Prostitution is everywhere in Vancouver, and one need not look too far to see that. It can be found on the streets of the Downtown Eastside, it’s promoted prominently in the back of the Georgia Straight, and some believe it’s even happening in the upscale rooms at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel. Despite measures taken by the government and police to curb the sale of sex, it remains a way of life for many Vancouverites.

“All these ladies have to do is go down the street, pull a trick, and it’s 150 bucks right there,” said Darrell, a maintenance man at the Marble Arch Hotel, a social housing building on Richards Street. “They don’t have to do any paperwork or prove themselves. It’s easy money on the streets.”

Despite Darrell’s assertions, the term “easy money” is highly debatable. Standing on street corners and jumping into cars without negotiating the terms of the “trick” is hardly what Sue Davis, a long-time sex worker and activist for sex workers’ rights, would call easy.

“That traditional image you see of a girl leaning in the window of a car, negotiating a trick, is illegal,” said Davis. “Because of that she has to jump in the car without negotiation, without time to see even if this guy’s got a gun or rape kit or machete or something. She doesn’t have time to look ‘cause she’s got to get in and get away, because she needs the money and doesn’t want to get busted.

“There are no rules and no boundaries in this line of work. All the power has been given to the consumer.”

The laws regarding prostitution can be found in sections 210 and 213 of the Criminal Code.

Section 210 covers “common bawdy-houses”. According to this law, anyone who keeps a common bawdy-house can be found guilty of an indictable offence and subject to a prison term of up to two years. Further, anyone who lives in, or is found in a bawdy-house without excuse, can be found guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

Section 213, meanwhile, covers offences in relation to prostitution itself. Anyone who is open to public view and stops a motor vehicle, impedes the free flow of pedestrian or vehicular traffic, or stops any person for the purpose of engaging in prostitution can be charged with an offence punishable on summary conviction.

If a prostitute leans into a car window to negotiate the terms of a trick, she is committing a crime. This is despite the fact that prostitution itself is actually legal in Canada.

It is for this reason that Davis and other activists have decided to lobby the government for exemption from these laws by creating a legal cooperative brothel. This idea has been introduced as a result of sections 210 and 213. The brothel would potentially include a bar with the capacity to employ exotic dancers, and a safe upstairs with rooms where sex workers could operate their business without being abused.

“The city has bought a lot of hotels, and a lot of these hotels have a bar, and truly that’s what we need, is a functioning kitchen and a bar,” Davis said. “We really wanted to use the Drake show lounge because of course, the guys that own the hotel had some of the best-paying and safest jobs for sex trade workers in the city, and they just shut it down with total non-complacency, with no care whatsoever for the dancers working there.

“They’ve closed 19 strip clubs in the last three years. And then people are surprised when the city has people on the street. We have dancers with $10,000 boobs doing $3 tricks down there.”

This movement, though endorsed by Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, has not garnered the warmth of federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.

“We are not in the business of legalizing brothels,” said Nicholson on February 7th, “and we have no intention of changing any of the laws relating to prostitution in this country.”

Nicholson was speaking to the House’s status of women committee on the recommendation that federal prostitution laws be amended to halt the charging of prostitutes, and instead to charge personnel such as pimps or bawdy-house owners.

This statement was given despite support for the recommendation from Conservative, Liberal, and NDP MPs. The Ministry of Justice did not return The Ubyssey’s requests for commentary.

“I think that’s really a slap in the face,” Davis said. “It shows you what the Conservative government thinks about sex workers, and they think we’re second-class citizens. Do I not, as a Canadian citizen, have the right to due process? How dare he decide the outcome of parliamentary proceedings without having gone through them?”

The Conservatives, however, are certainly not the only ones who have publicly opposed the idea of the brothel. Other sources of opposition include the Aboriginal Women’s Action Network (AWAN) and the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter.

Fay Blaney, an activist with AWAN and former UBC women’s studies professor, believes that the priority should be on services for those in the sex industry. “The women in the Downtown Eastside have been very hard-hit by provincial measures, which have included cuts to women’s centres and cuts to the allocation of social welfare.”

Darrell, the maintenance man at the Marble Arch Hotel (a desired location for the brothel), can attest to this problem.

“Social services don’t offer a lot of support. They offer rules, and if you don’t follow these rules, you’re cut out of the program. The government wanted to shrink the amount of money being given out by social services by making the rules tougher. But now, instead of being available to 10,000 people, like initially, it’s now only available to 5,000.”

So if there is indeed strong opposition to this idea of a cooperative brothel, what are women to do instead?

Daisy Kler, a spokesperson for Vancouver Rape Relief & Women’s Shelter, had some possible ideas as to how to tackle the problem, and they start with section 213 of the Criminal Code.

“The problem with section 213 is that the entire fault is put on the backs of the women who are engaging in the act of sex work,” she said. “When really, it should be the men’s actions that should be criminalized.”

Kler also said that more services that need to be offered to women.

“I’m talking about better welfare for women, so that they don’t have to resort to prostitution in the first place as a means of income. I’m talking about improving addictions services that will help turn these women away from drugs, as well as detox services.”

Furthermore Kler believes that Sue Davis’ argument about propositioning is flawed. “When we’re talking about dangerous men who may or may not have a weapon, you can’t just negotiate your own safety…if a man is going to hurt the woman, he’s not going to reveal himself as one wielding a weapon. The men here are the ones engaging in violence against women. Women will still be violated and murdered indoors. Just because you’re indoors does not mean you will be safe.”

Indeed, it seems that the formation of the brothel itself is not likely to come about anytime soon. What has happened, however, is the formation of the province-mandated West Coast Co-operative of Sex Industry Professionals, headed up by Sue Davis herself.

“It’s supposed to provide us with a foundation to work together as a community, so that we can define what our decision-making procedures will look like,” she said. “We’ll have membership criteria. Only members will be able to vote. We will be promoting art initiatives, publishing initiatives, and catering initiatives. With all of this, there’s capacity building, skill building, tangible things you’d be able to see on someone’s resume.

“We’re talking about people who are street-entrenched, some who have been out there as long as 38 years, wanting dreams, and wanting to aspire to do other things and improve their own quality of life, and not having the means to do that with community support.”

Jamie Lee Hamilton, a prominent activist for the rights of sex trade workers, couldn’t agree more.

“I think this can absolutely work, because the women are supported. Any time that women can come together in an environment that is supportive with members or friends around, I think women then have the opportunity to grow into a place that’s going to harbour their abilities.”

Davis is happy to report that there have been letters flowing in from the community at large, sending their support for the cooperative brothel.

“People are nervous, but we do have support in the community, and that’s why the communication strategy is so important. We’re going to go out into the community centres all over Vancouver and make this presentation to as many groups that want to have it. And we will then record what everyone says, for and against.”

And as for the government ruling?

“[Rob Nicholson’s] statement is an absolute insult,” Davis said. “As if he can’t imagine that we would have community support, that we wouldn’t have the capacity to make it that far. He’s wrong, he’s absolutely wrong, and we’re going to do it.”