STING ANGERS SEX WORKERS' ADVOCATE

Says Law Enforcement Is Targeting the Vulnerable

EDMONTON - An advocate for sex trade workers is upset over a recent police
sting that resulted in 55 prostitutes being charged with drug-related
offences, particularly since the majority have been denied bail.

Kate Quinn, executive director of the Prostitution Action and Awareness
Foundation of Edmonton, said she can understand why the four-month
undercover operation was done, but she has problems with the fact it
targeted the most vulnerable in society.

Police said the sting was done in response to numerous complaints from
residents and business owners in several inner-city communities about
increased crime and traffic due to prostitutes and drugs in their
neighbourhoods.

The neighbourhoods include Alberta Avenue, McDougall, Queen Mary Park,
Norwood, McCauley, Boyle and downtown. Officers approached sex workers
looking to buy drugs. Fifty-one women and four men were charged with 97
drug-related offences.

Sgt. Kevin Galvin, head of the downtown beat unit and one of the two
officers in charge of the sting, said Thursday not only was the operation
in response to community complaints, police hope those charged will
re-evaluate their lifestyles and make positive changes.

Quinn said it is difficult to see how harassing sex trade workers and
jailing them is going to convince them to change their lifestyles when the
root causes of prostitution -- poverty and addictions -- haven't been
addressed.

"PAAFE has worked with the police service and the criminal justice system
to create options for what we would call compassionate enforcement and
prosecution aimed at helping people, and I have to ask: Where is the
compassion in this operation?"

Quinn said she has been told most of those charged have been denied bail
and their first court appearances are scheduled for March.

"It gives me no joy knowing that these women will be in jail for four
months. A lot of these women have children, so what happens to the children?"

Stephen Jenuth of the Alberta Civil Liberties Association said police are
obviously only doing their jobs, but he is not sure if putting sex trade
workers behind bars is the best way to convince them to change their
lifestyles.

The only way to get people off the street is to treat their addictions,
ensure they have access to safe, affordable housing and the community
support they need to stay off the streets whether it is going back to
school or job training, he said.

"What you have done is decided that you don't really care about these
people. The net result of this will be another sting operation," Jenuth said.

One of the women charged, who did make bail, was arrested Dec. 1. The
warrant alleged she sold drugs to two people on Sept. 4. "Apparently they
didn't arrest me then because of the ongoing operation," said the woman,
who asked that her name not be used.

She said customers often approach prostitutes for drugs, but that doesn't
mean street workers are big-time dealers.

Since her release, the woman has felt like a police target. One of her bail
conditions is she not be within 200 metres of 118th Avenue. She lives less
than one block from there with a 16-year-old son and a sick husband who
can't work.

Quinn wonders how "Operation Girl Interrupt," as the sting was called, is
going to impact on the work RCMP members of Project Kare have done to build
up relationships with Edmonton sex trade workers.

Members of Project KARE, which is investigating a number of murders of
Edmonton prostitutes, have been collecting names, photographs, fingerprints
and DNA profiles of those working on the streets as part of a plan to build
a database and a better working relationship with prostitutes and the
agencies that offer support to them.

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Wayne Oakes said while there may be fallout for Project
Kare, the RCMP is not about to criticize another police agency for simply
doing its job.