TIME TO DEBATE THE IMPACT OF CANADA'S HYPOCRITICAL LAWS RELATING TO THE SEX
TRADE

The federal criminalization of drug users and sex workers and their
resulting marginalized status places them at greater and greater risk.

I can hardly bear to open the newspaper or watch the nightly news for fear
of another story of the unfolding tragedy of the missing women of
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. For me and many of the people I work with,
the case of the missing women coupled with the ongoing health crisis of
drug users in the Downtown Eastside represents not only a colossal failure
of public policy, but of our democratic system itself and our faith in
Canadian values of fairness, compassion and equality.

I often think of Serena Abotsway, one of 63 women missing from the Downtown
Eastside, and one of the 11 women that Willy Pickton is charged with
murdering. I knew Serena for several years, and in the last federal
election took her and Josie, who is still alive, to vote on East Pender
Street. It was the first time Serena had voted in a federal election, and
she had hope for the future, hope that things would improve on the street.
I saw her a few times after that and then, she, like so many others,
'disappeared.'

The perpetrator, or perpetrators of such vicious crimes, must be held to
account and brought to justice. But there are many other questions that lie
unanswered; questions that are too troubling to face it seems, for they
mock and rip apart any illusion that public policy is rational,
well-founded and based on democratic principles of justice and the welfare
of all Canadians.

The missing women and many more who are still working the streets today are
not only victims of their own tragic individual circumstances, but they
also fall victim to the failure of public policy. The criminalization of
drug users and sex workers and their resulting marginalized status places
them at greater and greater risk. The law not only failed them, it aided
and abetted their demise. Federal laws pertaining to prostitution force
women on the street into dangerous and illegal activities

Not since the Fraser Commission first grappled with Canadian's prostitution
laws in 1985 has there been a willingness to honestly debate the impact of
Canada's hypocritical laws relating to the sex trade. As a society, we
continue to turn a blind eye to the sex trade that operates beyond the
street, and instead focus law enforcement on street prostitution activities
and "communicating." This creates a revolving door of abuse,
criminalization and neglect.

Federal laws pertaining to illicit drug use have fared no better,
condemning users to a life of crime, and exacerbating the health crisis
among injection drug users, especially women. If there is any doubt about
this, one only need to read the latest Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study
in the Canadian Medical Journal, showing HIV incidence rates among female
injection drug users in Vancouver are about 40 per cent higher than those
of male injection drug users.

All of that is pretty awful but there is another thing gnawing its way to
the surface: when expert evidence clearly documents that our laws and
policies have failed and actually create enormous harm, why then is there a
failure to act? Why, when 54 women are missing and the largest murder
investigation in Canadian history is under way, are the Vancouver Police
Department and the RCMP still pointing fingers at each other and saying it
wasn't their jurisdiction? Why won't local authorities, or even the
Minister of Justice, agree to call a public inquiry to probe the massive
failure of law enforcement agencies, who neglected to investigate these
disappearances dating back to 1987? I have repeatedly called for a public
inquiry, and will continue to do so, because the lives of these women
matter, and we have a responsibility to find out what went wrong and why.

I also wonder why the Minister of Health Anne McLellan is stalling and
holding up critically needed health interventions like supervised safe
injection sites and heroin maintenance trials for chronic users who are
dying daily? These interventions have strong backing locally, but we've not
heard a peep out of the new Health Minister.

Having just returned from Europe with the House of Commons Special
Committee on Non-Medical Use of Drugs, I know, as does the Canadian
government, that there is ample evidence to support the pragmatic health
approach being taken in Europe on the drug issue. Countries such as
Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands have reduced crime, improved the
health of drug users, and dramatically reduced the rate of new HIV infections.

The health and safety of sex workers and injection drug users and the
safety of the community as a whole continues to be put in jeopardy by
government inaction. These dual crises continue to rage uninhibited in my
riding of Vancouver East. So I have to ask the question, what does
democracy mean to us and in whose interest is public policy being
formulated? When Serena went to vote, she did so with the belief that she
was entitled to the same dignity, worth and rights as any Canadian. I
believe that. Being poor should not rob anyone of democratic rights nor
access to resources and opportunities.

Being powerless is a failure of those in power not of those who struggle at
the bottom.

NDP MP Libby Davies is her party's critic on social policy, housing,
children and youth, and represents the federal riding of Vancouver East, B.C.