Please note that this blog is no longer in use. Please visit our blog on our project website at spacesstudy.com

See you there!

The SPACES Team

Today, December 17th, the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, is a time when sex workers and allies around the world mourn members of the sex industry who have been killed by state and predatory violence.
A letter by Vancouver groups was delivered today to the Attorney General Suzanne Anton urging her to prioritize the health, safety and rights of sex workers by creating guidelines for the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA) clearly stating that prosecuting Sex Workers, Buyers and Third Parties is Not in the Public Interest.
-For details visit Pivot Legal Society

Tonight, Vancouver Sex Workers and allies will gather at 5:30pm at the Main Branch of the Vancouver Public Library (350 West Georgia).

Then at 730pm at Pivot Legal Society (121 Heatley) for food, drinks and entertainment.

In Solidarity,
The SPACES Team

We would like to thank all of our project advisers, participants, partners and Co-Investigators for your contributions to the project thus far. We expect to be finished coding interviews by the end of the year and begin our preliminary analysis in January. We plan to have our first project report available in the spring.

Here are some of this year’s highlights:

-Secured an Advisory Committee of eight sex workers and service providers

-Spent 91 days in the field promoting SPACES and doing interviews

-Interviewed 116 buyers, third party managers, facilitators and service providers

-Hired experiential professionals to take on one-time and intermittent roles within the project

-Partnered with 9 sex workers organizations and venues for data collection and future Knowledge Translation activities

-Hired 4 Research Assistants

As many of you know, bill C-36 received royal assent and passed into law November 6th 2014. Its provisions come into force December 6th 2014.  Here is the link to the new legislation governing commercial sexual exchange among consenting adults.

This information was obtained from a reliable source:

On Wednesday, October 29 and Thursday, October 30, 2014, the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs had their last reading of Bill C-36.  On Thursday afternoon the committee went through a clause-by-clause reading of the Bill.

This is what the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs decided:

1. The Bill will go back to the entire Senate without amendment and for 3rd reading.  This will happen on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.

2. At 3rd reading, Senators have the chance to speak and to propose amendments to the Bill.  There is no way of knowing how long this stage of debate will take or if amendments will be proposed.  If amendments are proposed, we don’t know how the vote will go.

3. If the Bill is amended at 3rd reading by the Senate it will go back to the House of Commons for their concurrence.  This only happens to about 12% of bills.  For example, between April 2003 and March 2009, the Senate only recommended amendments to 37 of 300 bills that made it to committee stage.  Even then, Parliament can refuse the Senate’s amendment.  http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Senate/Today/laws-e.html#rejeter

4. Once the bill has been adopted in an identical form by both the House and the Senate, the final stage is Royal Assent.  We don’t  know the exact date that this will happen.

5. There is a clause in the Bill’s most recent version, that says that certain provisions of the Bill will take force and effect on the date of Royal Assent.

On behalf of SPACES project staff, we would like to extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Jim Deva. One of our project advisers worked for Jim and he co-sponsored one of FIRST’s ‘Conversations with sex workers’ events with SPACES on September 10th at Little Sisters’ Bookstore.  Fortunately, we audio-taped this session and Jim spoke for about 8 minutes about his history of activism, his views on sex and society and he shared inspirational messages encouraging a continued fight against injustices for sex workers.

Project staff had the pleasure of attending Jim’s memorial with others who have been forever changed through knowing him. RIP Jim Deva.

As many of you may know, Bill C-36 is now with the Senate and they are hearing from witnesses as to the constitutionality of the Bill, as well as issues and concerns before it receives Royal Assent.

For those of you who are interested, click HERE to access the Senate list of witnesses and the video on the proceedings from earlier today and yesterday.  You may use this link to live stream the proceedings  tomorrow which is the last day of hearings.

UPDATE: Oct 3rd. Please click HERE to view past sessions with the Senate. You will have to scroll down to find Bill C-36

Tonight’s Conversations Event will take place from 6 to 8pm at Little Sister’s Book & Art Emporium For details view the FIRST Facebook page link:

Community Conversations with Sex Workers #3 // Burlesque by Lola Frost

Tonight’s Agenda

6:00 PM – Burlesque by Lola Frost
6:10 PM – Introduction and Welcome by Moderator
6:20 – 8:00 PM – Q & A with Guests, Questions provided from the audience

We will also have a door prize of a gift basket courtesy of the SPACES project, Adult Sweet Boutique, EP Products and IT Erotics!

The last Conversations with Sex Worker’s Event will be held September 17th  from 7-9 pm at the Rickshaw Theater. We have a special guest, Catherine Healy, a representative of the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective (NZPC), who will be discussing the experiences of sex workers in a decriminalized environment. Click HERE for details.

As the Community Conversations continue, Maggie DeVries, former Board Member of PACE Society and author of Missing Sarah and more recently Rabbit Ears is writing a blog documenting these events.  Please view and comment.

This Thursday July 24th at 6pm FIRST, a feminist advocacy group, is hosting the first of 5 community cafe conversations with active sex workers at the Heartwood Community Cafe. This is an opportunity for the public to ask sex workers anything the ever wanted to know about the business and the context of the work in light of the legislative environment.  Details about the event are available on the FIRST event page.

SPACES has partnered with Sweet Adult Boutique and Velvet Steele to co-sponsor the door prizes.  Hope to see many of you at the event.  There will be 4 other events at various locations in Vancouver.  Follow FIRST for announcements.