Kingston Sex Trade Article

"The whole issue of the law has more to do with nuisance," said Davies. "Police get pressure to apply enforcement, so you get sweeps and people being picked up. It's not really about morals, it's about the nuisance. Over the years, these laws have become very problematic and harmful."

 

Kingston Police don't have a full-time squad dedicated to cracking down on prostitution, though they will react to calls about street workers, usually in the Montreal and Queen street area. Enforcement, Bambrick said, is "usually complaint-driven."

 

Bambrick said the force has investigated bawdy houses and massage parlours in the past and there are occasional "john sweeps" in which female officers pose as prostitutes to catch men cruising for paid sex.

 

"For the most part in Kingston, the sex trade's really kept behind closed doors," Bambrick said. "We know of a couple of places that employ sex workers. For the most part it is private. There's not a lot of criminal charges regarding prostitution that I'm aware of."

 

For sex workers, the fear of identifying themselves to police will remain as long as the laws are in place, yet Bambrick believes arrangements can be worked out so that sex workers can report violence against them.

 

"With SWAG, we want to explore avenues where we can legally exchange information to make sure they're safe," he said. "Obviously, we have to uphold the law, but we have discretion in these other areas. You don't have to start a criminal process if someone reports being a victim of a crime."

 

Davies says that parliamentarians have to take the lead on decriminalizing sex work, no matter what the outcome of this spring's appeal.

 

"I was very hopeful about the court decision before it came out, that this is what would compel Parliament to take action," she said. "I'm not hopeful with the present government."

Second in a series of stories looking at the sex trade in Kingston, in advance of this spring's appeal court ruling on the decriminalization of prostitution.

 

Jennifer will never forget her first out-call as a Kingston sex worker.

 

The escort company driver dropped her off in front of a well-appointed, west-end suburban house where the client had ordered a full-nude massage.

 

"The guy opens the door and it ends up I know him. He's my sister's boss," says Jennifer with a giggle.

 

"It was a little weird but he was fine with it."

 

In the three years since her initiation into sex work, Jennifer (not her real name) has worked briefly for two Kingston agencies providing sex connections.

 

Now she's a freelancer specializing in fetish sex, encounters in which she or her clients dress up and act out roles or indulge in sex toys.

 

She has her own apartment for carrying out these morning and afternoon weekday sessions.

 

The flexible hours are good for family life.

 

Jennifer has two daughters, ages 9 and 11. She likes to provide them with a good breakfast in the morning, pack their school lunches and be home for supper and to tuck them into bed at night.

 

Jennifer lives in two worlds -- the everyday life and the secretive, sexually charged one.

 

At a first meeting in a downtown Kingston coffee shop, Jennifer arrives plainly dressed and without makeup.

 

Her blond hair is long and wavy.

 

She's toting a massive back-pack for her day of courses at St. Lawrence College. Upgrading her education is part of an exit strategy to return to the world of conventional work.

 

Outgoing and personable, she's worked in travel and tourism, and as a community support worker for a Kingston social agency.

 

Three years ago, at age 27, she found herself struggling to support an unemployed husband and ailing mother as well as two young kids. Money was tight.

 

"I had a girlfriend who said, 'I have a job that you might be interested in.' She was working for the first agency and doing escorting."

 

The suburban rendezvous with her unsuspecting sister's friend was arranged -- and a career in sex work was launched.

 

Jennifer says women get involved in prostitution in Kingston for three reasons: they have drug habits that need to be supported; they choose to be in the work because they like it ; and those like herself who are introduced to it as a way to make money, though they would rather be doing something else.

 

"My first choice would be to be a mother and have a regular job," she said.

 

Jennifer arranges to meet for a second interview at her one-bedroom Kingston apartment.

 

She looks much different this day, with her hair straightened and makeup tastefully applied.

 

"It's how you market and present yourself," she says of her success.

 

Jennifer says she makes between $80,000 and $90,000 a year, all in cash payments, and

 

She averages three or four calls a week and never more than two a day.

 

Fetish appointments, with role playing and toys, can cost up to $250 an hour.

 

"I don't work a whole lot. I can live comfortably seeing five to six clients a week," she said.

 

that include clothing, shoes, lingerie, phone bills and advertisements in the

.

