Members of an Okanagan outreach organization are speaking out after Vernon RCMP put out an alert to warn people that a woman had been sexually assaulted while working in the sex trade.
“The first word that comes to my mind is bravery for the woman who was able to come forward and warn her street sisters about this predator,” said Dominique Lennox, a case manager and board member with H.O.P.E. Okanagan.
Lennox and fellow H.O.P.E. Okanagan board member Britta Elm said it’s not uncommon for sex workers to face violence, but the public hearing about it is.
“Often these crimes are going unreported,” said Elm.
“Sex workers in B.C. face a much higher level of violence than any other kind of work in B.C. and even more vulnerable are Indigenous, homeless, immigrant, migrant and trans sex workers.”
Elm said community stigma is a major barrier to people engaging in sex work reporting crimes to the police.
The incident police put out a public notice about occurred on the evening of Thursday, Jan. 12.
The RCMP said the victim was near the 3300 block of 31 Ave. in downtown Vernon when she was picked up by a young man in a large white SUV and was sexually assaulted before being dropped off in the area of Turtle Mountain.
In a statement, the RCMP said it released the details of the incident to the public “so vulnerable people, especially those involved in a high-risk lifestyle, are aware for their own safety when engaging with individuals they do not know.”
H.O.P.E. Okanagan says information can help people stay safe. That’s why it collects and shares information about so-called “bad dates.”
Elm said there is also an initiative underway to create a province-wide bad date reporting system where similar information from around the province could be shared.
Lennox said there are also changes that could make it easier for people in the sex trade to make official reports.
Meanwhile, police are asking anyone with information about the sex assault reported in Vernon last week to call the RCMP detachment.