Hamilton IWW

ANNOUNCEMENT SWAP - Sex Workers' Action Program Hamilton & Hustle Heal Motivate have received a grant from Women and Gender Equality Canada in partnership ...with Grenfell Ministries to provide FREE, short-term counseling to sex workers in Hamilton and the region. We will be able to provide this service until August 13th of this year. Contact Arleney at: [email protected] or (647)-691-0729 for details

Justice for Rebecca Taube and The LOST Organization For those wondering why the LOST Organization is noted as closed permanently on Google they can contact Bil...l Young or Susan Currie (directors). Should you require their contact numbers please contact me at your convenience. At 6:30 PM Friday, December 18, 2020 in our view they constructively dismissed the Executive Director, Rebecca Taube. Since that date she has not received a formal Termination Letter, Record of Employment, a T4 for 2020 nor a pay cheque. 25 days-ago the directors’ lawyer, Katy O’ Rourke, sent Rebecca’s lawyer correspondence stating that they would advise as to Rebecca’s status in very short order. Rebecca has received no such correspondence and has been in job purgatory for almost 4 months. Rebecca founded this exceptional non-profit over 6 years ago and was the only employee. She had never had a raise in 6 years and singularly raised just last year $150,000.00 from the United Way. The LOST Organization was a Drop-in Mental Health support center that helped hundreds of people struggling with an array of Mental Health and Addiction issues. For her community efforts, Rebecca received the Spirit of Hope Award last fall from St Joseph’s Hospital. Yet these two directors not only evicted Rebecca from the onsite apartment with only 12 hours-notice (during a pandemic, pregnant and just before Christmas), but advised that they would be shutting down the charity the following Monday. As a drop-in Mental Health support facility, it could have and should have remained open for up to 10 people even during lockdown. I am certain we will hear from many who attended Lost and it is exceedingly sad that it is now closed. In the Board minutes from December 8, 2020 Bill Young Apologized on behalf of board, not meeting on regular basis as well as not being supportive enough. Moving forward we should be caretakers assisting Rebecca in leading LOST and the direction that it will go. Agreed on meeting on a monthly basis to gain a positive resolve. After this meeting two of the four board members resigned over how Rebecca was treated. Neither Susan nor Bill had visited the Lost Organization in 2020 to vet what incredible work Rebecca was doing for the Hamilton community. At the December 18 meeting they caused Rebecca such distress that she considered suicide that night. Not only did they have a meeting after work hours on a Friday (pretty unheard of) but they brought in a third person and refused to provide Rebecca with (her) credentials or last name. Rebecca nor most employees would be equipped to handle (what I was told was) a two-hour interrogation followed by an eviction. Last summer Rebecca had been in West Fifth for several weeks (and these Directors knew) as she too struggles with mental health issues. This is what makes Rebecca so great at what she does. Evicting a pregnant person without proper notice just before Christmas and during a pandemic is not only ethically wrong but also illegal? Rebecca should have stayed but they put the fear of God into her and she left the next morning. LOST was a one-person charity and in the past 4 months they accused Rebecca of not cooperating with their so-called investigation and have refused to address her employment status. In that time frame the remaining two directors were asked to resign in an effort to get the charity back and running and most importantly open Lost but to no avail. They are using monies raised by Rebecca for the community to pay two lawyers, and a new bookkeeper. Very sad indeed. Today I was copied on an email Rebecca wrote to her lawyer and it reads: I'm starting to feel pretty hopeless and at this point I have no idea what to do. Chris, I'm going to be reaching out to my doctor because I'm having a hard time managing emotionally and physically as a direct result of Bill & Susan's actions. I can't wrap my head around it anymore - how is it legal for two people to treat someone this way for this long? I think we can all agree that their treatment has been inhumane and they've made it absolutely impossible to move on with my life while they keep me in purgatory. They haven't even given me a t4 or ROE and I don't know what to do with ei or maternity leave. My stress level is too high to manage. If they don't reply this week, what can I do? I can't live like this anymore - I just want some closure so I can move on with my life and get healthy again. Nobody in this Province or Country should be treated like this and it is incredibly unfortunate that as of now one of the only drop-in Mental Health centers in Hamilton has been closed. We will be doing everything we can going forward to get it back open and would love to hear from the Community on this issue and need your support. No employee nor person should be treated the way Rebecca Taube has been treated. Please feel free to repost, contact the Hamilton Spectator or any other news medias with this story.

