Panel and Book Launch

Not Your Rescue Project: Stop the Harm of the Anti-Trafficking Movement. 

Build Solidarity to Support Asian Sex Workers and Massage Workers in Fighting for Their Rights

Background

The federal, provincial, and municipal government officials have implemented anti-trafficking policies and allocated significant funding, primarily to law enforcement, while mobilizing NGOs, businesses, and the public to join efforts to end human trafficking. However, rather than providing protection, these initiatives often harm sex workers, as well as racialized and migrant communities, due to the negative impact of the anti-trafficking industry.

Concerns about human trafficking have led to increased policing, restrictive regulations, and the shutdown of Asian massage parlours and the workplaces of sex workers. Migrant Asian women, in particular, are frequently misrepresented as passive victims, viewed as incapable of consent and in need of "rescue." This anti-trafficking agenda often advances whorephobic, racist, and anti-migrant policies, resulting in the harassment, arrest, racial profiling and deportation of migrant sex workers and massage workers, e.g. The lobbying efforts of anti-trafficking organizations have influenced the City of Toronto to adopt a repressive policy against Asian and massage parlours. In 2019, Toronto proposed the elimination of the holistic license, posing a threat to the livelihoods of over 2,000 predominantly low-income, middle-aged Asian women.

We are organizing this panel and book launch to expose the harm caused by the anti-trafficking industry and to highlight the experiences and resistance of Asian migrant sex workers and massage workers.

Date: November 22, 2024
Time: 2:00 - 7:30 pm
Location: Workers Action Centre, Suite 206, Community Organizing Space, 720 Spadina Ave., Toronto
Admission: Free (**Donations to Butterfly are welcome   your support strengthens our grassroots organizing efforts!**)

Schedule:

• 2:00 - 6:00 pm: Panel Discussion and Group Dialogue
  Join community members, activists, and scholars as they discuss the impact of anti-trafficking policies on Asian and migrant massage workers, and explore ways to build solidarity and support workers’ rights.

• 6:00-7:00: Break and snack

• 6:30 - 7:30 pm: Book Launch – Not Your Rescue Project
  Celebrate the launch of Not Your Rescue Project. All book sales will be donated to Butterfly to support their work for migrant sex workers' rights.

Organized by: 

Butterfly (Asian Migrant Sex Workers Support Network), Toronto Body Rub Coalition, Holistic Practitioners Alliance, HIV Legal Network, Chinese Canadian National Council (Toronto)

Co-sponsored by

Windsor Law's Transnational Law and Racial Justice Network (TLRJN), University of Windsor 

Centre for Feminist Research. York University 

Chinese Canadian National Council (Toronto)

Critical Trafficking and Sex Work Studies, York University 

School of Social Work, McMaster University 

York Centre for Asian Research, York Unversity 

Funded by 

Canadian Women Foundation

York University Support Grant, York University 

Please Note: The building is wheelchair accessible, and the Worker’s Action Centre is located on the 2nd floor, accessible by elevator. This event will be held indoors and may include a large group of attendees. To help keep everyone safe,  masks, hand sanitizer, and rapid tests will be available onsite.