The Women's Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution: Present Before the Court, Outside the Court, and Every Day For Women's Equality

Submitted by admin on Thu, 06/13/2013 - 11:02

For immediate release 

June 13, 2013
 
The Women's Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution: Present Before the Court, Outside the Court, and Every Day For Women's Equality
  
Ottawa, Ont. — The Women's Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution (the Coalition) is an alliance of seven national, provincial and local women's groups that count prostituted women among their membership, decision-making structures, and participants. Today, the day that Bedford v. Canada is being heard by the Supreme Court of Canada, the Coalition reaffirms its ongoing commitment to defending women's equality rights.
 
This commitment is manifested today by the presence of the Coalition's lawyers, Janine Benedet and Fay Faraday, before the Supreme Court of Canada to argue a third legal avenue. This process calls for the decriminalization of women who are trapped in prostitution and the maintenance of laws criminalizing the men who buy, sell, and exploit women's bodies: the pimps, johns, and traffickers. "Prostitution is a practice of inequality. Most of the buyers of prostitution in Canada are men, and the majority of those prostituted are women and girls. They are victims, even before arriving in prostitution, of different forms of systemic inequality stemming from, for example, their Aboriginal background, race, poverty, age, disabilities, and immigrant status," stated Michèle Audette of the Native Women's Association of Canada. "So, it is imperative that Canada take a stand to punish those who profit from these types of inequality, and to protect women." "It is also crucial, adds Jacqueline Gullion from the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres, that women in prostitution be provided with strategies and supports to be able to leave prostitution."
 
The Coalition's commitment is also evident in the presence of dozens of its members and sympathizers who have come from across Canada to the steps of the Supreme Court bearing the message "Criminalize pimps and johns, not women."  "It's important to send a clear message to the public and to our elected representatives who will have to legislate after the Court's ruling. In criminalizing prostituted women, the State is punishing women for their sexual exploitation" remarked Diane Matte, of Concertation des luttes contre l'exploitation sexuelle. "The law must not reinforce or pretend to benignly allow the continued inequality of women, nor the extraordinary degree of danger faced by women who are prostituted. We must decriminalize the women, but never condone the actions of the men who presume to be able to buy and sell women and girls," stressed Kim Pate, of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies.
 
« We want more than prostitution for women » says Hilla Kerner of Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter. "We want safety, equality and liberty for ourselves and for all women and we will keep fighting until we win it ». The Coalition's commitment to fight for a more just society will not stop today, when the hearing is over. The "We Want More for Women" campaign will carry on after today to raise public awareness and sensitize elected officials. Because poverty and lack of genuine choice are important factors with regard to women's entry into prostitution, and often, obstacles to getting out, the Women's Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution will also continue calling for government investment in communities, a guaranteed liveable income, adequate and affordable housing, and universally accessible health and childcare services.
 
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Members of the Women's Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution: Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres, Vancouver Rape Relief & Women's Shelter, Native Women's Association of Canada, Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes, Regroupement québécois des centres d'aide et de lutte contre les agressions caractère sexual, and Concertation des luttes contre l'exploitation sexuelle.
 
http://www.abolitionprostitution.ca/
 
Media contacts:
 
Éliane Legault-Roy, 514-692-4762, eliane.legault-roy@lacles.org
Claudette Dumont-Smith, 613-722-3033 extension 223, cdumontsmith@nwac.ca
Hilla Kerner 604-872-8212 hillak@rapereliefshelter.bc.ca
Kim Pate, 613-298-2422, kpate@web.ca
 
 
 
 

Factum - The Women's Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution - Supreme Court of Canada

Submitted by admin on Tue, 06/04/2013 - 15:13

Factum of the interveners, Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres, Native Women’s Association of Canada, Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, Action Ontarienne Contre La Violence Faite Aux Femmes, La Concertation des Luttes Contre L’exploitation Sexuelle, Le Regroupement Québécois des Centres D’aide et de lutte Contre les Agressions À Caractère Sexuel and Vancouver Rape Relief Society, 

Intervening as the Women’s Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution 

Read/Download the factum as submitted to the Supreme Court of Canada on May 30, 2013

Women’s Equality Groups intend to bring a unique position on Prostitution

Submitted by admin on Wed, 05/01/2013 - 14:32

 For immediate release

 
Women’s Equality Groups intend to bring a unique position on Prostitution
to the Supreme Court of Canada
 
(OTTAWA) May 1, 2013 – In 6 weeks the Supreme Court of Canada will conduct its hearing regarding Canada’s prostitution laws. The Women’s Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution has been granted leave to intervene in the case. The Women’s Coalition will bring a feminist analysis of prostitution as both an expression and reinforcement of women’s inequality to the highest court of Canada.
 
The Attorney General of Canada’s position is that the court should maintain the status quo, keeping the laws on the books as they are. Bedford, et al’s position is that the court should strike down all three laws.  The Women’s Coalition, however, holds a third position and will argue that the court should consider an asymmetrical approach to the application of the existing laws that differentiates between the victims of prostitution and the exploiters of prostitution.
 
