TORONTO – Canada’s Supreme Court has caused a stir among protesters from both sides as the hearings to legalize brothels in Canada could change the way sex workers operate.
Some argue the current legislation makes it difficult for prostitutes to practice sex work safely. Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin raised the question last week of whether the decision will mean prostitutes should be able to hire security guards and work in secure brothels, off the street.
Tania Fiolleau, TV talk show host and founder of Save the Women International, expressed her concern over the potential consequences of legalizing brothels in Canada. In the past, Fiolleau says she ran four brothels and employed more than 500 girls.
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Global News: Why do you think Canada shouldn’t legalize brothels?
Tania Fiolleau: It’s not going to keep [the crime element] down. It’s not safe because women cannot actually turn away a client. I’ve ran brothels; a john comes in and we [can’t] say “a girl can’t see you because you’re not attractive.” The girl cannot turn away the business.
People keep saying, “Oh, if the girls can get tested it’ll keep them safer.” Well, as soon as those tests come in and she sleeps with her first john, the test is null and void because the johns are not getting tested. You can still catch syphilis, gonorrhea, Hepatitis A, et cetera. There’s just so many diseases; it’s not going to slow down the disease factor.
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GN: Many people believe that moving prostitution into the light will be beneficial, by making it harder for organized crime to operate. What do you say to that?
TF: I say that that’s a lie. If you look at what had happened in Sweden 1999, the Nordic model came into effect. And the Nordic model basically shifts the blame onto the john. It takes the blame off the girl and the john gets arrested and put in jail.
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GN: So would you say our laws are more sexist then?
TF: I wouldn’t necessarily say [sexist]. I’m just stating that if more brothels are legal then it’s going to drive the crime element up. If we adapt the Nordic model like in Sweden, in the first three years it [lowered the prostitution rate by half]. It’s been extremely effective.
The kind of money that these women are making – they’re going to be paying astronomical amounts [in] taxes so the government’s going to benefit from that…doesn’t that make the federal government a pimp? It’s all about the money. It’s not about the safe well-being of these women.
I myself was diagnosed with PTSD and I’ve very rarely met a woman who eventually wasn’t.
I’m dealing right now with a suicide attempt once to twice a week. I’m either at VGH (Vancouver General Hospital) or Burnaby Hospital [et cetera] finding girls unconscious. And every single girl is saying that they’ve tried to ‘off’ themselves due to the pain that prostitution has caused them internally.
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This is what I’ve found: when women would come to me when they first get into prostitution, the majority of them come from broken homes. They’ve been sexually abused, their parents suffer from drug addictions [and] neglected them, things like that. So when they come and start working in a brothel, it automatically gives them a family that they never had. All the other girls have gone through the same thing. It gives them a family where they fit in, [but] also a false sense of empowerment. And this is why I’m saying a lot of these women that are fighting for it are probably in that mode. It was the same thing for me. But then year after year, it chips away at your soul. And then you’re just this girl with a fake tan, fake nails, fake hair extensions – you’re this character that you’ve [been made] to be what everybody else thinks you are. But underneath all that you’re broken and dying inside. I pick up the pieces of these women.
GN: What responsibility should there be for the johns who pay for sex?
TF: They should go to a john school and be educated. I use to teach at a john school with the police department. A john school that educates on diseases and harmful effects. There’s a john school at the police academy at new Westminster.
When I would teach class there a lot of the time the john said “but she liked it because she’s smiling.” I go, “These girls don’t like it. They’re acting. They’re making the guy believe that they like it so that they’ll come back and [have sexual intercourse with] them again the next week because they get [more] money by their repeat clients.” A lot of them are crying.
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A lot of the time the girls end up developing habits where they’re on prescription medication, cocaine, or drinking too much because they’re self-medicating to numb out the emotional pain that they’re dealing with. Next thing you know they become full-blown addicted to drugs, and they’re prostituting for their drug habit.
Now, if we also legalize brothels any of the girls that are working the streets right now don’t have a chance at qualifying to work in a brothel. It usually goes from the high-end escort ads to the brothels, and when you’re too washed up they throw you out on the street. Then new flesh comes into the brothel, the competition gets hard and you can’t make any money. You tell me [girls] are going to come from the streets inside [a brothel]? They’re not going to hire an Aboriginal woman from Hastings. Come on (laughing).
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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