SEX-TRADE WORKERS THE REAL VICTIMS, NOT BUSINESSES

Editor:

Re: KTW July 15 ("Peaceful Protest Turns Ugly"):

I am a longtime resident of the North Shore, and a customer of those
businesses on Tranquille Road, and in the other areas of the business
district which are in question.

In the last few years, since the city has run a campaign to rid the
downtown area of the "unsightly" population, I have noticed that they
have had no choice but to gather around the largest and almost sole
area containing low income housing -- the North Shore.

Unfortunately, it's the women referred to as "hookers" who are blamed
for this culture of poverty and addiction, and it is the sextrade
workers who are discriminated against, moved, and brushed under the
carpet in the name of business and personal prosperity to those who
are more fortunate.

The prostitutes hanging outside on the street don't scare me. I'll
tell you what scares me:

They pass laws discriminating against "known sex-trade workers," but
"known johns," "known pimps," and "known coke/meth dealers" are not
commonly found dead in Kamloops; In the river banks, the train yards,
back alleys, seedy motels, and in Mission Flats, to only name a few.

These women are not who I am scared of when I walk alone at night in
my neighborhood.

It is the lifestyle of drug dealers and johns which victimizes these
women, forcing them into lives of violence, addiction, sexual abuse,
and hopelessness.

It is the perverts and pedophiles strolling the streets to exploit and
rape these women.

No woman wants to be a junkie hooker when she grows
up.

No woman wants to sell her body for drugs.

To buy sex from a prostitute perpetuates chronic sexual abuse and
violence against women on an entire cultural scale, and is paramount
to serial rape.

I would like to add in here that I find it disturbingly ironic and
socially irresponsible that RCMP officers would pose as johns to sting
these women (and men).

The answer is not to move the "unsightliness" around the city and
blame the women who are trapped (and probably more scared than you
are) in this unhealthy lifestyle.

To those business owners who have a problem with
the sex workers, particularly Betty Nelson: Shame on you.

To blame these women and to choose to be ignorant to the violence
inflicted on these women, and the lack of positive resources available
to them.

Compounding the forceful relocation of the sex trade from a spread out
downtown area to a concentrated strip on the North Shore, resources
like women's hostels, women's shelters, drug treatment and counseling
centres, and notably the Women's Resource Center have been closed or
have never been in existence in Kamloops to begin with.

Why aren't we more concerned about the violence these women endure,
than our businesses?

That other ordinary people, who appear to be similar to myself and my
family, find no kindness, concern, or empathy for their fellow
sisters, daughters, mothers and friends is a reality that scares me.

We should be pressuring our local government to invest in practical,
accessible, non-religious and non-discriminatory services for
victimized women and children. That is why we pay taxes.

My friends, family and I will be boycotting every business on the
North Shore until the Business Association rejects the red zone, and
actively pressures our local government to do something to help the
problem, not just sweep it away, and I would encourage anyone who
loves a woman to do the same.

I would also encourage the Thermo Gel guy with the megaphone to make
an apology for his tactlessness surrounding this issue.

You've embarrassed yourself, and disgraced the business you work
for.

Kathryn Reichennek,

Kamloops