This research project aims to analyze and document the experiences of poor and racialized women in the urban centre of Toronto. The research was conducted by engaging community workers, advocates, and policy analysts by exploring their stories through the context of public and governent policies at all levels. The research analyzes a wide variety of experiences with poverty and employment barriers & discrimination, lack of access to education, criminalization of women on social assistance/welfare, the housing crisis, abuse, violence, and harassment, mental and physical health, and public recreation. It also provides ideas and initiatives for community-based women's groups and services, and recommendations for housing, social assistance, and childcare.
Helpful tips the Reproductive Justice Movement can use to support Girls, Women and Transgender people of color involved in the Sex Trade & Sex Work
1. We are not ONLY "victims" or ONLY "empowered"- the reality of the sex trade is complicated and our lives don't fit into a box. Don't ignore our reality by assuming we are one or the other (we might be both or neither - let us define how we view our lives.
In 1997,Toronto newspapers began to report on a series of raids on strip clubs and apartments, where women who had migrated from outside of Canada were allegedly working as prostitutes. For those of us who had been working on sex trade issues as political allies, this report alerted us to what women working within the trade already knew; the character of sex work in this city was rapidly changing as women began to find their way to Canada, through what- ever means were available, for the economicopportunities that sexwork in Canada provided.
This paper looks at the application of alternative feminist theories and practices to CRIAW's work on social and economic justice work towards equality for women. Intersectional Feminist Frameworks (IFFs) is the emerging vision being put forward as the way to understand and address gender inqualities. This is critical reflection piece that examines the approaches and principles of intersectional feminist approaches, explores the historical context nationally and internationally, and considers applications at the current juncture in specific areas of social justice for women work, including Immigrant and Refugee Women and Anti-Poverty Campaigns.
In 2007, three Ontario sex workers initiated a constitutional challenge to provisions of the Criminal Code that prohibit various aspects of adult prostitution, including:
- s. 210 (keeping or being found in a bawdy house),
- s. 212(1)(j) (living on the avails of prostitution), and
- s. 213(1)(c) (communicating in public for the purpose of prostitution)
This paper examines Ontario family law and the family court system, including recent and anticipated changes to both, through a gendered intersectional lens. In particular, it provides a gender-based intersectional analysis of the implications of family law and the family court system for women who have experienced violence and their children.
The paper has three principle goals. The first is to provide support to frontline workers who assist women involved with family court. The second is to increase the ability of women to negotiate their way through this system so they emerge at the other end with their legal rights respected and with outcomes that keep them and their children safe.
The third is to provide violence against women workers, advocates, and activists with the tools they need to work for change at the community, provincial, and national level.
En 2007, trois travailleuses du sexe de l'Ontario ont initié une contestation constitutionnelle visant les sections du Code criminel interdisant divers aspects du travail du sexe adulte, dont :
- s. 210 (tenir une maison de débauche ou s'y trouver),
- s. 212(1)(j) (vivre des fruits de la prostitution), et
- s. 213(1)(c) (communiquer en public à des ns de prostitution)
In January, 2006, OAITH made a submission to the Standing Committee on Justice Policy regarding Bill 27: An Act to amend the Arbitration Act, 1991, the Child and Family Services Act, the Family Law Act, and the Children's Law Reform Act. Focusing on the Arbitration Act and the Children's Law Reform Act, OAITH raises concerns about the unequal power between men and women in mediation and arbitration, the private vs. public nature of family law mediation, and do not recognize the full impact of abuse in relationships.
1. If sex work is decriminalized, will be there be laws in place that target harm and exploitation?
Yes. Laws that directly target these harms will remain in place including those that prohibit physical assault, sexual assault, threatening, harassment, murder, extortion, human tra cking, and child exploitation.