Women's groups slam brothel raid www.richmond-news.com
By Eve Edmonds
December, 19, 2006

The recent raid on 18 massage parlours around the Lower Mainland, including five in Richmond, has prompted debate on all sides.

Some women's groups are outraged the women working in the parlours were handcuffed and photographed.

Others in the media are critical of linking the file to human trafficking, since all those arrested were Canadian citizens.

Still others consider the whole thing a farce because nearly all the establishments are already back in business.

Lee Lakeman, president of the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres, said she has a "mixed reaction" to the raid.

Lakeman's staff was at the Richmond detachment to meet the women who were arrested.

"We agreed to receive the women who would be referred by the RCMP on the understanding the women would not be criminalized and the only people charged would be the owners and managers."

True to their word, police didn't charge any of the women. In fact, at this point they haven't charged anyone.

"It's good that they (the police) kept that deal. And we've had follow-up calls from the women looking for information and protection of various kinds," said Lakeman.

However, arrangements at the Richmond detachment were far from adequate, she added.

"There were real problems in Richmond. The detachment is very awkward and the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) found it very difficult to meet with the women. There were men from the brothel leering at them from behind a long glass wall."

At one point, some of the men gained access to the room where the women were being interviewed, Lakeman said. "Men who were claiming to be husbands (even though they didn't know the women's names) were getting in close to the NGO women. No security was offered by the detachment," Lakeman said.

Richmond RCMP spokesman Cpl. Peter Thiessen said the detachment did the best it could, given the situation.

"As a rule we don't deal with 50-some people at one time with very special needs," Thiessen explained. "We did the best we could to deal with the women in a respectful manner," he added.

Although the women were handcuffed, Norm Massie, the RCMP's Human Trafficking Awareness co-ordinator, said police view the women as victims and tried to create a safe environment for them.

Human trafficking charges have been extremely difficult to lay, in part because the women usually refuse to co-operate with police.

"It's about building trust," said Massie.

But if it's trust the police want to build, it doesn't make sense "for the RCMP to storm in there pulling out 108 people in handcuffs," said Deanna Okun-Nachoff, spokeswoman for the NGO Steering Committee for Human Rights in Human Trafficking.

Her organization opposed the raid in principle - not just because the women were handcuffed or inadequately accommodated at the detachment.

"It's a misnomer to think that enforcement is the way to deal with a systemic problem like human trafficking," Okun-Nachoff said.

She considers the raid a "charade" that is far less effective than providing information and support to women who are voluntarily coming forward - and plenty of women are coming forward, she added. "We're scrambling to provide services."

The fact there were no illegal immigrants in the parlours "indicates that there is a detachment between the people working at the grassroots level and enforcement," she said. "The idea that you are going to pick people up and save them is very trite. I don't think people necessarily think they need saving."

Regarding the issue of illegal immigrants, Lakeman and Okun-Nachoff agree that the public shouldn't get hung up on the fact the women arrested all had their papers in order. Women can be trafficked from within Canada. In fact, some trafficked women are born in Canada, said Lakeman.

"The issue is not where the women come from, but whether they are being exploited," she added. "Whether it's a brown-skinned woman from northern B.C. or a brown-skinned woman from Asia, there is very little difference. Borders just don't matter that much to me."

published on 12/19/2006