MEDICINE HAT, AB — The sex industry is often thought to happen in a city’s darkest corners.
But police in Medicine Hat say it happens everywhere and more often than people think.
Constable Noel Darr works with escorts in the city and deals directly with the two agencies in town.
He said the sex trade can be broken up into three parts.
“One piece is licensed girls who are working locally, working for an agency,” Darr said. “The other one is unlicensed girls who are either local girls or they’re travelling through Medicine Hat, but they’re also doing it by choice. The third group is what we focus on, (…) the girls who are either minors, who are
underage or they’re adult females but they’re doing it not with consent. They’re coerced into it, they’re forced into it, whether that be by physical violence, mental or physical abuse. They have no choice and there’s no way out.”
It’s these women and young girls police are focused on finding, to show them there is a way out.
But it’s not always easy.
Selling sex is legal in Canada, but buying sex isn’t. So police go after the men and charge them with purchasing or communicating sexual services. This means girls are forced into the act and made to do something they don’t want to do.
“These aren’t girls who were in grade six and decided ‘When I grow up, I want be an escort,’” says Darr. “Nobody says that, nobody comes to that conclusion.”
Darr said often times young women find themselves in a desperate situation and selling their bodies is the quickest way to make money.
“Most of these girls are girls who [are in] a financial crisis and as a short term solution, this is what they’ve decided to do,” he said. “So it’s not something they’re going to do for three, four, or five years. Generally they may do it for three months, six months and move on to something else.”
Darr is referring to licensed escorts, but knows that’s only one side to the sex trade.
“From my experience, approximately one in three sex trade workers in Medicine Hat are actually trafficked,” he said.
Women and young girls are pressured and blackmailed into having sex with numerous men, numerous times a day.
Pimps use physical and emotional violence to scare them into believing this is all they’re worth and there’s no way out.
“They’re being trafficked from Ontario, from Calgary,” Darr said. “There’s girls that are being driven to Medicine Hat multiple times during the week to offer sex for an entire week. They don’t have a choice to do it. They fear for their family. We have women from other countries who are brought here specifically, primarily in the Calgary area.”
“I feel like a lot of the gentlemen feel more comfortable with an agency too because we do have to be licensed,” said Anne, a licensed escort who’s been working in the sex industry on and off for about seven years.
“When a gentlemen calls, he knows what he wants,” she said. “A redhead, a blonde, voluptuous, skinny. They know what they want.”
Online ads use enticing words to capture a man’s attention. But what the ads don’t show, is if the woman is being trafficked or exploited.
“The guys who are visiting those girls need to realize that they’re visiting true victims of crime and whether they smile and welcome a guy into a hotel room, that doesn’t mean they’re a consenting adult,” he added.
Since Bill C-36 was introduced in 2014, making it illegal to purchase sexual services, Medicine Hat police have charged three men with the offence, although two were later withdrawn.
Darr said most people seem unaware the laws have changed and the Crown is taking steps to educate the accused.
“In bigger centres like Calgary and Edmonton, they have what’s called ‘John School,’ so it puts an offender into a form of rehabilitation, understanding what a true victim of human trafficking has to go through,” he said.
Darr added it’s a conversation they’ll also get to take home, when they face the reality of their actions.
“It’s such a risk, it breaks up families, tears families apart,” Darr said. “It’s a huge offence to their spouses who are at home. It’s an offence to their children. And it should be an offence to themselves.”
