The Salvation Army said Friday it is willing to meet with Vancouver sex workers who are up in arms about its new ad campaign that features graphic images they say depict all workers as sex slaves.
"We're not afraid of talking to them or dealing with them," says Brian Venables, a BC Salvation Army spokesperson, told CTV.ca.
The campaign will carry on as planned, he said. "We're not trying to hide. We've actually been trying to meet with them."
Some Vancouver sex workers say they are angry about the "Truth Isn't Sexy" campaign, which shows photos of women having their heads smashed into the ground or being strangled.
The campaign can be seen on public billboards, as well as on a dedicated website.
A coalition of sex trade worker advocacy groups says the campaign portrays all sex trade workers as human trafficking victims who didn't enter the sex trade by choice.
But Venables says the campaign is meant to focus on innocent victims who were kidnapped and forced into prostitution, and not meant to depict those who chose to enter the business. He says all the victim stories contained on the website are true.
"There's some confusion. This isn't a campaign against prostitution. We're not passing judgment or making moral decisions," Venables said. "This campaign is about people who don't have any choice."
"When I look at the ads I always see slavery. I never see prostitution, drugs, or organized crime," he said.
A lawyer representing sex workers suggested a better campaign would focus on providing them with human rights protections and safer workplaces rather than promoting public awareness.
"The Salvation Army is not engaging in dialogue with those stakeholders and talking about real change," says Katrina Pacey, a lawyer with Pivot Legal Society, which works with sex workers in Vancouver.
"They're just working on a public education campaign that I see is really about creating hysteria around prostitution," she says.
The Salvation Army says it is opening up a new safe house in November called "Deborah's Gate." Deborah was a character from the bible who spoke of justice and inclusion.
He says the facility will have 10 beds for women who want to make the transition to a safe environment, and will offer addiction and refugee services.
Pacey suggested that the Salvation Army's campaign would have also been better if the organization had consulted sex workers for their input.
Venables says the Salvation Army consulted expert researchers in the field.
The Salvation Army's website says Vancouver is becoming known as an "emerging sex trade destination," and that although people may believe that sex trade workers live a "Pretty Woman" lifestyle, some of them are in fact lured, bought or sold into the industry against their will and stuck in a spiral of paying off debts to a pimp or a relative.
The website also says Vancouver is a point of entry for victims entering North America.
The Salvation Army said it launched the campaign in time for next year's Olympics, when it expects the number of human trafficking victims to increase. It says the "influx of international visitors" will lead to a jump in demand for sex trade workers in Vancouver. Pacey says there is no evidence to show this will be the case.
Although the campaign has been in place since 2008, Pacey says sex trade workers are stepping up their opposition to it because of a planned weekend of prayer for victims, set to begin Friday.
A suggestion on the Salvation Army's Toronto website said prayer participants should dress mannequins in ripped clothes, cover them in fake blood and place them outside massage parlours and strip clubs.
Pacey says this would have intimidated sex workers outside their workplace. Venables says there is no plan for this to actually happen.
Venables says the next step in the campaign is to focus on 'Johns' who solicit prostitutes.
"We're asking they take a second thought," he says. "This girl might not have a choice. She could be a daughter or a neighbour's daughter."
Because of the nature of the business, the estimated number of victims varies greatly between different organizations in Canada.
The RCMP estimates 800 victims are trafficked into Canada each year, while nongovernmental organizations put that number as high as 16,000.
