Project aims to help sex trafficking victims
Group developing housing plan, supports to help sex-trade workers leave industry
Chantal was a sex worker for four years before she decided to leave the industry.
At 17, her father kicked her out of the house and she was left stranded with no money.
She looked for escort ads in the Journal de Montréal and, soon enough, a man was driving her around the island to different appointments, where she would supply what her clients demanded.
A few times, she said, she feared for her life.
“When I went to see a client, I was emotionally not there. It was just my body that was there.”
Finally, she left the industry with the help of friends and a strong base of personal character, she said.
Fast-forward 19 years. Chantal is 40 years old: she has a different career, a car, and a happy life. She’s now working with The Way Out (La Sortie), a group based in Montreal that seeks to offer housing and support to Quebec’s female victims of sexual exploitation who are between 18 and 35. It hopes to open its first shelter in Montreal by 2018-19.
Under the umbrella of The Way Out is Horizon, a research project mainly funded by the federal Ministry of Public Safety that seeks to identify the needs of victims of sexual exploitation in Quebec. Its ultimate goal is to develop a housing intervention model for shelters that want to include this type of service by 2019.
This would include short, medium and long-term frameworks that would offer up to two years of housing. The latter would ultimately help victims reintegrate into society after living in a criminal environment.
Horizon is in its research stage. Its head researcher, Eric Latimer, works with the Douglas Hospital Research Centre, is a professor at McGill, and is an expert in housing models for vulnerable people.
“(Latimer) will do interviews with survivors, victims, interveners, and find literature on the topic,” said Ronald Lepage, director of The Way Out. He added that the research phase will be a year long.
Lepage said he wants to make sure the victims are aware of the project’s services. “We want people to know that this housing exists, that ... when they’re ready to get out (of the sex trade), they’ll know about it,” Lepage said.
For now, he said, victims who reach out for help are sent to different, more general women’s resources. But Lepage does not believe this to be effective.
Criminal records can be an obstacle in getting help, he noted.
“These girls, unfortunately, often have criminal records, because they did criminal activities for their pimp.”
Other issues, like mental health problems, substance addiction and STIs, should also be addressed when dealing with these victims, he said.
But what is the difference between a victim of sexual exploitation and a sex worker? For Lepage, the debate is irrelevant.
“There’s a perspective that prostitutes, it’s what they want,” he said, referencing the film Pretty Woman. “That’s not really the reality.”
Though he said there are women who choose to work in the sex industry, he added that his job is not to defend the rights of sex workers, but to help the victims.
“Who are the victims? It’s for her to decide.”
Chantal said that although she was doing sex work solely for the money and was not controlled by a street gang, she still considers herself a victim of sexual exploitation.
According to data collected by the Conseil du statut de la femme, 89 per cent of sex workers wish to leave the industry. Though these findings are based on a cumulation of many studies and not every sex worker will respond to census calls, Lepage says the number is not contested.
“What I see ... is that 89 per cent want to get out, and we have to give them a service that helps them get out.”
Horizon’s model is still being developed and hopes to be as inclusive as possible. But some factors are still being worked out.
Transgender women, non-binary people, minors and males are also victims of sexual exploitation — but these people’s integration into the model has not yet been decided. Lepage said whether services for these victims are included in practice depends on the organization that adopts the model.
“Our mission for victims is to (help them) without discrimination,” he said, adding that the biggest proportion of people affected by sexual exploitation are women between 18 and 35.
As for The Way Out, a location for its housing centre has been found — in an old convent in Vaudreuil-Soulanges. Initially, the organization had found a residence in ÎleBizard, but residents of the street opposed the idea so strongly that Lepage decided not to push for it. This is how he met Chantal — she spoke up at the same borough meeting to express her side of the story.
She has been involved with The Way Out for about three months.
“My goal with The Way Out is to be able to show that there’s life after (sex exploitation),” Chantal said. “A good life is possible afterwards, but it takes some help.”