Image Credit: ADOBE STOCK
March 21, 2018 - 6:30 PM
SAFETY TOP OF MIND AFTER ALLEGED ASSAULTS, BODY FOUND ON NORTH OKANAGAN FARM
Lucy is a single mom in her mid-40s working towards a university degree.
Online, she paints a different picture of herself — she’s a hot girl next door in her 30s, all natural, sexy and playful. Helping you relax is what she does best.
Call the number on her backpage.ca ad, and she picks up right away. Her voice is warm and friendly. Others simply hang up and text responses like “$150/h massage with happy ending.”
But Lucy is chatty. She doesn’t mind being interviewed as long as her real name isn’t used.
Although it operates in the shadows, the sex trade appears to be an active industry in the Okanagan. Websites like backpage.ca put phone numbers and pictures (authentic or not) right out in the open. For the most part, only those who buy and sell pay any attention.
But that’s changed somewhat in recent months. A complex and unfolding investigation into allegations against a Silver Creek man, Curtis Wayne Sagmoen, has shone a spotlight on the sex trade, and the vulnerability and safety of those who work within it. Multiple escorts have come forward to say they were assaulted, and one reported being threatened at gunpoint. Those allegations remain unproven and untested in a court of law.
"IF I DON'T FEEL COMFORTABLE, I DON'T GO"
Lucy is like many women who advertise their services on backpage.ca. She works on her own and takes care of herself — she hates pimps. She’s been working in the sex trade on and off for the last 10 years and says she only does massages, no sex. At $120 an hour — and up to eight clients on a busy day — it’s better than minimum wage.
“I save my money to pay for school,” she says. “My end is coming, I have two more years and I’m done.”
Her kids don’t know what she does for a living, and she wants to keep it that way.
What Lucy does isn’t illegal; selling sexual services is not a crime in Canada, but buying it is. That’s the result of revamped legislation introduced in 2014 that aims to protect those who sell their own sexual services, while denouncing the purchase of sex and the exploitation of individuals through prostitution. While individuals are protected from criminal liability, the act makes it illegal to earn money by owning or managing a commercial enterprise, like a strip club, massage parlour or escort agency. In other words, a woman won’t be punished for selling sexual services; people and businesses who profit off those women will.
Lucy admits the job can be dangerous. She takes a lot of precautions to mitigate the risk, and always listens to her gut.
“Whenever I go somewhere, I ask a lot of questions,” she says. “I ask their last name and I do a lot of research. Everything is online now, so you can find people. If they don’t come up, or if girls have written a bad review, you say ‘I’m not coming.’ If I don’t feel comfortable, I don’t go.”
When she does go on a call, she tells a friend where she’s going, and how long she’s going to be there.
While some women enter the trade of their own free will with their eyes wide open, others are young girls, either duped by pimps or hooked on drugs, Lucy says. That’s not her scene, but as a mom, she feels for the women and girls entrenched in that life. One Okanagan woman, 18-year-old Traci Genereaux, struggled with drug addiction and participated in the sex trade. Her body was found on a rural farm months after she was reported missing.
Another woman who advertises for erotic massage takes similar precautions. She also asked us not to use her real name. We’ll call her Christie. She’s 49-years-old and has been working in the sex trade for 26 years. She was born and raised in Vernon.
Christie went on some sketchy calls in her younger years, but mostly sticks to regular clients now, and follows a strict safety protocol with every date. Like Lucy, she relies on friends to back her up, not pimps or agencies.
“The clients know I’m phoning in because I do it right in front of them. That way, they know you’ve got so long before you have to call and check in,” she says.
Christie has a code word if her friend calls and things are going south. But, she says most clients are fine and she rarely finds herself in scary situations.
“They (clients) are usually a little leery about having a stranger come to their home as well,” she says. “They’re just average people.”
She admits that after hearing news about sex trade workers being threatened and assaulted in the region — and the discovery of a Vernon teen’s body at a property connected to Curtis Sagmoen — she was scared.
“I’ll tell you it was probably a month before I was willing to do a call in Vernon,” she says.
SEX WORKERS NEED PROPER PROTECTION, ADVOCATE SAYS
Angie Lohr, a women’s advocate and former sex trade worker, says there should be more protection for individuals participating in this line of work.
“It’s a job just like any other. It’s never going to go away,” Lohr says. “These women are just trying to survive, to support themselves and their families.”
Despite warnings and chilling news stories, Lohr says many women keep working despite the dangers.
“Obviously, these girls are desperate. They know the danger, they hear the rumours. But when it’s a matter of your own survival, you may take that risk,” she says.
Lohr does what she can. She runs a street outreach program in Kelowna and Vernon, and is partnering with the makers of a cellphone app called YodelMe to help make women safer when they go to work. The app allows users to check in and out at set times; if they don’t check in when they should, a reminder is sent. If ignored, a distress message is triggered and alerts pre-programmed contacts to the user’s location. But things like YodelMe are only part of the solution, Lohr says. In the long term, she believes prostitution should be decriminalized.
“Why shouldn’t these women have worker’s compensation, health insurance, a proper manager?” Lohr says.
While Lucy hides her profession from her kids, she’s not exactly ashamed of it either. She speaks freely about the pros and cons — just like a nurse or a bartender might.
“Sometimes, clients just want a back massage or just want to talk. Sometimes, you feel more like a shrink,” she says.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual exploitation, contact VictimLinkBC.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston or call 250-309-5230 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
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