As we mark International Sex Workers’ Day, which celebrates a legacy of activism, SWAN Vancouver is also reflecting on the return of the first Red Umbrella March, an event that calls for safety, human rights and decriminalization. The last Red Umbrella March was in 2023, and in just three years what was previously known as a progressive jurisdiction for sex worker safety initiatives has begun to unravel.
- The City of Vancouver has eliminated one of two sex work safety Social Planner positions before ABC councillors voted against a motion to restore resources
- Vancouver Police Department rewrote its Sex Work Enforcement Guidelines, erasing community organizations from the process and largely framing sex work as exploitation
- The BC RCMP Counter Human Trafficking Unit targeted sex work in an undercover sting in Richmond, then further stigmatized the industry by stating sex work is harmful
- Anti-trafficking moral panic is growing, bolstered by multiple PSAs capitalizing on a debunked myth that sex trafficking spikes during large sports events like FIFA
- The City of Richmond refuses to publicly publish a report reviewing body rub bylaws and looking at best practices around Metro Vancouver. City council voted against the report’s recommendations for updating bylaws during a meeting that was closed to the public, and Richmond staff blocked SWAN from obtaining the documents through a Freedom of Information request.
“Every generation of sex workers still ends up having to re-explain why criminalization, displacement, and over-policing are harmful, even though sex worker communities have been documenting these harms for decades,” said Kelly Go, Program Manager, SWAN Vancouver. “We’ve continued to do advocacy and push for the full decriminalization of sex work that doesn’t leave migrants behind, but we find ourselves in another cycle of resistance and political organizing.”
On Saturday, June 6, sex workers and allies will gather for the Red Umbrella March at Emery Barnes Park, in a historic section of Seymour Street once known as the high track for its street-based sex work. Ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, the VPD began enforcement that displaced workers, denying it was related to the event, and stating it was due to a changing neighbourhood and in response to growing complaints. Like in many neighbourhoods, the sex workers on Seymour Street were framed as a problem to be solved, something to be cleaned up, managed, and pushed out for the sake of morality, safety, and order.
This historic area is also home to SWAN Vancouver’s office, where im/migrant sex workers access one-on-one support, healthcare, learn English and new recipes in our community kitchen; and help shape advocacy and services. But during the World Cup, this space will be temporarily closed as FIFA matches bring the largest deployment of police resources in Vancouver’s history to the downtown core. FIFA brings a heightened risk of surveillance, arrest, detention and deportation – and enforcement that’s justified using the language of regulation, public safety, or anti-trafficking.
The displacement, criminalization, and surveillance have not disappeared; the language has simply changed. And as these struggles continue to repeat themselves, so will the resilience, organizing, and community care that emerge in response.