Category: Announcements

In Canada, sex workers and their clients are criminalized under Criminal Code sections 213 and 286.1. The recent serial attacks on sex workers in Ottawa sadly show street-based sex workers’ vulnerability when they, their clients, and their work are criminalized.

In a criminalized context, street-based sex workers may not be able to take the time necessary to screen clients for fear they or their clients will be apprehended or charged. They may work where police can’t observe them, making them more vulnerable to being pulled off the street. In Ottawa we also see police continuing to harass and detain street-based sex workers under questionable pretenses. Sex workers tell POWER that much of the violence they experience comes at the hands of police.

More policing is not the solution. In the wake of these assaults, increased police presence in the area is likely, which may well increase sex workers’ vulnerability by pushing sex workers further to the fringes as they avoid surveillance and the chilling effect police have on client traffic.

We need to decriminalize sex work now.

POWER has three calls to immediate action to support sex workers and try to address the threat of violence against sex workers in our city:

1. Suspend the application of anti-sex work laws.

If police refrain from applying any sex work laws in Ottawa, sex workers will be able to work in safer areas, in groups, and/or hire third parties to support their work (like security).

2. Deliver emergency funding to community organizations that can help both prevent and offer support in the case of assault.

Peer-led and community-based organizations with training in harm reduction methods are more equipped than police to handle intersecting marginalizations in the Byward Market and Vanier (e.g., drug use, racialization, homelessness). Examples include Ottawa Street Medics, Centretown Community Health Centre, Somerset West Community Health Centre, & Minwaashin Lodge’s STORM.

1. Bring back the eviction moratorium

Rising rent costs in Ottawa coupled with the recent return to evictions mean sex workers may take risks to secure the money needed to retain housing.

Sex workers have been marginalized by Canadian laws for too long. The time to decriminalize sex work is now.

The POWER Board

* A PDF of this statement is also available here! *

The POWER executive board would like to thank everyone who has contributed to POWER’s work in 2020, particularly those who donated to and signal-boosted our COVID-19 Emergency Fund. Thanks to your generosity and support, we were able to donate thousands of dollars directly to sex workers in need via $100 microgrants. We have also donated to Willow’s and Ottawa Independent Companions to support their own emergency work supporting sex workers during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. POWER’s emergency fund is now inactive.

Due to the pandemic, we were not able to hold our 2020 Annual General Meeting to report back to our members and host elections for board members. We are concerned that a Zoom (or similar) meeting would jeopardize our members’ safety. Instead, we hope to hold an in-person meeting in the summer or fall of 2021, pending vaccine roll-out and improved COVID-19 numbers in capital-region. In the meantime, if you are interested in getting involved in organizing with POWER, please get in touch with us via our email, powerottawa(at)gmail(dot)com.

For 2021 initiatives, we are excited to report a collaboration with University of Ottawa researchers Emma McKenna and Ryan Conrad. The research team also includes current and former POWER members and board members in its ranks. The team is gathering information on how sex workers have or have not accessed emergency income replacement programs like the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), the Canadian Emergency Student Benefit (CESB), and Employment Insurance (EI). We hope that this data will help future advocacy work for sex workers’ full inclusion in social benefit programs intended for all workers.

POWER is launching an Emergency Fund to provide sex workers with financial support in the form of $100 grants. We know this is not much and is not enough to help with major costs like rent, but we are hoping to assist sex workers in the Ottawa-Gatineau area who could use this for emergency expenses such as food costs and medication.

POWER is not a service organization, and usually our efforts are directed at fighting for decriminalization and fighting against the stigmatization of sex work in Canada. As such, we do not usually provide funds to sex workers like this, but this crisis is hitting our communities very hard, and so the POWER board has decided to dedicate a significant portion of our funds to emergency relief. We have dedicated $4,000 to our own Emergency Fund, along with donating $4,000 to Willow’s to support street-based sex workers and $2,000 to Ottawa Independent Companions’ Emergency Fund.

If you or someone you know wishes to apply for our fund but does not have internet access or a bank account to receive an etransfer, please email us at powerottawa@gmail.com and we will make alternate arrangements.

If you would like to donate to the fund, please contact us at powerottawa@gmail.com.

We would like to thank Maggie’s and Butterfly for providing us with details on their own emergency fund process to help in designing ours.

In love and solidarity,
The board of POWER

 

Hi POWER!

