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dimanche 26 novembre 2006 Answer to Irene Demczuk - "Some precisions" Prostitution : Justify the Injustifiable ?
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DANS LA MEME RUBRIQUE ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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My answer is inserted in Irene Demczuk’s message posted on NetFemmes, following a debate on a text sent by Ana Popovic from Laval Women Center : Is UQAM an accomplice to the sex industry ?.
I. Demczuk - In response to a statement this grossly mistaken and unfounded, I would like to provide some information and clarify the role of UQAM’s Community Service in this project.
I. Demczuk : The mission of UQAM’s Community Service is to encourage the democratization of knowledge by making knowledge accessible by means of training, research and presentation activities aimed at social groups who do not usually have access to it.
I. Demczuk : Because sex workers are particularly stigmatized women, the training aims to reach the following goals...
I. Demczuk : The training is provided in a co-teaching model by Maria Nengeh Mensah and a Stella employee, Cynthia Lee. It is aimed at a diverse public from community groups, women’s groups, the social and health services network, and police services.
I. Demczuk : The primary criteria for attendance was the fact of being a sex worker or working in an organization representing sex workers. In fact, 75% of the inscription were reserved for these individuals, with 25% going to experts and representatives of organizations that share a human rights perspective on sex work.
I. Demczuk : Unlike Ms. Popovic, I had the chance to attend the Forum...
I. Demczuk : I would like to point out that, contrary to what has been said on netfemmes and par-l in 2005 and since, that the Forum aimed to reinforce sex workers’ abilities and help them share their expertise.
I. Demczuk : As to the $270,000 grant awarded to the project by the Public Health Agency of Canada, it was obtained in full compliance with standard regulations...
I. Demczuk : a project lasting almost two years, not four days as Anna Popovic’s letter implies.
I. Demczuk : Personally, I have never understood why the feminist movement has made such a big deal out of the attendance criteria for the Forum, which aimed to encourage discussion about the experience of stigmatization in various social and legal contexts, as well as about working, living and health conditions, from a perspective of empowerment.
I. Demczuk : Would the same objections have been raised if lesbians, social assistance recipients, or any other category of marginalized women had decided to organize an event to help bring their peers together, to speak for themselves, to develop an analysis of their situation and areas for future action ?
I. Demczuk : I also saw the worst : I was faced with the pressure placed on UQAM to cancel the event, and as logistics coordinator, I had to deal with the acts of vandalism committed on the Forum’s posters and materials by a handful of people who call themselves feminists.
I. Demczuk : I want to congratulate them for their determined work towards education and the defense of human rights, which recently earned them an award from Human Rights Watch and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.
The Canadian VIH/AIDS Legal Network, a community group, formulates ten recommendations in favour of the total decriminalization of prostitution. The research lasting over two years was able to be realized due to the financing obtained from the Public Health Agency of Canada. The Legal Network says it took its data out of "sex workers and employees’ the testimonies" as well as in "reliable researches". In reality, it consulted only data supplied by groups, researchers and academics who legitimize "sex work" and suggest its decriminalization or regularization. Thus, it could only reach the same conclusions as its sources. [ ... ] This research is not interested in the majority of prostituted women’s needs. It does not either mention positions expressed publicly by some groups helping women and youths to leave "sex work ", such as Quebec Intervention Project on Prostitution (PIPQ), the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centers, among which the CALACS in Quebec, the CASAC in British Columbia and Yukon, or the groups working with prostituted women and survivors in Toronto and in other Canadian cities. On Sisyphe, November 26, 2006. |