Current Affairs Executive Summary 2024 (1) 

Current Affairs – Sex worker action and planning 2023 Full Report

Background
In pre-pandemic times, funding for broad policy work in real time and in response to
complaints from sex workers as they arise was non-existent.

As a result of The Pandemic, the BCCEC received it’s first funding since 2011. This enabled our
members to support sex workers on numerous levels as problems came up. These efforts were all
based around preventing violence and ensuring the health and security of our community members.
During the last 3 years, the Director of the BCCEC sent over 2400 emails, made more than 2100
phone calls, posted on social media more than 4500 times, facilitated over 50 meetings among sex
workers and between sex workers and policy makers, delivered direct support to more than 60 sex
workers, worked with students and researchers on sex work in academia and consulted with police,
all levels of government and the members of the public service to address complaints from and issues
arising among sex workers.

This correspondence is available upon request.

The Current Affairs – Sex Workers Action and Planning Report is a detailed record of that work
and the discrimination faced by sex workers everyday in real time as the Pandemic unfolded. To be
clear, this is a “snap shot” of the work the BCCEC have done during the entire course of our 21 year
history. The financial support we received allowed us to work harder for the safety of and rights of our
community and provided an opportunity to document that work.
Any questions about discrimination faced by sex workers under the Nordic Model of
criminalizing sex work in Canada, The Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, have been
answered by the contents of this report from the front lines of sex worker advocacy. The depth of that
discrimination is demonstrated by the wide spread systemic biases outlined in complaints from sex
workers.