Last September at our AGM, a new board was elected to help relaunch POWER and revamp our mandate to ensure we can best serve the needs of sex workers in Ottawa and Gatineau. We heard from you that POWER should focus on community building and supporting the development of strong connections between sex workers in our region. After some time getting the new board up and running, we are now ready to focus and shift our energy into these priorities.

Since the AGM we supported the Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, we planned our first social in February, we have spoken to students at Algonquin college about decriminalization and attended a harm reduction event hosted by Willow’s. More recently we have been working on a COVID-19 response to support local sex workers. More information on this response to follow shortly. We look forward to continuing to expand our relationships with the local sex work communities.

We decided, along with this update, to include some short bios of our board members.

I’m Sophia Lilac (she/her, they/them).  A local escort and activist.  I work for the Ottawa Independent Companions (a by sex worker, for sex worker collective) as well as with local queer activism groups.  Just hoping to help create a more compassionate world.

Zoey Jones has been working with POWER as a volunteer, then board member, since 2014. She presently serves as POWER’s treasurer. Zoey is a graduate student at Carleton University and has researched sex workers’ clients and BDSM practitioners, with a focus on fighting for the decriminalization and de-stigmatization of sex work and marginalized sexualities.

Brave Lady “if you’re going to be a slut, be a selective one” I don’t know where I heard this, but this made sense to me when I started my journey as a sugar. I am an older “sugar” and I love that I am. Smart, educated, and sophisticated and so ever so happy.  I’m confident and shy; one of those introverts that’s hiding in front of you as an extrovert. Good thing I am a Gemini, lol!”

Leah Bee is an activist primarily focused on grassroots harm reduction within the drug using community. A core organizer with Overdose Prevention Ottawa, and now the Harm Reduction Task Force (just to name a few) – Bee has been a sex worker and a person who uses drugs for over a decade. Bee is unapologetically vocal about her experiences with survival sex work and addiction and hopes that by doing so, the need for decriminalization will once again be made self-evident.

Matt, He/Him – I enjoy conversations about pizza, dogs and social justice. I hate bios but understand their need. I guess you want to get to know me…. #voyeurism. Here are a few hashtags that tell you almost a bit more about who I am #decrimsexwork #decrimsubstanceuse #abolishgender #decolonize #u=u

Natasja she/her – I’m a law student and escort who loves antiquing, reading policy, and thigh high stockings with seams up the back. I am passionate about the decriminalization of sex work and abolishing the prison industrial complex (while wearing fake eyelashes of course). I’m the youngest member of POWER and look forward to connecting more with sex workers all over the Ottawa/Gatineau region.

In solidarity,

POWER

POWER joined sex workers, allies and advocates from Ottawa in recognizing December 17, the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.

The event was intimate and powerful. Willow’s drop-in facilitator, Kristen, lead the naming ceremony of sex workers who were murdered or are still today missing. Josh from MAX Ottawa reminded us of the importance of community as we continue to advocate for full decriminalization. Leah, chair for POWER, shared some powerful thoughts on the intersection of drug using and sex working communities.

Violence affects, mostly, those of us who are at the intersection of multiple marginalized lived experiences. Sex workers, drug users, Trans women, women of colour, and immigrant/refugees amongst others. We cannot end the marginalization and victimization of all sex workers without also fighting trans-phobia, racism, stigma and criminalization of drug use, and xenophobia.

We hope to continue supporting local work that raises the profile of violence, and fights to eradicate it, so that sex workers can live lives that are meaningful to them.

We wish to thank the organizers, Willow’s Drop-In and MAX Ottawa.

In Solidarity,
POWER

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to the AGM—we ran out of chairs (and found more!), ran out of agendas, filled pages with ideas for things POWER 2.0 could prioritize, ate most of the food, and elected a new board of directors!

Posts from POWER on this page will be quiet until the new board has a chance to meet and decide our next steps and social media/communications plan. Minutes from the meeting will be posted soon for folks who were not able to attend, but are interested to see what we talked about.

Venue Accessibility Info:
– The front door and the accessible bathroom both do not have access buttons (if folks are in a mobility device they may require the support of a peer to open doors), 2nd floor is how ever accessible by elevator.
– The second floor has a male, a female, and an all gender / gender neutral bathroom.
– The all gender / gender neutral bathroom has a needle deposit box, available for folks who may need to use it during their visit at 25one.
– We keep a stocked first aid kit on the second floor, and a Naloxone kit.