Editor:

Re: ‘Out of sight’: ÐÔÊӽ紫ý sex worker lobbies for protection of vulnerable women

This is an extremely important discussion that our city needs to have. It needs to happen in a way that listens to and learns from sex workers themselves. Kudos to your reporter for giving space to and centring the voice of a sex worker in this piece.

As with so many issues that impact the poorest and most vulnerable of our neighbours, stigmatization and criminalization have deadly consequences. We need to move past moral panics and fear politics to thoughtfully, appropriately and adequately meet peoples’ needs. When activities people do to survive are pushed into the shadows, bad things happen. 

Sex workers are our neighbours, family members, friends — part of our community. Community safety and well-being means safety and well-being for all community members.

ÐÔÊӽ紫ý, overall, lacks essential resources for our most vulnerable residents. A safe space for sex workers should be a straightforward, readily provided, infrastructure that any major city would have. 

Politicians will need to be moved to do so, even if it might be more politically expedient to push crime panics or simply ignore the issue. Thank you for a thoughtful article that will hopefully contribute to positive action.

Dr. Jeff Shantz, department of criminology
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, ÐÔÊӽ紫ý