Who is This Handbook For?
This handbook has been developed to assist anti-violence workers to provide information and emotional and practical support to survivors of sexual assault. It will be of use to community-based victim service workers, sexual assault support workers, Stopping the Violence Counsellors, outreach workers, multicultural outreach workers, Band workers, immigrant and settlement workers, medical personnel, social workers, advocates, police-based victim service workers, and anyone a survivor may go to for help. For the sake of simplicity, we will largely use the terms "antiviolence worker" and "support worker" throughout this manual.
As victims' advocates, we are committed to the goals of eliminating sexual and intimate partner violence and increasing safety for women and children. Today Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould continues to show her commitment to these goals, too. The Minister introduced Bill C-78, which comes on the heels of bold reforms which were introduced last month in C-75. These bills make concrete improvements to the family law and criminal justice systems.
Introduction
The Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC) works toward the prevention and eradication of sexual assault. OCRCC's membership includes community-based sexual assault centres from across of Ontario, offering counselling, information and support services to survivors of sexual violence.
The use of technology for communication, maintaining social connections, and day to day organization is a reality for young, adult, and older women today. In recent years, technological tools like text-messaging, Skype, online correspondence and social media have overtaken traditional tools (i.e. voice calling, mail) in both popular usage and accessibility. Anecdotally, we know that some of these technologies have greatly increased access to health, language interpretation, or mental health supports in under-serviced regions of Ontario by creating remote or virtual service access in Northern, rural and isolated regions. In response, many social service agencies are utilizing e-counselling, texting and other technologies in their frontline work to connect with and check-in with support-seekers.
1. Si l'industrie du sexe est décriminalisée, existera-t-il des lois visant à lutter contre le préjudice et l'exploitation?
OUI. Les lois qui ciblent directement ces préjudices seront maintenues, y compris celles qui interdisent les agressions physiques et sexuelles, les menaces, le harcèlement, le meurtre, l'extorsion, la traite de personnes et l'exploitation des enfants.
1. If sex work is decriminalized, will be there be laws in place that target harm and exploitation?
Yes. Laws that directly target these harms will remain in place including those that prohibit physical assault, sexual assault, threatening, harassment, murder, extortion, human tra cking, and child exploitation.
En 2007, trois travailleuses du sexe de l'Ontario ont initié une contestation constitutionnelle visant les sections du Code criminel interdisant divers aspects du travail du sexe adulte, dont :
- s. 210 (tenir une maison de débauche ou s'y trouver),
- s. 212(1)(j) (vivre des fruits de la prostitution), et
- s. 213(1)(c) (communiquer en public à des ns de prostitution)
In 2007, three Ontario sex workers initiated a constitutional challenge to provisions of the Criminal Code that prohibit various aspects of adult prostitution, including:
- s. 210 (keeping or being found in a bawdy house),
- s. 212(1)(j) (living on the avails of prostitution), and
- s. 213(1)(c) (communicating in public for the purpose of prostitution)
In 1997,Toronto newspapers began to report on a series of raids on strip clubs and apartments, where women who had migrated from outside of Canada were allegedly working as prostitutes. For those of us who had been working on sex trade issues as political allies, this report alerted us to what women working within the trade already knew; the character of sex work in this city was rapidly changing as women began to find their way to Canada, through what- ever means were available, for the economicopportunities that sexwork in Canada provided.
Helpful tips the Reproductive Justice Movement can use to support Girls, Women and Transgender people of color involved in the Sex Trade & Sex Work
1. We are not ONLY "victims" or ONLY "empowered"- the reality of the sex trade is complicated and our lives don't fit into a box. Don't ignore our reality by assuming we are one or the other (we might be both or neither - let us define how we view our lives.