Want to know keep up-to-date on what's happening in Victoria? Subscribe to our daily newsletter:. As many as 1, adults offer sexual services in the BC capital. Of the hundreds of such reports Cooley has processed over the years, she has seen men who were violent or threatening, men who haggled over price or even men who were rude or raised their voice. While federal laws keep it in the shadows β and COVID has decimated it as strongly as any other sector β Victoria maintains a surprisingly vibrant underground sex industry.
However, a study by Benoit estimates that in any one year, up to 1, adults in Greater Victoria sell sexual services on a full or part-time basis. In another study surveying Victoria sex workers, Benoit found that many enter the industry by choice, rather than desperation or coercion.
Regardless, for obvious reasons it remains an extremely high-risk job. A bad date report comes into Peers roughly every three days. The report is first scrubbed of any identifying information about the sex worker who called it in. Although it is accessible online through the Peers website via a password, the list is kept to as few people as possible. Since Peers was founded in , the bad date list was always something done informallyβa paper list was kept and updated inhouse.
That changed in when they received a federal Department of Justice grant to start an online database. The group also distributes other literature intended to keep sex workers safe from harm. One of those is Trade Secrets , a booklet produced by the BC Coalition of Experiential Communities , an advocacy group for sex workers. Capital Daily was not able to view any Victoria bad date reports, but some segments from a Seattle bad date list have been made public by the Washington-based Organization for Prostitution Survivors.
Cooley said that Peers has grown its relationship with Victoria Police and they have a police liaison which makes it easier to report crimes against sex workers. However, with sexual assault already an immensely difficult crime to prosecute successfully, the barrier is even higher when it comes to paid sex work. Stay connected to your city with the Capital Daily newsletter. As a sector that operates under a legal gray area, the Victoria sex industry has not been subject to public health mandates although the BC Centre for Disease Control has released a COVID guidance for sex workers.
