Sex Trade Workers Trying To Survive
Prince George, B.C. – The recent conviction and sentencing of Cody Allan Legebokoff on four counts of first-degree murder has sparked considerable discussion about the safety of women living high risk lifestyles in the area.
Legebokoff was convicted of the murders of 15-year-old Loren Donn Leslie, Cynthia Maas and Jill Stacey Stuchenko, both 35, and 23-year-old Natasha Lynn Montgomery. On Tuesday he was sentenced to concurrent terms of life in prison with no eligibility of parole for 25 years. His three adult victims had worked in the sex trade.
One of the organizers of Friday evening’s Take Back The Night march in Prince George, Lana Tosoff, says the high-profile case has had one positive effect. “It’s caused people to start talking again about other issues in regards to sexual violence and just having a good look at that. One of the things that’s been coming up lately in the field is getting away from the idea of sex trade workers and talking about survival sex workers. That’s been a hot topic this year for sure.”
Asked to explain Tosoff says “it’s a different angle. People are trying to survive, it isn’t something that means they’re not important or they deserve to be hurt.” Tosoff, who is a therapist by occupation, says “people are afraid, you don’t know what’s going on anymore and who is safe. This goes back a long time of course but I’m still concerned with how we’ve moved our survival sex workers out of the downtown core into dark places and neighbourhoods.”
Tosoff says she has several concerns that relate to women and safety issues. “The Highway of Tears, now we’ve got the national inquiry (into the deaths of aboriginal women) isn’t going to be going through. But there’s a lot of things going on in our own community as well as what we’re watching on the news.” She mentioned the fallout from the airing of the video of the NFL player punching his then-girlfriend in the head in an elevator in the US.
Back to Legebokoff, Tosoff says she is hearing concerns about his prison terms being served concurrently. “Ya that’s not going over well. So here we are we’re just all on edge because there’s a chance that he could be released after 25 years, and what’s that going to look like? And I just can’t imagine how the (victims’) family members must be feeling about that.” To the suggestion that killer may never see the outside of a prison again she says “that’s the only way isn’t it to have hope, so I’m hopeful that’s the way it’s going to go. And I’m just glad that he was convicted on all four counts. Just to hear that, for the families I think, is somewhat justifiable, that’s excellent.”
Tosoff says “we’ve had a lot of things popping up in our community and I think it’s time that we need to be talking even more about these things.” Asked what kinds of things, she says “just our violence levels and things that perhaps we don’t hear about in the media but we know are going on. What’s happening with that?”
She says the initial discussions about these issues are conducted “one-on-one, behind closed doors as counselors and just trying to give the best advice that we can for keeping safe for now.” However she adds “but if people have complex post traumatic stress disorder and those sorts of things, unknown are very frightening for those folks. So we’ve got a lot of folks living with a lot of anxiety daily, and that’s hard to manage.”
Tosoff also says the closure over the past few years of the majority of the downtown night spots has an adverse effect. “I don’t even think we have much of a community nightlife here anymore. We have nothing going on downtown, pretty deserted and I think people are afraid.”
Comments
We should all forget his name and move on. He is not worthy of being recognized as a person with a name anymore. He should only be remembered as the murderer of the four victims, who should never be forgotten !
I second the motion.
Let him be forgotten.
To mention his name only sustains his infamy.
metalman.
I think perhaps you two should reread the article, because it’s about violence in general toward women, especially those with few supports. Legebokoff, is just another symptom of a society that condones violence against women. If we had a societal structure whereby we didn’t allow people to fall through the cracks, there would be far fewer victims for predators to prey on and fewer predators to worry about. As it stands though, we toss people aside by the thousands, offering a steady supply of victims and predators for society to clean up after. I think what the article is saying is that we need to stop contributing to the mess by turning a blind eye.
So go ahead and bury your head in the sand if you want to, but you’re only contributing to the problem.
Sine Nomine. What a stupid statement. A society that condones violence against women. We don’t **condone** violence against men or women. We seem to have a problem dealing with the issue of violence, how ever that is a different thing.
Prince George is the catchment area for people from all over North Central BC. While we provide relatively good services, ie; housing, welfare, free clothing, and food,(from various volunteer agencies) we are constantly being bombarded by new arrivals from the outlying areas. There are many things that attract people to Prince George, not the least of which is the free food, and clothing, we also have numerous bars, the casino, etc; etc;
We also have cheap rental housing. In addition we have the criminal
element, and the drugs that go with it.
Lets keep in mind that in the drug trade there are two parties involved. one is the party selling the drugs, and the other is the party buying them. One cannot survive without the other.