"EN identifies as gender queer and uses they/them pronouns. [...] I agree with the applicants that mis-gendering or the use of incorrect pronouns is adverse treatment with respect to the applicants’ employment." New decision on misgendering from the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal!

How is it that they get away with something like this?

In honour of the Life of Margo St. James, please watch this video. Also feel free to read the 2019 Pressing of A Vindication of the Rights of Whores: https://me...ga.nz/file/YbAAhB5B The SWAP Hamilton Sex Work Archive: https://mega.nz/folder/lDgiRLxK#GL-X4Cqw2XlRWoNhC83QZw Unite!

On December 6th, 2014 Stephen Harper's Conservative Government introduced Bill C-36: The Protection of Communities & Exploited Persons Act to further criminaliz...e sex work in Canada by targeting sex workers, clients, key security/support networks & digital platforms. C-36 was intentionally introduced on the same day Canada recognizes the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women and given such an inflammatory name to fan the flames of moral panic and promote the idea that sex workers need to be "rescued" and sex work eliminated from our communities. C-36 was the Conservative response to a successful challenge to Canada's previous anti-sex work laws from three Ontario sex workers: Terri-Jean Bedford, Valerie Scott and Amy Lebovitch. *Our Supreme Court sided with sex workers* who claimed these laws were unconstitutional and ordered the Federal government to strike them down. C-36 is how the Canadian government replaced those laws and doubled down on their position to further target sex workers. While Conservative leaders then (just like Liberal leaders now) maintain C-36 is written in a way that exempts sex workers from arrest or prosecution, organizations like Maggie's: Toronto Sex Workers Action Project doing direct work with providers have seen how law enforcement have deliberately targeted + set up, arrested and charged sex workers (especially those working together) as well as clients, vital security/support networks and digital platforms. Sex workers have said *for decades* that criminalizing and stigmatizing any area of this work (1) drives sex work further underground and strips sex workers of labour rights, (2) intensifies stigma and discrimination, (3) prevents sex workers from accessing community services and supports, and (4) exposes sex workers to violence- particularly from police and local law enforcement. C-36 is not about protecting sex workers, it's about eliminating sex work from our communities entirely. We've organized too many search parties for missing people, packed too many courtrooms, protested, rallied and slept outside of too many police stations and attended too many vigils. See more

There are 400 beds for single homeless men and less than 30 for single homeless women right now, in #HamOntThere are 400 beds for single homeless men and less than 30 for single homeless women right now, in #HamOnt

On the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women we remember the violence and oppression targeting sex workers in our communities. Sex wo...rkers - particularly Black, trans, survival sex workers - are targeted both by misogynist violence and discrimination from broader feminist communities who shame and degrade sex workers. Our struggle for human rights is central to addressing gender-based violence. To truly address gender-based violence in our communities we must embrace the politics of Black liberation, Indigenous sovereignty, trans liberation and sex worker solidarity.

Some folks don't know the origins of the red umbrella as a sex worker symbol. I found it in this pdf edited by Andrew Sorfleet brought to us by Pia Covre and Ca...rla Corso at a sex worker march at the Venice Biennale in 2001 in Tadej Pogacar's "Code Red" event. (drag to desktop to zoom in) PLUS Don't forget to celebrate and explore sex workers' politics, wisdom and art this week with the Digital Festival on Sex Workers’ Rights. Register for public events on Eventbrite here. https://www.eventbrite.be/o/icrse-31846607617 The program: (All CET times so convert!) https://www.sexworkeurope.org//files/DSWF%20PROGRAMME%20ed Don’t forget the panel I am on Thursday December 10th, 8 am PST, 5 PM CET Thursday 5-7pm CET Sex Worker Activism Through Art with Carol Leigh from the San Francisco Sex worker Festival, Holy Marie from the collective La_rue_est_aux_putes, Eva Sanglante from Decriminalized Futures, Jo Pollux from Sex in times of corona, Flavirina from Sistaaz of the Castle, and Olga Rozenblum for a tribute to Maïa Izzo-Foulquier.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/work-safe-twerk-safe-legal-actio

The Canadian Senate is currently proposing a bill to create censorship infrastructure in order to "protect children and women" from the "harmful effects" of adult content. Sex worker activists should pay attention to this. https://parl.ca/DocumentVie//43-2/bill/S-203/first-reading

For those who'd like a sneak peek of the Transgender Day of Remembrance video I did on behalf of SWAP - Sex Workers' Action Program Hamilton, please watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Fxkuxc-fiM