HALIFAX – A local sex trade advocacy group is calling a recent Canada-wide operation by police to crack down on human trafficking a violation of sex workers’ rights.
For two days last week, police across the country, including those in Halifax, focused their efforts on women who are being forced into sex slavery as part of Operation Northern Spotlight.
The operation isn’t sitting well with Fiona Traynor, the chair of Stepping Stone Nova Scotia, which is the only sex worker support organization east of Montreal.
“It was a real kind of old-school, regressive type of sting operation that targeted vulnerable people in our communities,” she said.
In December 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the country’s prostitution laws as unconstitutional.
In total, more than 330 women were interviewed. Police found some were being forced to perform sex acts multiple times a day for paying customers.
Traynor says the women were intimidated by police, who showed up at their door and questioned them. No charges were laid during the operation, but Traynor says the rights of sex trade workers were violated.
“They had no access to any kind of advice or legal counsel. They were asked their names, they were asked what they were doing there, any of that information other than their name can be used in a court of law.”
In Halifax, eight women were approached and offered support to leave the sex trade industry by police. The youngest sex trade worker was just 15 years old.
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“Some of the women chose to be in the industry for financial gain, however, many women are forced and coerced and their abused and controlled,” said Const.Tammy Lobb of the Halifax Regional Police-RCMP integrated vice unit. “They might be highly vulnerable and in high-risk situations.”
“We have acknowledged that we do have juvenile sex trade workers in Halifax.”
In the past few years, the relationship between Stepping Stone and the police has grown, but Traynor says this sting is a step backwards.
“If the police were carrying out this type of sting operation on other types of vulnerable populations, I don’t think people would stand for it,” she said. “I think people accept this type of sting operation from the police because it has to do with sex workers.
“Sex workers continue to be stigmatized and that’s unacceptable in our community.”
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