indigenous peoples: sex work, human trafficking, & colonialism€¦ · colonialism frantz fanon...
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Colonialism
Frantz Fanon
Wretched of the Earth “[t]he colonized world is a world divided in two” and
that colonialism “is the entire conquest of land and people…”
In other words, colonialism is the complete domination and exploitation of Indigenous lands and bodies, and the domination of the identities attached to those bodies
Sex Work
Sex Work(er) Carol Leigh, 1970s Liberation from negative and legalistic term
Prostitute Legal term Not defined in the CCC; defined by case law
Sex professional Legitimizes labour context Limiting in criminalized context (like Canada)
History of Canada’s Anti-Prostitution Laws
Bedford v. Canada (2013) The bawdy house offence
(section 210 prohibits keeping and being an inmate of or found in a bawdy house);
The living on the avails offence (paragraph 212(1)(j), which prohibits living in whole or in
part on the earnings of prostitutes); and
The communicating offence (paragraph 213(1)(c), which prohibits communicating in a
public place for the purpose of engaging in prostitution or obtaining the sexual services of a prostitute).
History of Canada’s Anti-Prostitution Laws
Indian Act, 1867 NWMP, 1873 (present-day, RCMP)
Social construction of the Indigenous woman as the prostitute Defined all Indigenous women as prostitutes
1879 – “Houses of prostitution” Explicitly included wigwams
Criminal Code of Canada, 1892
History of Canada’s Anti-Prostitution Laws
Criminal Code of Canada (CCC), 1892 1915 – Living on avails
1972 – Communication law
Human Trafficking
Policed by two pieces of legislation Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA)
International human trafficking
Criminal Code of Canada Domestic human trafficking
Human Trafficking
Victims Uniquely Canadian Unique to “vulnerable, economically challenged and socially
dislocated sectors of the Canadian population”
Offenders Share the same ethnic background as the victim Potentially criminalizing personal and/or professional
relationships
Location Excessive resource development Northern First Nations
“Victims don’t identify as victims”
“Victims don’t know they are victims until we tell them are victims”
Whether they gave consent or not does not matter
Age does not matter
“Indigenous women/girls are most vulnerable”
Human Trafficking
Operation Northern Spotlight National Initiative
Including London
What can we learn from this?
Human Trafficking
But really, what about the victims?
Thank you/Chi-Miigwetch
Naomi Sayers
@kwetoday
www.kwetoday.com
fierce. indigenous. feminism.