The Women’s Coalition will argue to the Supreme Court of Canada that since the vast majority of women enter prostitution due to conditions of economic, social and racial inequality; laws that criminalize women involved in prostitution must be removed. However, laws that prevent men from buying, selling and profiting from prostituted women are important protections that must be retained.

Leading up to the hearing at the Supreme Court of Canada, the Women’s Coalition’s national campaign We Want More Than Prostitution for Women is calling for the abolition of inequality, poverty and prostitution. More information on the campaign can be found here: www.abolitionprostitution.ca
 
The members of the Women’s Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution:
CASAC/ACCCACS – Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres/ Association canadienne des centres contre le viol
NWAC – Native Women's Association of Canada
CAEFS – Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies
RQCALACS – Regroupement québécois des centres d'aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel
CLES – Concertation des luttes contre l'exploitation sexuelle
Vancouver Rape Relief & Women’s Shelter
AOcVF – Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes
 
 
Media contact:
Vancouver - Hilla Kerner, 604-872-8212, hillak@rapereliefshelter. bc.ca
Ottawa – Candice Pilgrim, 613-866-6875, cpilgrim@caefs.ca

Equality Seeking Women’s Groups WANT MORE FOR WOMEN

Submitted by admin on Sun, 03/10/2013 - 09:05

For immediate release

(Vancouver) March 8, 2013 – On International Women’s Day and every day, women across Canada and around the world should be free from slavery, violence, inequality, and exploitation. The Women’s Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution [“the Coalition”], a pan-Canadian coalition of equality-seeking women’s groups speaks out against women’s continued exploitation through prostitution and urges Canada to denounce the exploitation and sale of women’s bodies.
 
The Coalition launches their “We Want More for Women” campaign today to draw attention to the lived reality of women who are trafficked and prostituted.
 
 “Prostitution is violence against women”, said Diane Matte of the Concertation des luttes contre l'exploitation sexuelle [la CLES]. “It exists because of racism, capitalism, colonialism and women’s inequality. Women coping with very limited choices are harmed by prostitution and will be further harmed by the decriminalization of this misogynist industry and commercialization of their bodies.”
 
“Our efforts must be for all the women of the world who are rendered vulnerable to prostitution/trafficking not only by individual men, but by systemic violence and oppression. There are no choices without options,” says Michèle Audette, President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada [NWAC]. “Aboriginal women are overrepresented in prostitution.  to Poverty, disconnection to their people and communitiesand overall marginalization within society speaks to their particular vulnerability to this exploitation..
 
Hilla Kerner, of the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centers (CASAC) states: “We want more then prostitution for women. We want the Canadian state to provide livable income to women so they don’t need to resort to prostitution and we want men who are buying and pimping women to be held accountable.”
 
“We denounce the buying and selling of women and children by men, as well as the criminalization of women who are stuck in prostitution”, said Candice Pilgrim of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies. “Too many of the women we know do not have access to adequate incomes, education, or even social assistance.  Most have been victimized as children and young women and their attempts to anaesthetize themselves from such realities render them vulnerable to yet more violence. No woman should have to sell her body in order to pay for housing or feed her children.”
 
The Coalition urges Canadians to speak out for women’s substantive equality through community resources, guaranteed liveable income, opportunity for education, access to support, et cetera, NOT through the decriminalization of the sale of their bodies for profit.
 
The members of the Women’s Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution:
 
CASAC/ACCCACS – Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres/ Association canadienne des centres contre le viol
 
NWAC – Native Women's Association of Canada
 
CAEFS – Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies
 
RQCALACS – Regroupement québécois des centres d'aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel
 
CLES – Concertation des luttes contre l'exploitation sexuelle
Vancouver Rape Relief & Women’s Shelter
 
AOcVF – Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes
 
Media Contact:
 

NWAC shocked with recent RCMP comments on CBC

Submitted by admin on Wed, 02/20/2013 - 12:19

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NWAC shocked with recent RCMP comments on CBC
Ottawa, ON (February 17, 2013)  –  In a response to a posting on the CBC News website stating that the, “The RCMP questions claim of 600 missing aboriginal women”, Michèle Audette, president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) states that, “it is incredible that the RCMP is publicly doubting the number of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls that has been documented in the Native Women’s Association of Canada’s Database! The high number of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls that has been documented was based on accurate secondary source information that in many instances came directly from police reports that had further been corroborated by NWAC researchers with various police agencies.
 
NWAC collected and developed the Database of Missing and Murdered Aboriginal women and girls between 2005 and 2010 through the Sisters In Spirit initiative, which was based on cases that were in the public domain. “Anyone can collect this information, it is there, but what is unique is that NWAC went beyond this general collection and spoke directly with many families of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls and was able to augment the data to better determine what the needs and gaps are in terms of service delivery, programming, and policy services. I invite you to educate yourself, your family, friends and community, and visit the NWAC website and see the research for yourself,” said NWAC President Audette. Research data collected through the Sisters In Spirit project are available on the NWAC website and can be found on this webpage: http://www.nwac.ca/programs/sis-research.
 
