Michelle Gamage, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Tyee

The BC Counter Human Trafficking Unit and Richmond RCMP have made multiple arrests that they say will deter predators looking to purchase sex from potential trafficking victims.

But a criminologist who specializes in sex work laws and an organization that supports sex workers — some of whom have been trafficked themselves — say police operations like this actually make sex work more dangerous and make it less likely that someone who is being trafficked will speak with police.

On March 17 the RCMP put out a press release saying it had completed a one-day operation in which officers posed as sex workers online, spoke with more than 100 people and made multiple arrests when potential clients showed up. All individuals were released pending further investigation.

The BC Prosecution Service told The Tyee that at this time no charges have been laid.

“These initiatives are intended to disrupt demand for sexual services [and] raise awareness about the harms associated with the sex trade,” the RCMP press release said, adding “it is the consumer demand that fuels human sex trafficking and creates situations where vulnerable people are exploited.”

Canadian sex work laws are somewhat confusing: they allow adults to sell sex but make it illegal to buy sex or offer third-party support, such as hosting ads, renting space or doing secretary or security work, for sex workers.

Police don’t seem to understand the difference between sex work, which is a consensual exchange between adults, and trafficking, which is coerced or exploitative, said Angela Wu, executive director of SWAN Vancouver, an organization that supports migrant and immigrant indoor sex workers.

That’s “surprising,” Wu said, as she’s had several conversations with the BC Counter Human Trafficking Unit and the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General. “At every turn they reassured us over and over and over again that sex work and sex workers were not the target of this unit,” she said.

“But this is a very blatant targeting of sex work,” she said, adding that the sting will have ramifications for sex workers.

The sting is making sex workers afraid that they will be targeted next, she said.

It’s also not clear how targeting clients helps the unit fulfil its mandate of identifying high-priority human traffickers or helping trafficking victims, she added.

The Tyee asked the RCMP to share the fake ad or profile officers had posted as part of the operation, or to explain how the ad had signalled that it involved someone who was potentially being trafficked.

In an email to The Tyee, Sgt. Vanessa Munn, a spokesperson for the Lower Mainland district RCMP, said they would not share the ad or details about it. Broadly speaking, she said, “our undercover personas were intentionally presented with clear vulnerabilities, mirroring the circumstances that offenders seek to exploit. This approach is designed to identify individuals who pose a risk to others.”

“This operation did not target adults consensually working within the sex trade,” Munn added. “People who seek out services from… vulnerable individuals pose a risk to independent sex workers as well, and our intervention could prevent a future ‘bad date.’”

Wu told The Tyee that the scenario the RCMP set up manufactured both a victim and a perpetrator because “sex buyers are not traffickers.”

“I would like to understand how going after sex buyers addresses trafficking,” she said.

How stings affect the safety of sex work

Research shows that police operations like this make all sex work more dangerous, said Jennie Pearson, a post-doctoral fellow at the Simon Fraser University school of criminology who completed her PhD with the AESHA project.

The AESHA research project, or An Evaluation of Sex Workers Health Access, was a 15-year-long study from the University of British Columbia that collected data from about 900 sex workers in diverse environments across Metro Vancouver. It wrapped up in 2024.

“The AESHA project has decades of evidence showing that policing and arresting people who are partaking in sex work as workers and clients does very little to create opportunity for folks who are experiencing violence or exploitation to seek out justice or support because it creates this fear for everyone involved that they will face persecution, charges or be outed in the process,” Pearson said.

“We know these sweeping police tactics… really just push everything underground out of fear,” she added.

Wu said online platforms are one of the few places sex workers can exercise the safety strategy of screening their clients. They can check bad-date reports, negotiate the terms of the transaction and even ask the client to provide references from other sex workers they have seen.

Police operations disrupt these carefully constructed safety checks and balances and make it less likely that a client will provide their name or references, Pearson said. A client might ask a sex worker for their own information as proof that they are not a cop. When that happens a sex worker might have to provide more information than they are given and are at risk of being doxed or outed by a client, she said.

Studies done for the AESHA project found that when police target clients it makes sex workers more vulnerable to violence and blood-borne and sexually transmitted infections. They also found that the criminalization of clients reduced sex workers’ ability to negotiate the terms of sexual transactions, including service, price and sexual health. When clients are criminalized they are also more likely to pay in cash, which makes sex workers more vulnerable to being robbed.

Policing street-based sex workers also disrupts the safety networks of certain strolls, which sex workers may choose because there’s better lighting or they have friends nearby. It pushes workers into more isolated and vulnerable locations, Pearson said.

“Workers still need to get clients and make some money that night,” regardless of a police presence, she added.

When The Tyee asked the RCMP if it was concerned its operation could disrupt online safety checks, Munn said customers already “often provide incomplete or inaccurate personal information.”

Ultimately, Pearson and Wu said, Canada needs to fully decriminalize sex work to improve the health and safety of everyone involved in the industry and to better protect people experiencing exploitation, violence or coercion.

Decriminalizing sex work would mean people experiencing coercion, or an adult sex worker who experienced violence, would be more comfortable talking about what happened or seeking justice, Pearson said.

Decriminalization would help anti-trafficking efforts focus on industries beyond sex work, because labour exploitation does not only exist in the sex work industry, she added.

Finally, she said the government could work to address the root issues that lead people to be economically vulnerable and do unsafe or exploitative work, such as poverty, a lack of affordable housing, and minimal social and disability payments and services compared with the cost of living.

The Tyee asked the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General if it knew the BC Counter Human Trafficking Unit would target sex workers when it established the unit, and why the unit made arrests via sex work laws rather than human trafficking laws in its recent operation.

In an emailed response the ministry said the unit makes its own decisions independent of government and further questions would need to be answered by the RCMP.

The Tyee also asked the RCMP why it was using sex work laws rather than anti-trafficking laws, but the RCMP did not directly answer the question. The RCMP’s statement said, in part, that the operation “highlighted that many individuals likely did not realize that purchasing sex is illegal, and part of our role as police is to educate the public about the law and the risks associated with this behaviour.”

Sex work is the world’s oldest profession and criminalizing it has never eradicated it, Wu said. Scaring clients “doesn’t make sex work go away; it just gets more hidden,” she added.

The RCMP operation also comes at a time when all levels of government are reducing financial supports for organizations that support sex workers.

“We’re all at max capacity to respond to increasing violence and responding to concerns,” Wu said. “It feels like they’re kicking us when we’re down.”

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