Letter to the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Stephen Harper

(date)

Mr. Stephen Harper
Prime Minister’s Office
80, rue Wellington
Ottawa (Ontario)
K1A 0A2
FAX : 612-941-6900
pm@pm.gc.ca

Mr. Prime Minister,

Although I rejoice in your government’s recent decision not to legalize brothels in Vancouver and Victoria for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, I demand that Canada immediately do more and better for women in situations of prostitution. No women, no girl, no person is born to become prostituted ! If one can dream of becoming Prime Minister, I can assure you that no one ever dreams of being prostituted ! Prostitution is basically a survival condition, forced on people impoverished by a tattered social security net, given the lack of social housing, of income security and of detoxification facilities, and because of other pressing problems - and urgent remedies - brought to the attention of your government by the House of Commons Standing Justice Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs more than a year ago. Your government has to chosen to ignore their recommendations.

I am demanding that the Canadian government provide substantial help to prostituted women by fulfilling their most pressing needs now. I am also demanding that, contrary to Minister Nicholson’s stated intentions, it stop immediately its harassment of women in situations of prostitution, to focus instead on the real sources of this problem : the procurers/traffickers - who publicly advertise their trade with full impunity, while police forces only badger women on the street - and the buyers of “sexual services” who should be dissuaded by a law, by public education work and by the promise of substantive sanctions, as is being done in Sweden with excellent results and is about to happen in the United Kingdom.

Choosing social justice calls for each of us to defend, protect and support the most threatened and fragile persons in our midst, instead of covering for their exploiters and adding to their marginalization by a selective judicial harassment. I await your response to these pressing needs and demands.

Signature:_________________________________
(PRINT NAME) _____________________________
Address:__________________________________
E-mail of Prime Minister : pm@pm.gc.ca.

On Sisyphe, February 29, 2008

Rose Dufour, anthropologue

Rose Dufour est une anthropologue spécialisée en santé publique. Elle a œuvré dans sa spécialité dans le Grand Nord québécois. Depuis une douzaine d’années, elle a collaboré à l’étude des processus d’insertion et de désinsertion sociale des itinérant-es, des jeunes de la rue et s’est investie dans le dossier des orphelins de Duplessis. Rose Dufour est associée au Collectif de recherche sur l’itinérance, la pauvreté et l’exclusion sociale de l’Université du Québec à Montréal et travaille au Projet Intervention Prostitution Québec.