NWAC acknowledges that the number often cited by the research and scope of the Sisters In Spirit project is limited; the NWAC believes that the real number is much higher, potentially in the thousands. Many historical cases are unreported or are reported without ethnicity by policing agencies and the RCMP. NWAC continues to receive requests from families and communities searching for a loved one or missing community members. “There are times when the name search turns up a blank, this tells us that the NWAC Database is not up to date and has not captured all incidents. These are indicators that the number is much higher and we have NOT recorded all cases of missing or murdered Aboriginal women and girls,”  exclaimed NWAC President Audette. “I have to add that many of our friends, those grassroots groups that have also been collecting this data often state that the NWAC researched numbers are not correct, and that there continues to be an ongoing issue in the matter of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls that no one is officially keeping track of, which is very disconcerting to us.”
“I am not surprised that the RCMP does not know the real numbers of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls since they don’t report ethnicity, but I am shocked that they would publically admit that they don’t know what the real numbers are, it is a shame that the RCMP and this government are not doing more to rectify the situation”, said NWAC President Michèle Audette.
 
As stated in the recent Human Rights Watch report, Aboriginal women and girls are fearful of reporting crimes committed against them by police officers. "It is interesting in this last week that much information regarding the RCMP as an institution, has been made public with reported cases of misconduct, female members from their own ranks coming forth to disclose the widespread abuse of sexism and abuse of power within the RCMP, and now a member accused of horrific child sexual abuse and confinement in Ottawa. Just days ago, the RCMP civilian watch dog made very serious statements regarding the culture of "bullying" as the norm within the organization." stated NWAC President Michèle Audette.
 
"It appears now that the RCMP has chosen aggressive bullying tactics to re-direct public attention away from its own internal issues. This is another justification for NWAC’s call for a long-overdue national public inquiry that will, once and for all, look at the issue of missing and murdered Aboriginal women girls including the attitude of the police forces that should be there to protect them and not discredit the organizations that are trying to shed light on this matter,” said President Audette.
 
The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) works to advance the well-being of Aboriginal women and girls, as well as their families and communities through activism, policy analysis and advocacy. Aboriginal women continue to experience discrimination on multiple grounds and in various complex forms and from various sources, including from individuals, businesses, and governments.
NWAC was incorporated in 1974 and is one of the five officially recognized National Aboriginal Organizations (NAOs) whose purpose is to represent and speak, at the national level, on behalf of Aboriginal women in Canada.
 
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For additional information please contact:
Claudette Dumont-Smith
NWAC Executive Director
Toll free 1-800-461-4043
Tel.: 613-722-3033 x. 223
File Download: 
 

Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centers endorses findings of Human Rights Watch Report

Submitted by admin on Mon, 02/18/2013 - 13:54

 

For Immediate Release
Vancouver BC (February 18, 2013) - “This report confirms frontline evidence of sexist and racist violence endured by Aboriginal women. Frontline centers have recorded and protested this violence over many years.” says Lee Lakeman for CASAC. Since 2001 CASAC has been focusing particular attention on these issues as a crisis in violence against women. 
The report also supports CASAC in its long standing accusations that the RCMP neglect and sometimes participate in violence against women in particular against Aboriginal women and girls. “The current accusations of police brutality, sexual harassment, prostitution and wife assault by RCMP officers are crimes of a similar order” says Lakeman. “These cases are connected by systemic sexism and racism”.
“Even if you examine only those cases that proceeded to court in the interior and the north, to the rape child abuse and prostitution cases of the Judge Ramsey, Bishop O’Connor or John Furlong, you will see the mal- function of the RCMP or other police and criminal justice system. Or you can examine the RCMP failures in the Mooney case in Prince George and Velisek, Gakhal and Hull in Vernon, or the more familiar Pickton case. The brutality, racism and violence against women are obvious, sometimes at the hands of police and sometimes facilitated by police actions. And these are the ones they think are resolved”. 
Rape Crisis Centers and Transition Houses promise our callers complete confidentiality. In conditions of police neglect and even abuse we assure women they can come to us in confidence and remain in control of their own resistance and escape strategies. “Until they judge it safe, women should confide in only sources they can trust” says Lakeman. 
Government including police must accept the integrity and authority of women’s groups and human rights groups to aggregate the information gathered from our callers and interviewees for the benefit of social policy and social change. “Such organizations exist not only to bandage victims but to demand change” continues Lakeman.
Most urgent of those policy issues is the BC government neglect to include violence against women as serious crime in effective police oversight mechanisms. The government of Canada neglects the issues of violence against women which depress and degrade the Status of all Women in Canada and simultaneously neglects the urgent issues of violence against Aboriginal women. “The Canadian government offers us more and more law and the same old unfair social order” says Lakeman “with Aboriginal women on the bottom”. 
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For further information contact: 
Ishama Harris, for the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres
(604)876-2622