 

 

Condoms are crucial to the job. Though Jennifer doesn't perform fellatio, vaginal or anal sex, the condoms are used for masturbation and for placing on the toys she uses to perform anal sex on her clients.

 

Jennifer takes no risks when it comes to the possible spread of diseases. She may use as many as four condoms in a single session.

 

"That should be the first thing women can write off," she said.

 

During the interview, Jennifer's work phone rings. She sets an appointment for 2 p.m. with a new customer.

 

"He was looking for a massage -- like a naked oil massage -- possibly a hand job, which is as far as I go," she said.

 

Clean and basic, the apartment allows her to work independently and in relative safety.

 

It also provides anonymity for her clients who can indulge their fetishes -- such as dressing up as babies or wearing women's lingerie.

 

"They want to wear your underwear," she says matter-of-factly. "They buy them afterward."

 

One regular client would arrange parking lot rendezvous where she would take off her underwear and give them to him -- for $80.

 

The demands can be all over the sexual map. And sometimes there's no sex at all.

 

"Not all clients want to have sex. Some are looking for companionship," she said. "Some want to be humiliated. Some want to just see you play."

 

Jennifer has considered the moral arguments against prostitution and the fact that many of her clients have wives or are in relationships. Often those marriages are sexless, she says, and the men don't know how to make the relationship work.

 

"I have clients who come here and cry. They want to know what they can do," she said.

 

"I believe people should be happy sexually. I feel it's healthier for people to get rid of stress. Most guys come here to get companionship. I almost want to say it's like counselling. It's not just sex work. It's that attention they're not getting at home with their wives."

 

As for her own marriage, the sex work has been a source of conflict.

Jennifer's husband found out about her new profession within a few months, while she was still working for an escort service.

 

She lied, telling him she was answering phones. He persisted and she eventually confessed, which led to a separation. Now they're both in the family home "working things out."

 

"What husband wants his wife doing this for work?" she asks. "I needed to pay my bills. I never meant for him to find out. I'm very independent.

 

"We don't really talk about it a lot. It's a sensitive topic."

 

Jennifer said the difference between having sex with a client and her husband is the "intimate connection."

 

She says that she's able to separate the two.

 

"Sex (with a client) is just sex. It's like eating to me. It's a job like any other job," she said. "Some days you get up and don't want to go to work. Some days I'm into it and some days I'm not. You just put on a happy face.

 

"When you get cash in hand it brightens your day."

 

A typical day means getting up at 5:30 a.m., tidying her house, making lunches for her two daughters, going to her college classes, booking appointments with clients on her work phone, doing the work and getting home to her family at night.

 

Jennifer is considered something of a mentor in the Sex Worker Action Group, formed last year to help prostitutes share information and increase their personal safety.

 

"She's great," said SWAG coordinator Deb Kinder, who works out of the regional HIV/AIDS centre on Princess Street. "She has a lot of energy and she's devoting a good amount of time to SWAG."

 

Part of the agency's initiative is to introduce Kingston Police and sex workers to one another so the workers feel comfortable enough to report incidents of violence or abuse against them.

 

Two years ago, a woman who gave massages out of her west-end home was assaulted by a man who had previously been a client but returned to ask for full sexual favours. When she refused, he viciously attacked and raped her.

 

Trust is difficult to nurture when city police have been known to conduct raids of escort businesses. Sex workers live in constant fear of being rounded up.

 

Jennifer works quietly on her own and has never been charged by police. She even called anonymously to Kingston Police recently to report a person she describes as a "stalker" who calls her repeatedly on her work phone even though she has rejected him as a client.

 

"I think they're concerned about the safety of women," Jennifer said of police. "I really think they want to work with women and make it safer.

 

"I'm not worrying about police charging me. I'm just not going as public as I might."

 

She wants to be clear that she doesn't want to glamorize prostitution in any way and doesn't believe organizations like SWAG should promote the business, but she also takes exception to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's comment about prostitution being "bad for society."

 

She wants the government to stop blocking the changes to the prostitution laws.

 

She tells the story of a friend, a fellow sex worker, who disappeared for days while on a call while working in Ottawa -- and kept the incident to herself because she didn't want to face prostitution charges.

 

"What (Harper) is not getting is my friend could have ended up dead in a ditch because no one could report it," she said.'