So we have a serious problem, that we cant seem to deal with, either because of a lack of resources, or a lack of knowledge.
Rather that making broad brush statements like **condoning violence** perhaps you could come up with some realistic solutions that we could work on.
To condone something or some act means to forgive, excuse, overlook, accept or permit!
Canada is not that kind of society, Sir! It does not condone violence against women!
SN, not every popular slogan is worth repeating.
Since crime rates in Canada are falling, is violence against women still a serious problem?
Half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence sinceInfographic the age of 16.1
67% of all Canadians say they personally know at least one woman who has been sexually or physically assaulted.2
On average, every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner. In 2011, In 2011, from the 89 police reported spousal homicides, 76 of the victims (over 85%) were women.3
On any given day in Canada, more than 3,300 women (along with their 3,000 children) are forced to sleep in an emergency shelter to escape domestic violence. Every night, about 200 women are turned away because the shelters are full. 4
Each year, over 40,000 arrests result from domestic violence—that’s about 12% of all violent crime in Canada.5 Since only 22% of all incidents are reported to the police, the real number is much higher.
As of 2010, there were 582 known cases of missing or murdered Aboriginal women in Canada.6 Both Amnesty International and the United Nations have called upon the Canadian government to take action on this issue, without success.7,8 According to the Native Women’s Association of Canada, “if this figure were applied proportionately to the rest of the female population there would be over 18,000 missing Canadian women and girls.”9
According to the Department of Justice, each year Canadians collectively spend $7.4 billion to deal with the aftermath of spousal violence. This figure includes immediate costs such as emergency room visits and future costs such as loss of income. It also includes tangible costs such as funerals, and intangible costs such as pain and suffering.10
In a 2009 Canadian national survey, women reported 460,000 incidents of sexual assault in just one year. 11 Only about 10% of all sexual assaults are reported to police.12 When it comes to sexual assault, women are frequently not believed, blamed for being assaulted, “or subjected to callous or insensitive treatment, when police fail to take evidence, or when their cases are dropped arbitrarily.” 13 Only a handful of reported assaults ever result in a conviction: each year, only about 1,500 sexual assault offenders are actually convicted.14
About 80% of sex trafficking victims in Canada are women and girls.15
More than one in ten Canadian women say they have been stalked by someone in a way that made them fear for their life.16
Provincially, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which have consistently recorded the highest provincial rates of police-reported violent crime, had rates of violence against women in 2011 that were about double the national rate. Ontario and Quebec had the lowest rates of violence against women. As is the case with violent crime overall, the territories have consistently recorded the highest rates of police-reported violence against women. The rate of violent crime against women in Nunavut was nearly 13 times higher than the rate for Canada.
Source: CanadianWomen.org
Still think we don’t condone violence against women? These are just average statistics. The statistics on Canadian women in prostitution are staggering.
67% have been threatened with a weapon.
91% have been physically assaulted while working, but the pathetic cowards that use their services.
67% have been raped more than 5 times.
84% were sexually abused as children.
95% want to leave prostitution.
The first step in making a change is recognizing that there is a problem. We all know these women, they’re part of our lives. Part of the problem is the silence. Lots of Canadian men are cowards who abuse women. You know them. Some of them are your neighbours, some of them you call family.
Good set of statistics Sine Nomine. However in relation to the number of people in Canada, and the number of males who actually commit crimes against women (keep in mind that a lot of these people are repeat offenders) the average, working Canadian male is not a criminal, nor does he condone violence against women.
I don’t think anyone doubts that this is a serious problem, it is. However to group all males under the mantle of condoning is not a solution. If condoning exists (which I sincerely) doubt, then of course a large percentage of women would also be condoning it. Which they don’t.
So back to my original request. Can you come up with some realistic solutions to this problem. Solutions that we could take to Governments, citizens at large etc;, and solve the problem???? I would certainly like to hear what you suggest.
Yes, I’d do that Palopu, but as with many issues I see you try to wrestle with, I don’t think you have a grasp of the problem. Even when a very clear picture is drawn for you. You trying to rationalize those statistics away is repugnant and part of the problem. Your own ego it seems is more important to you than the truth and that’s just sad. So, I’ll not continue to have a pointless conversation. I suggest you educate yourself, you can start with CanadianWomen.org, or better yet, why don’t you talk to one of these women yourself. I’ll bet you don’t want to do that though do you. As I’ve mentioned, the best way to deal with the problem, is to stop ignoring it. By putting a spotlight on it. That seems to have escaped you though. Maybe in time, you’ll get the picture.
A perfect response Sine Nomine. Palopu is not demonstrating any interest in expanding his or her view.
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