Op-Eds

If sex workers are as ‘vulnerable’ as the law suggests, where’s their pandemic support?

A year ago, governments across Canada declared a state of emergency and encouraged people to shelter in place. Many workers, supported by the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), ceased work to abide by public health guidelines for physical distancing. Sex workers, as workers, were expected to follow suit. Instead, what happened was just an extension of sex workers’ normal: exclusion from labour rights and protections.

To end conversion therapy, we must understand what it actually means: Dr. Travis Salway

This op-ed by Dr. Travis Salway first appeared in the The Globe & Mail on May 26, 2020. On Monday, Calgary City Council voted, nearly unanimously, to pass a municipal ban of advertising around conversion therapy, which the city defined as “practice, treatment, or service designed to change, repress, or discourage a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, or to repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behaviour.” In doing so, Calgary joined cities such as Vancouver, Edmonton and Fort McMurray, along with provinces including Ontario and Nova Scotia, in passing legislation banning conversion therapies. The discourse at the publicly-broadcast citizen debate before the council vote was polarizing, however, with hundreds of speakers passionately arguing on either side of the issue over two days. Those opposed to the ban argued that they do not want to see their fellow…