Wrong target

[Gabrielle Laliberté]

I know, this debate is not a scoop. But, i'm bored of this same old shitty campaign of fear every year when the grand-prix come to the city.

It is true that human trafficking is a horrible thing, but it is not with this kind of campaign that it will stop. Why not use this money to give women who emerge from human trafficking real chances to start a new life?

During this time, real pimps and human trafficking continue to scrap and kill woman.

http://http://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1036769/grand-prix-canada-formule-montreal-exploitation-femme-prostitution-recruteur-campagne-sensibilisation-prevention

 

[Doc Holliday]

I know, this debate is not a scoop. But, i'm bored of this same old shitty campaign of fear every year when the grand-prix come to the city.

I agree. It's getting tiresome. Why don't they pick on the Jazzfest, Just for Laughs or any other major event instead?? It's always about the Grand Prix!

 

[somethingelse]

I agree. It's getting tiresome. Why don't they pick on the Jazzfest, Just for Laughs or any other major event instead?? It's always about the Grand Prix!

I assume it's because the audience for the Grand Prix is almost all men... who might be from out-of-town looking for MPs and SPs.

I think Gabrielle is saying that the money is better spent to help victims. She's not saying that other events should be the target for this campaign.

 

[Rosie Sparkles]

There could be awarness campaigns to encourage customers to think twice before booking a girl that look druged or taking advantage of a girl who look scared to death. Why are those campaigns always towards against the victims and not the abusors? Why aren't there campaings saying ''Hey, don't be an evil pimp!'' or ''Hey, these ladies are not objects and they are not yours''. Grrr! Thank you Gabrielle for coming up with this discussion.

 

[gugu]

The purpose of la CLE is not to fight against humain traffiking in the true sense of the word, which is quite rare in Montreal. It is to fight against sex work. Poeple generally don't care about prostitution because it is invisible. So they use the trafficking language because it touches the imagination.

As for the money that goes into those campains, it is almost nothing. These groups have no money. It cost nothing to contact journalists and shovel all the bulshit. They are very happy to relay the information, serving their own purpose: virtue signaling. The public funds went to LE: SPVM, RCMP and CBSA. The SPVM has never said they lack money to fight human trafficking. But hey, it's given to them.

La CLE was financed 1,2 M$ by Status of Women Canada a few years back. That money should have gone to exploited women. It did not. It was used to hire ideologues to built publicity campains against prostitution.

Prostitution of minors, the main concern of LE, is a disgusting but rare phenomenon. I still have to understand that the demand for that increases significantly during the Grand Prix. What would be the link between pedophilia and fastcarphilia? Of course, there is probably an increase in demand for escort services since the city population increases during the GP. But that is fine. It's has and positive economic impact for everybody.

 

[neverbored]

link fixed:

http://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle...recruteur-campagne-sensibilisation-prevention

 

[The Snark]

You might be interested in this article by Melissa Gira Grant which tackles the belief that every major sporting event is accompanied by an uptick in sex trafficking. She finds that this assumption is largely unfounded. As one study concluded:

"Based on available information (including anecdotal reports), many sex workers report being surprised and disappointed at the lack of business during large sporting events. In any case, any small increases in the demand for paid sexual services have not reached the extremely high levels predicted by prostitution abolitionist groups."

What's more, the crackdowns associated with these sporting events tend to fall harder on sex workers than anyone else. As Grant points out, "Contrary to claims that such crackdowns would focus on 'the johns' and 'demand', outreach workers reported that the police made it harder for them to provide sex workers with safer sex supplies, health information, and service referrals."

Meanwhile, this article by Tara Burns concludes that "the claim of trafficking at [large sporting events] isn't just unfounded, it's harmful, leading to the (often violent) arrests of dozens of adult, self-directed sex workers and distracting the public from the much more common horror of labor trafficking in the hospitality industry that may exist at large events that draw large amounts of people to a city."

This article by Anna Merlin, referencing fears of sex-trafficking at the Super Bowl, adds:

The durability of the Super Bowl prostitution myth isn’t surprising, given that it relies on just three things: politicians desperate for headlines, obliging journalists willing to write a big, breathless story before the game without doing any real follow-up afterwards, and anti-trafficking groups who desperately need donations and are grateful for any attention the media will give them.

My own anecdotal sense of what happens at the Grand Prix in Montreal is that the event draws in a lot of women - either from out of town or who might not regularly engage in sex work - who are eager to make some extra money from the sudden influx of tourists. I get the impression that the mentality of the vast majority of these women is entrepreneurial and opportunistic; they see an opportunity for quick dollars and seize it. If anything, the stress related to the event has to do with opportunity rather than coercion. I know of one stripper who came to me in tears because management at a downtown club told her she was too old to work during Grand Prix week, and others who complain about the steep floor fees charged by strip clubs during this period (one establishment makes dancers pay $200 a night just for the opportunity to work). When people are scrambling to do something, this is generally an indication that that this activity is characterized by self-interest rather than exploitation.

 

[CaptRenault]

I can understand why politicians (such as PM Trudeau and Mayor Coderre) and the CLES take advantage of the F1 Grand Prix to spread their anti-prostitution propaganda. However, it's disappointing that the mainstream media become such willful dupes of the anti-prostitution movement. The articles published on all the major English and French Montreal news sites read like press releases written by anti-prostitution zealots.

 

[CLOUD 500]

It is to fight against sex work. Poeple generally don't care about prostitution because it is invisible. So they use the trafficking language because it touches the imagination.

It goes deeper then that... Fact is only a minority are in the prostitution business that is both clients and sex workers... Most people really do not care about it and prefer to see it gone. North American society is very conservative in general.

 

[Gabrielle Laliberté]

Like last year, Stella made a nice reply :

http://https://twitter.com/AmiEsdeStella

 

[neverbored]

link fixed again

https://twitter.com/AmiEsdeStella