Prostitutes' 'stroll' urged for Victoria (Times Colonist)

Prostitutes' 'stroll' urged for Victoria

Jeff Rud, Jeff Bell and Gerard Young
Times Colonist Wednesday, November 17, 2004

See Also: Legal hooker stroll needed in capital, says MLA

Prostitutes' 'stroll' urged for Victoria

Victoria-Hillside MLA Sheila Orr is urging city council to consider creating a prostitution "stroll" in Victoria, but neither the mayor nor the premier likes the idea.

Orr said that establishing a designated area that sex trade workers could use within specified hours might prevent prostitution from being pushed into residential neighbourhoods and also help to keep sex-trade workers safe.

One potential location would be the end of Store Street, Orr said, although she stressed that is merely a suggestion.

"I think that we should look at a stroll,'' Orr said Tuesday in the legislature. "A stroll would be an area that was designated where sex-trade workers could go within a certain time frame -- that's not 24 hours, that's in a time when they feel that they could get their trade -- and where it would be safer.''

Mayor Alan Lowe is not only opposed to creation of a prostitute stroll, he is not thrilled Orr threw out the idea so casually.

She did not consult council before she suggested what amounts to establishment of a city red-light district, he said.

"We just can't throw out a solution and say that should be our approach." Lowe said from Vancouver where he is attending a conference on the problem of the drug methamphetamine.

Such issues need an integrated approach that includes business, police, residents, social workers and sex-trade workers, he said.

Lowe is dead-set against the idea of a stroll. It would not only be difficult but probably unfair to make a decision to allow it in one area over another, he said.

"I am not willing to give up any neighbourhood as a stroll," he said.

Only hours after Orr floated her concept with reporters, Premier Gordon Campbell said he disagreed with the concept.

"I think that it's not a good idea,'' he said.

Campbell said he went through similar discussions when he was mayor of Vancouver but he doesn't think Orr's idea is the solution.

"I think we have to create safe and secure streets for everyone in the city and I don't think that (a stroll) is something that should be encouraged.''

Orr emphasized that this idea has nothing to do with provincial Liberal policy and was her own initiative.

She shied away from the question of whether prostitution should be legalized in such a designated stroll, as it is in some red-light districts in Europe.

"It would be up to the city council how they designated it and how they defined that through any kind of a bylaw. I mean, this is going to take some guts, to stand up and say: 'Isn't it time we did this?'

"The public are fed up with people being pushed into their neighbourhoods. You know, I don't want the sex trade in my neighbourhood and I'm sure none of you do. So what are we going to do? We're going to have to find a creative solution.''

Orr admitted that it might be difficult to find agreement on any area to designate for such a stroll.

"I have no doubt that this is going to create huge debate. But I'm saying that it's time we had that debate.''

She stressed her suggestion to designate the end of Store Street, where there "is vacant land and not a lot of businesses," was "only an idea. I'm sure there will be an outcry from some of the businesses around there."

The Burnside Gorge Community Association is wrestling with the issue of street prostitution in the Rock Bay area, which was discussed at an association meeting on Monday.

Coun. Dean Fortin, executive director of the Burnside Gorge association, doesn't see a designated area for prostitutes as the answer.

"Rather than setting up a formal red light district, we think that greater provincial resources should be dedicated to assist the women and men in the sex trade to leave, and greater community resources to prevent the conditions that compel them to enter into the sex trade in the first place." he said.

Jody Paterson of the Prostitutes Empowerment Education Resource Society expressed similar sentiments.

"I think that that the theory (of a prostitution zone) is interesting, but the practice would be very difficult because I can't think of any neighbourhood that would welcome it," she said.

Michael Clermont, a Rock Bay business owner, said Orr is off-base with her opinions. "I think it's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," said Clermont, who runs Russ Hay's The Bicycle Shop.

"The issue is not a red zone -- we've got the red zone now," he said, referring to the Rock Bay situation.

Clermont said he has sympathy for the women involved in the sex trade because of their obvious addiction problems, but he would also like to see consideration given to people who live and work in areas where prostitutes are active.

For example, affected business owners should be given some tax relief, he said. "If you're going to have them down in our area -- if we have to put up with that -- we should be compensated."