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Anti-prostitution campaign directed at johns

When it comes to economics, supply and demand is what makes the world go round. Prostitution is a business, and like every other business, without the demand, there would be no need for supply.
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Greater Sudbury Police Service Insp. Bob Keetch talks with Christine Schmidt, co-ordinator of the Real Men Don't Buy Girls billboard campaign, launched Nov. 14 on Kathleen Street. The billboard will be up for a month. Photo by Arron Pickard.
When it comes to economics, supply and demand is what makes the world go round.

Prostitution is a business, and like every other business, without the demand, there would be no need for supply. Without men looking to purchase sex, there would be no real need for women to sell their bodies.

But there is a demand, and it's that underlying issue that is at the centre of a new campaign to address prostitution in Greater Sudbury. A billboard was put up Nov. 13 on Kathleen Street. The message is simple enough: Real Men Don't Buy Girls, a campaign conceived by women with lived experience of child and youth prostitution and human trafficking.

It's the issue as a whole that isn't so simple, said the project's co-ordinator.

“In the media, you'll see a headline that reads 'woman pimps out child,' but no one ever asks who is buying the child,” said Christine Schmidt.

She wants to be clear that this campaign is not designed to abolish prostitution on Kathleen Street.

“That's not our goal,” she said. “We put it (on Kathleen Street), because the sign needs context. If we had put the sign on The Kingsway or near the New Sudbury Shopping Centre, people wouldn't really pay attention to it.”

On Kathleen Street, the sign has real meaning, she said. Over the past few years, there has been a multitude of complaints about men driving around looking for sex, “so, we want johns to read that sign, and we want them to know that we know where they are.”

And shifting the focus from the prostitutes onto the men is exactly what the billboard campaign is about, Schmidt said. It's also an effective way to start a dialogue leading up to a roundtable discussion planned for January, a session that will ask why johns buy sex in the first place.

“We want to start the dialogue within the community about who are these men who buy sex, and what are the motivating factors,” she said. “Instead of asking why women are on the street, we need to ask why men are seeking these services. I know it seems like an obvious answer — the sex — but I don't think it's that simple.”

Schmidt said she has talked to many johns, and often they are ashamed of their behaviour – behaviour that can ruin a their career, their marriage, their life.

“First-hand accounts from johns often indicate they are trying to fill another need, not necessarily sex, and that's fine, but if we get together as a community, then perhaps we can come up with ways to meet those needs that aren't harming these women,” she said.

For Greater Sudbury Police Service, prostitution has been a focal point for as long as Insp. Bob Keetch can remember.

Considering some people call prostitution the oldest profession in the world, it would be a pipe dream to think any effort could wipe it off the face of the planet forever, said Keetch.

“It's a challenge to us as a police service, and to the community as a whole,” Keetch said. “I don't know that we're ever going to eliminate it, and I wish I could say we will, but I don't think that's realistic. It's something we are striving to address, but it's something we cannot do alone.”

It has been proven that enforcement is not the answer in getting girls off the street, he said. Instead, police need to keep partnering with community agencies to build support and engage community partners to address the underlying root causes — root causes such as why johns are soliciting sex.

“There is some tremendous work being done in this community, and we are seeing some tremendous success in getting girls off the street,” Keetch said. “Now we are focusing on johns.”

Prostitution is relatively new to the Kathleen Street corridor, Keetch said. It has migrated from the downtown area over the past two years, after police ramped up enforcement efforts there.

“There has been a dramatic increase in the number of active sex-trade workers in this area, and there are other variables involved with the shift in locations, such as access to drugs and affordable housing.”

Already, though, the campaign is having an effect, in that it is bringing profile to the issue, he said. Part of the solution is educating the community that there is a problem with prostitution, and to make it more visible.

The billboard will be up on Kathleen Street for a month, Schmidt said. The support she has received for the campaign has been overwhelming. It is being funded by a number of community agencies with a vested interest in eliminating prostitution.

While there was a bit of apprehension as to how the campaign would be presented, “I think people realize that what is absent in all of our work around prostitution is any analysis of men who buy sex under exploitative conditions.”

“We've brought to the table many different organizations (to discuss the issue of prostitution),” she said, and the only real missing link in this chain is the johns. “We are shifting the gaze from the women to the men.”

Anyone interested in getting involved or participating in the roundtable discussion in January can email Schmidt at [email protected].