MLA NOW PROPOSING SAFE SEX SITES

Liberal MLA Sheila Orr, who earlier called for a prostitution stroll in
Victoria, floated the idea Monday of setting up "safe sex sites" as another
way to protect women in the sex trade.

Orr had no specifics on how such sites might work or where they'd be
located, but said she got the idea from Vancouver's safe injection sites
for dealing with the drug problem.

Orr said the safe sex sites might be indoors, or a building on a stroll
where women could rest or get counselling.

"The question is, 'Sheila, how does that look?'" Orr said in an interview.
"You know, I don't know exactly how that looks. I'm just trying to come up
with something to get it onto the table to talk about."

The Victoria-Hillside MLA told city council earlier this month to consider
creating a designated stroll that sex-trade workers could use within
certain hours.

Both Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe and Premier Gordon Campbell disliked the
idea. But Orr vowed Monday to keep the debate going.

"I'm trying to get the message through, very, very clearly, that this isn't
something that's new to me," she said, noting that she began working on the
issue long before she became an MLA.

"I've had a couple of people say to me, 'Oh, you're doing it just for an
election.' Well, no."

Orr said the issue surfaced now only because the Burnside Gorge Community
Association was dealing with street prostitution in the Rock Bay area.
Reporters asked her about it and she offered her views, she said.

"I just obviously have strong opinions because I've been so involved with
it and I've just seen so much abuse. What I'm trying to do more than
anything is get people to understand that ... it is not going to go away,
unfortunately. I wish it was, but it's not. Prostitution is going to be
there forever."

Orr said the problem is that nobody wants it in their neighborhood, but
nobody has any kind of solution either, "So what I'm trying to get is for
council to debate it."

Victoria Coun. Dean Fortin, who is also executive director of the Burnside
Gorge association, applauded Orr for sparking discussion. "Because, you
know what?" he said. "It brings an issue up that we need to talk about."

But Fortin would prefer to see government use its limited resources to help
the men, women and children get off the streets, and prevent them from
getting there in the first place. "That's a lot more effective and a lot
more just," he said.

"We know that many of these men and women are driven to work this trade
because of poverty, because of drug addiction, because of violence. Those
are issues that are within the purview of the provincial jurisdiction.
Those are (the areas) where we should be spending our efforts and attention."

Fortin said he doesn't want to see governments setting up brothels, even if
they're using the money for the most laudable purposes. "Frankly, we don't
want to be living off the avails of these women, even if the money is to
fund alcohol and drug treatment or family-violence prevention," he said.
"That's something that we as a society should be stepping up on in general
tax revenue."

Orr said she plans to discuss the issue further at a yet-to-be-scheduled
meeting with Lowe and representatives from the Vancouver Island Health
Authority, police and the Prostitutes Empowerment Education Resource
Society. Orr hopes to arrange the meeting for mid-December.

"We just need to find something that is palatable to the city of Victoria,"
Orr said. "Now, we might not find that. But you know, we'll never find it,
we'll never find anything, unless we're prepared to look at a whole
different range of options."