Vancouver sex workers plan co-op brothel
Last Updated: Thursday, September 20, 2007 | 1:21 PM PT
CBC News
An association of Vancouver sex workers say they'll move ahead with a plan to open up Canada's first co-operative brothel when their group incorporates in November.
The focus will be on setting up a place where prostitutes can work safely, said Susan Davis, spokesperson for the Prostitutes Alternatives Counselling and Education Society, a group of sex workers fighting to decriminalize and regulate the sex trade.
The recent murder of a young woman in a Kitsilano apartment has once again turned the spotlight on the safety of sex trade workers, Davis told the Vancouver police board on Wednesday.
It's currently illegal to operate a bawdy house or live off the avails of prostitution in Canada.
The women have no intention of breaking the law, but will look for an exemption, similar to one given to supervised injection sites, Davis said.
Failing that, Davis said she hopes police will grant them the same sort of amnesty given to the Compassion Club, a Vancouver establishment where marijuana is bought and sold without interference from police.
"It's not our intention to violate the law or put the Vancouver police in a position where they have to arrest us," she said.
"We will not open up a safe work site unless we can get an amnesty from the federal government."
Davis said a co-operative brothel would keep sex trade workers safe, decrease the number of complaints from residents, keep the streets cleaner and leave police to pursue more serious crime.
