Pimping. That was the charge being laid on the young man sitting in the front of a Montreal courtroom filled with 700 people last spring.
The upcoming trial led Quebec's Justice Ministry to cattle call me for possible jury duty.
After taking an afternoon off to be herded into a massive room and then waiting in another long line, I explained to the judge I didn't wish to participate on the jury.
Pimping relationships, in my view, are too difficult to differentiate from other bad romances as both are on the same spectrum.
Bad relationships might be depressing, exploitative and unfair. But they are not illegal.
In pimping, as in many normal relationship, a partner foolishly deems their lover worthy of sharing money with.
That partner is often shifty, cheating and unscrupulous.
Them's the breaks kid. Legal verdicts routinely toss out any spurned lover's attempts to obtain post-romantic financial redemption.
Having a partner who works in the sex trade and shares money with you should not be a crime.
If the victim is being kidnapped, extorted or assaulted, they should be charged with those crimes.
The escort spent years fighting the charge and laid out huge amounts of cash on lawyers (paid for by increased escorting) before finally copping to a lesser plea.
The woman had been approached by a female undercover Montreal police officer posing as an aspiring sex worker.
The undercover cop asked the escort for advice in becoming a sex worker.
The escort introduced the undercover cop to her friend.
That friend and the escort were both hit with serious charges.
The escort's lawyer argued that it was a case of entrapment. After years of haggling the charge was reduced.
Such events were once so frequent that they usually went unreported.
The fate of the young women who opted to leave their group home for the sex trade might not be the ideal white picket fence fate we all desire for them in our middle-class values.
Legally, however, the system routinely trivializes the plights of embattled youth.
In the case of Anthony Griffin, the young man whose life was ended by police bullet, a judge turned a cold actuarial eye on Griffin's probable future and decided that it was only worth $42,000.
Griffin was seen to have no potential other than being a burden on his family and society.
We all have potential to do great things, of course, but according to the logic of our legal system, society might be wise to diminish its expectations for these teenage girls who have run away from group homes.
Her campaign is reminiscent of Emily Murphy, the Canadian feminist from a century back who made a career, (and got on the 50 dollar Canadian bill) by whipping up fear of non-white men turning white women into prostitutes and drug addicts.
Murphy had people believing that Chinese men were getting girls hooked into opium and then turning them into prostitutes.
The racist subtext is still prevalent in the current debate.
It should be noted that street prostitution, the worst form of the skin trade, has virtually disappeared in Montreal over the last few years. While prostitution might be a pretty rough way to make a living (as are countless other lesser paid trades) current prostitution practice no longer entails the inhumane act of standing on a streetcorner, as was once the case.
One only needs to look at federal immigration policy.
A decade ago Canada scrapped the entertainer visa that allowed strippers from abroad to enter the country to remove their bras and panties in specialized nightclubs.
The logic of the visa was that it Canada did not want its young female citizens to work in the skin trade.
The visa welcomed hundreds of women from Romania, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere to come to Canada temporarily and fill these sex-trade-related positions.
Media reports noted that there were plenty of Canadian girls happy to take jobs as strippers.
It did not occur to anybody at the time to enter into a debate about whether Canada really wanted our girls to fill such posts. Apparently we have learned that many Canadians do not want their young females doing these jobs.
Immigration Minister Judy Sgro abolished the visa and many Canadian-born women have filled those sex-trade posts ever since.
The upcoming trial led Quebec's Justice Ministry to cattle call me for possible jury duty.
 |
| Sabrina Fisicaro |
Pimping relationships, in my view, are too difficult to differentiate from other bad romances as both are on the same spectrum.
Bad relationships might be depressing, exploitative and unfair. But they are not illegal.
In pimping, as in many normal relationship, a partner foolishly deems their lover worthy of sharing money with.
That partner is often shifty, cheating and unscrupulous.
Them's the breaks kid. Legal verdicts routinely toss out any spurned lover's attempts to obtain post-romantic financial redemption.
Having a partner who works in the sex trade and shares money with you should not be a crime.
If the victim is being kidnapped, extorted or assaulted, they should be charged with those crimes.
Cops against pimps
I recently interviewed a former escort at the courthouse who was never a pimp but still faced criminal pimping charges under Canada's already-strict Criminal Code.The escort spent years fighting the charge and laid out huge amounts of cash on lawyers (paid for by increased escorting) before finally copping to a lesser plea.
The woman had been approached by a female undercover Montreal police officer posing as an aspiring sex worker.
The undercover cop asked the escort for advice in becoming a sex worker.
The escort introduced the undercover cop to her friend.
That friend and the escort were both hit with serious charges.
The escort's lawyer argued that it was a case of entrapment. After years of haggling the charge was reduced.
Runaways
Recently much fanfare has arisen about a spate of young women who have fled group homes to earn some cash in the sex trade.Such events were once so frequent that they usually went unreported.
The fate of the young women who opted to leave their group home for the sex trade might not be the ideal white picket fence fate we all desire for them in our middle-class values.
Legally, however, the system routinely trivializes the plights of embattled youth.
In the case of Anthony Griffin, the young man whose life was ended by police bullet, a judge turned a cold actuarial eye on Griffin's probable future and decided that it was only worth $42,000.
Griffin was seen to have no potential other than being a burden on his family and society.
We all have potential to do great things, of course, but according to the logic of our legal system, society might be wise to diminish its expectations for these teenage girls who have run away from group homes.
New anti-pimping push
Former Bloc Quebecois MP Maria Mourani, who seems to think there's a Haitian street gang pimp behind every tree, has called for more and harsher legislation to stiffen the already-tough Canadian laws against pimping. |
| Emily Murphy and Maria Mourani |
Murphy had people believing that Chinese men were getting girls hooked into opium and then turning them into prostitutes.
The racist subtext is still prevalent in the current debate.
It should be noted that street prostitution, the worst form of the skin trade, has virtually disappeared in Montreal over the last few years. While prostitution might be a pretty rough way to make a living (as are countless other lesser paid trades) current prostitution practice no longer entails the inhumane act of standing on a streetcorner, as was once the case.
Federal government policy to blame
So who is to blame for our wayward young women falling off the path of decency and tumbling into the demimondaine world of sex work?One only needs to look at federal immigration policy.
A decade ago Canada scrapped the entertainer visa that allowed strippers from abroad to enter the country to remove their bras and panties in specialized nightclubs.
The logic of the visa was that it Canada did not want its young female citizens to work in the skin trade.
The visa welcomed hundreds of women from Romania, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere to come to Canada temporarily and fill these sex-trade-related positions.
Media reports noted that there were plenty of Canadian girls happy to take jobs as strippers.
It did not occur to anybody at the time to enter into a debate about whether Canada really wanted our girls to fill such posts. Apparently we have learned that many Canadians do not want their young females doing these jobs.
Immigration Minister Judy Sgro abolished the visa and many Canadian-born women have filled those sex-trade posts ever since.
- Related: Montreal's skin trade martyrs
- Robert Meredith, Montreal's murderous pimp
- Montreal rapper gets pimping sentence reduced
- The mystery of the friend of friendless women
- Just another day at the 1950 vice hearings
- I'd Rather be a prostitute - Sabrina Fisicaro's story