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About the text IS THE UQAM in collusion with the
sex industry an answer and a settling
Correspondent: Irene Demczuk
Published: in 16/11/2006 at 3:42 pm
Category: opinions
Ref: IS
THE UQAM in collusion with the
industry of the sex?
- a settling
On peut écouter l'entrevue de Claire et de Popovic à
Maisonneuve en direct ici : http://www.radio-canada.ca/radio/maisonneuve/22112006/80204.shtml
I would like to respond to the opinion expressed by Ms. Ana
Popovic of the Centre des femmes de Laval on November 13,
entitled "<http://cybersolidaires.typepad.com/r/2006/11/luqam_estelle_c.html>
L'UQAM est-elle complice de l'industrie du sexe?" ("Is
UQAM in league with the sex trade?"), published on the
Netfemmes list.
Ana Popovic is concerned that the training organized jointly
by the organization <http://www.chezstella.org>Stella,
Maria Nengeh Mensah (a professor in UQAM's school of social
work), and the Service aux collectivités "risks leading
workers in the health system and social services to encourage
women to stay in prostitution, or even to encourage women to
become prostitutes as a way out of poverty" (translated
quote). In response to a statement this grossly mistaken and
unfounded, I would like to provide some information and clarify
the role of <http://www.sac.uqam.ca>
UQAM's Service aux collectivités in this project.
The mission of UQAM's Service aux collectivités 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. The Service fulfills the requests of social partners that
are designated by the institutional policy on group services, in
some instances those being women's groups, by developing
projects and creating partnerships with professors. As a result
of requests from women's groups, between 30 and 40 projects are
carried out annually by the Service as part of the <http://www.iref.uqam.ca/relais_femmes/>
UQAM/Relais-femmes protocol. A great many feminists can attest
to the quality of the training programs, research work and
colloquia that we develop with these women's groups.
We are currently carrying out a two-year training program
project entitled "Sex Work: Everything You Always Wanted to
Know but Were Afraid to Ask." This training does not fit
the description that Ms. Popovic conveyed in her message to the
Netfemmes list in either its goals or its pedagogical
design.
The starting point for the training is the following concern:
women who work in the sex industry suffer on a daily basis from
the impact of numerous prejudices on the part of the general
population, but also, unfortunately, on the part of people
working in the fields of healthcare, social services, community
services and police services. The misunderstanding of sex
workers' realities, as well as simple prejudice and
stigmatization, in combination with the current legal context,
have a major influence on sex workers' living, working and
health conditions. The situation gives rise to these women's
isolation, marginalization and social exclusion, and compromises
their dignity.
How, in this context, can a person place their trust in the
services intended to provide assistance, when she fears being
the target of judgment and discrimination? How is a person
expected to ensure she is respected, to freely consult a doctor,
or to lodge a complaint against an assailant, when she may be
categorized as sexually depraved or seen as victimized? Sex
workers, like any other citizens, have the right to access
public and community services without prejudice. They should be
able to benefit from the services that meet their needs without
having to fear being denounced, harassed, misjudged or sexually
assaulted.
Because sex workers are particularly stigmatized women, the
training aims to reach the following goals:
- Demystify sex work;
- Raise awareness of the effects of stigmatization on the
lives of sex workers;
- Equip workers to better accompany and support sex workers
in response to their needs;
- Work in partnershp with community resources to facilitate
sex workers' access to social, health, police and community
services.
The training is provided in a co-teaching model by <http://www.experts.uqam.ca/pages/mensah.maria_nengeh.htm>
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. The
training will be offered in various regions of Quebec
and I hope that women's groups and unions take part with the
open-mindedness, empathy and solidarity that are their hallmark.
Like most of you, I believe that it's important for marginalized
women to speak out about their living and working conditions,
and for them to be heard when they give their analysis of their
situation and explain their chosen solutions. This is not a
training session on the ideological debate that places
abolitionists in opposition to people who demand a social status
for women who work in the sex trade. It is a training on the
living and working conditions of women working in Quebec's sex
trade, and it is given from a human rights perspective.
The Service aux collectivités was also a partner in the
extraordinary historical event that was the <http://www.chezstella.org/stella/?q=XXX>
XXX Forum: Celebrating a Decade of Action, Designing Our Future,
held at UQAM in May 2005. The event was an international forum
bringing together 250 sex workers and support organizations from
five continents. Unlike Ms. Popovic, I had the chance to attend
the Forum—to listen, share, and reflect on the participants'
discourse, and to see the development of an international
feminist social movement that demands basic human rights for
women who work in the sex trade. I would like to point out that,
contrary to what has been said on Netfemmes in 2005 and since,
that the Forum aimed to reinforce sex workers' abilities and
help them share their expertise. 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 spots
were reserved for these individuals, with 25% going to experts
and representatives of organizations that share a human rights
perspective on sex work. The attendance goal was reached, and
the results were significant. 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,
and thanks to the partnership work of the advisory committee, it
was tightly managed in a manner appropriate to a project lasting
almost two years, not four days as Anna Popovic's letter
implies.
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. 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?
There is still much to say about the disinformation
orchestrated by certain feminists regarding this event. However,
for my part, I want to stress the extent to which my attendance
at the Forum was a significant event in my life as a feminist.
Seeing and hearing sex workers from India, Thailand,
Israel, New
Zealand, Argentina and many other countries state their
human rights demands with their heads held high, without fear
and without shame—demands that their rights to life, safety,
equality and dignity be respected—was a lesson in courage that
I will never forget. 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.
When I experienced this, I could only think of the Stella
team, which faces this kind of storm every day. I want to
congratulate them for their determined work towards education
and the defense of human rights, which recently earned them <http://www.chezstella.org/stella/?q=prix2006>
an award from Human Rights Watch and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal
Network.
I hope this clarification contributes to providing a better
understanding of the goals of the training designed in
partnership with Stella, Professor Maria Nengeh Mensah and the
Service aux collectivités. Irène Demczuk
Original link: http://netfemmes.cdeacf.ca/les_actualites/lire.php?article=6369
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