannon, “The Hypocrisy of Canada’s Prostitution Legislation,” Canadian Medical Association Journal 182, 12 (2010), 1388; Kate Shannon et al., “Violence, Condom Negotiation, and HIV/STI Risk Among Sex Workers,” Journal of the American Medical Association 304, 5 (2010), 573–74; Shannon et al., “Social and Structural Violence and Power Relations in Mitigating HIV Risk of Drug-Using Women in Survival Sex Work,” Social Science & Medicine 66, 4 (2008), 911–21; Kate Shannon et al., “Prevalence and Structural Correlates of Gender Based Violence among a Prospective Cohort of Female Sex Workers,” British Medical Journal 339 (2009), 442-445; Chris Bruckert, “Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act: Misogynistic Law Making in Action,” Canadian Journal of Law and Society 30, 1 (2015), 1–3; Vicky Bungay et al., “Strategies and Challenges in Preventing Violence Against Canadian Indoor Sex Workers,” American Journal of Public Health 108, 3 (2018), 393-398; Sandra Kon Hu Chu et al., “Sex Work Law Reform in Canada: Considering Problems With the Nordic Model,” Alberta Law Review 51, 1 (2013), 101-124; Putu Duff et al., “Poor Working Conditions and Work Stress among Canadian Sex Workers,” Occupational Medicine 67 (2017), 515-521; Andrea Krusi et al., “Criminalisation of Clients: Reproducing Vulnerabilities for Violence and Poor Health Among Street-Based Sex Workers in Canada,” British Medical Journal Open 4, 6 (2014), 1-10; Andrea Krüsi et al., “‘Harassing the Clients is Exactly the Same as Harassing the Workers’: Street-Based Sex Workers in Vancouver,” in Red Light Labour: Sex Work Regulation, Agency, and Resistance, eds. Elya M. Durisin et al. (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018), 213–223; John Lowman, Street Prostitution: Assessing the Impact of the Law, Vancouver (Ottawa: Department of Justice, 1989); John Lowman et al., Violence against Persons Who Prostitute: The Experience in British Columbia (Department of Justice and Solicitor General, 1995); Shira Goldenberg et al., “Community Mapping of Sex Work Criminalization and Violence: Impacts on HIV Treatment Interruptions among Marginalized Women Living with HIV in Vancouver, Canada,” International Journal of STD & AIDS 28, 10 (2017), 1001–1009; Shira Goldenberg, “Structural Determinants of Health among Im/Migrants in the Indoor Sex Industry: Experiences of Workers and Managers/Owners in Metropolitan Vancouver,” PLoS ONE 12, 1 (2017), 1-18; Rachel Phillips et al., “Social Determinants of Health Care Access among Sex Industry Workers in Canada,” in Health Care Services, Racial and Ethnic Minorities and Underserved Populations: Patient and Provider Perspectives, ed. Jennie J. Kronenfeld (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2005), 79-104; Frances M. Shaver, “The Regulation of Prostitution: Avoiding the Morality Traps,” Canadian Journal of Law and Society 9, 1 (1994), 123–145; Shaver et al., “Rising to the Challenge: Addressing the Concerns of People Working in the Sex Industry,” Canadian Review of Sociology 48, 1 (2011), 47–65; Eugenia M. Socías et al., “Universal Coverage without Universal Access: Institutional Barriers to Health Care among Women Sex Workers in Vancouver, Canada,” PLoS ONE 11, 5 (2016), 1-15; Julie Sou et al., “Recent Im/Migration to Canada Linked to Unmet Health Needs among Sex Workers in Vancouver, Canada: Findings of a Longitudinal Study,” Health Care for Women International 38, 5 (2017), 492–506; Erin Albright et al., “Decreasing Human Trafficking through Sex Work Decriminalization,” AMA Journal of Ethics 19, 1 (2017), 122-126; Alison Clancey, Realities of the Anti-Trafficked: How Canada’s Human Trafficking Response Increases Vulnerability for Im/migrant Sex Workers: Brief to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights on Human Trafficking (SWAN Vancouver, 2018), 1-6; Sarah Hunt, “Representing Colonial Violence: Trafficking, Sex Work, and the Violence of Law,” Atlantis, 37.2, 1 (2015/2016), 25-39; Julie Kaye et al., “Exploring Human Rights in the Context of Enforcement-Based Anti-trafficking in Persons responses,” in The Palgrave International Handbook of Human Trafficking, eds. John Winterdyk et al. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 601-621; Kamala Kempadoo, “The Modern-Day White (Wo)Man’s Burden: Trends in Anti-Trafficking and Anti-Slavery Campaigns,” Journal of Human Trafficking 1 (2015), 8-20; Elene Lam et al., “Butterfly: Resisting the Harms of Anti-Trafficking Policies and Fostering Peer-Based Organizing in Canada,” Anti-Trafficking Review 12 (2019): 91-107; Anna Malla et al., Beyond Tales of Trafficking: A Needs Assessment of Asian Migrant Sex Workers in Toronto (Toronto: Butterfly, Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network, 2019), 1-26 and Hayli Millar et al., in collaboration with SWAN Vancouver Society, The Palermo Protocol and Canada: The Evolution and Human Rights Impacts of Anti-Trafficking Laws in Canada (2002-2015) Key Findings (Vancouver: 2015), 1-65.

[3] Kate Shannon, “The Hypocrisy of Canada’s Prostitution Legislation,” Canadian Medical Association Journal, 182, 12 (2010), 1388.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Abel et al., “Open Letter: 300 Researchers Call for Decriminalization of Sex Work in Canada,” Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights (March 27, 2014), 2.

[7] Ibid, 1.

[8] Butterfly, Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network, Journey of Butterflies, ed. Elene Lam (2016), 4.

[9] Alison Clancey, Realities of the Anti-Trafficked: How Canada’s Human Trafficking Response Increases Vulnerability for Im/migrant Sex Workers: Brief to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights on Human Trafficking, (SWAN Vancouver, 2018), 1-2.

[10] Ibid, 2.

[11] Alison Clancey, Realities of the Anti-Trafficked, 2.

[12] Julie Ham, “Chinese Sex Workers in Toronto & Vancouver,” (SWAN Vancouver, 2015).

[13] Santini et al., Upholding and Promoting Human Rights, 3.

[14] Canadian Alliance, List of Issues Prior to Reporting, 7.

[15] Butterfly, Journey of Butterflies, 4.