FYI, this program airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. on CBC Newsworld.
Here's a synopsis:
Scarlett is a highly successful madam with 30 years under her belt in the sex trade business; Simone is a high-class sex worker who services wealthy clients in five Western Canadian cities; and Jennifer is a former drug addicted prostitute who now works tirelessly to offer support to sex trade workers on the streets. These women have had different experiences in the sex trade business, but they're united by one concern-the safety of women in their stigmatized industry.
Jennifer exposes the ugly side of Vancouver's streets, where Canada's current laws have led to the increasing marginalization of street walkers and have made the women at the front lines of the notorious Downtown Eastside particularly vulnerable. It's a danger that made international headlines last year with the arrest of Robert Willie Pickton, charged with the murder of 26 women, many of them Vancouver sex trade workers.
On the other side are high-priced sex workers like Simone, who are not at such risk. Their expensive services are advertised in the yellow pages as escort agencies, and are taxed and operated under tacit approval of the police.
"The sex trade is a valid career option today if managed properly," says Scarlett, who now speaks publicly about her work as a madam and her belief that prostitution should be legalized.
A Safer Sex Trade explores this double standard at work by putting faces to the women who represent both perspectives: life in the high rise and on the street.
Here's a synopsis:
Scarlett is a highly successful madam with 30 years under her belt in the sex trade business; Simone is a high-class sex worker who services wealthy clients in five Western Canadian cities; and Jennifer is a former drug addicted prostitute who now works tirelessly to offer support to sex trade workers on the streets. These women have had different experiences in the sex trade business, but they're united by one concern-the safety of women in their stigmatized industry.
Jennifer exposes the ugly side of Vancouver's streets, where Canada's current laws have led to the increasing marginalization of street walkers and have made the women at the front lines of the notorious Downtown Eastside particularly vulnerable. It's a danger that made international headlines last year with the arrest of Robert Willie Pickton, charged with the murder of 26 women, many of them Vancouver sex trade workers.
On the other side are high-priced sex workers like Simone, who are not at such risk. Their expensive services are advertised in the yellow pages as escort agencies, and are taxed and operated under tacit approval of the police.
"The sex trade is a valid career option today if managed properly," says Scarlett, who now speaks publicly about her work as a madam and her belief that prostitution should be legalized.
A Safer Sex Trade explores this double standard at work by putting faces to the women who represent both perspectives: life in the high rise and on the street.
