Sex workers don’t need saving, says Canada’s most famous dominatrix, they need a union.
Terri-Jean Bedford, the former Windsor street walker and madame who took her fight against Canada’s anti-prostitution laws to the Supreme Court and won, told more than 200 people at the University of Windsor on Wednesday that government was to blame for much of the danger prostitutes faced.
The Supreme Court on Dec. 20 struck down the country’s prostitution laws, giving Parliament a year to come up with something different. The landmark ruling capped off a two-decade fight launched by Bedford that she says finally gives the typical sex worker basic freedom.
“It’s so much better for her now,” said Bedford, 54, a grandmother and Canada’s highest-profile sex-worker activist. “She’s no longer stigmatized or devalued. She’s a human being. She has her rights and freedoms.
University of Windsor students listen to Terri-Jean Bedford, Wednesday, Jan.15, 2014, at the school. Bedford was the principal affiant in Canada v. Bedford, a Constitutional Challenge which resulted in the Supreme Court of Canada decision striking down laws restricting prostitution. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)
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