MEDICINE HAT, AB — The shadowy dealings of the sex trade in Medicine Hat is something many may not even know about.
It’s a reality city police deal with on a regular basis.
Some girls willingly advertise their services, while others are being forced against their will to sleep with strangers.
It’s not a secret that escorts exchange dinner dates, companionship and sex for cash.
Prostitution has been legal in Canada since 2014.
That’s when the government decided that it would be legal for a woman to sell herself and her body.
In doing that, it became illegal to purchase or communicate sexual services.
It’s a way to help the women and young girls who are forced into the sex trade and trafficked.
But there are other women, licensed escorts, who are in the industry for the money.
CHAT News spoke to one woman earlier this year who’s been in the industry for almost seven years.
To help protect her identity, we’ve agreed to call her ‘Anne’.
“I do not like the word hooker at all,” she said. “We don’t stand on the street corner and we’re not unsafe and we don’t do it for $20.”
But Anne didn’t feel like she had any other choice.
The single mother was working a regular 9-5 job, living paycheque to paycheque.
She was laid off and needed money fast.
“I had a really, really good friend that had started in the industry. I was totally opposed and against it, it really bothered me,” she said. “Nobody knows anything about the night life.”
But she needed the money and couldn’t afford to wait two weeks for a cheque.
“People just automatically assume girls are addicted to drugs or they’re selling drugs by pimps and it can definitely be that,” she said. “I’ve seen it. But for the most part, what I’ve seen is just girls really just trying to make their way.”
“They’re exposing themselves to, really, a criminal lifestyle. They’re exposing themselves to a lot of drug elements,” said Constable Noel Darr.
Darr works directly with escorts and the two agencies in Medicine Hat.
He also keeps a close eye on the Internet.
“You’re not going to drive down a specific street in Medicine Hat and find a girl who’s working. You’re not going to go to a local bar and find a girl who’s working,” he said. “All those arrangements are made online, in the shadows, in secret and in private.”
Darr is looking for young girls who are being forced into the sex trade.
It’s different than what Anne is doing. She isn’t forced into anything she’s not comfortable with.
“Obviously your body is your body, even if you work for an agency or not,” she said. “I still have the right to say this is what I will do and this is what I won’t do.”
Because everything is done online and over the phone, clients always know what they’re getting.
“When a gentlemen calls, he knows what he wants,” she said. “A redhead, a blonde, voluptuous, skinny. They know what they want. They ask for it and then the agency sends that girl.”
As for Anne, she never really knows who’s going to answer the door.
“From that high school 18-year-old, 19-year-old boy who’s overweight and has acne and is too shy to make a move, to the business man in a business suit who’s married with a perfect family,” she said.
“People need to realize that the men who are paying for these services, they’re professionals in the City of Medicine Hat,” said Darr. “They’re successful business men with the City of Medicine Hat. They are the father of four who lives across the street from you who may watch your own kids.”
Anne said the money is good, even addicting. But she doesn’t enjoy the act itself.
“You could have one gentlemen a night or you could have seven gentlemen a night,” she said.
It’s why it’s important for her to save something, like a kiss on the lips, for the person she fell for.
“I’ve been with somebody for quite sometime and I think that’s why I have a lot of limitations because it’s a piece of me,” she said. “If I give my whole self to this person, then I’m not going be able to go home to that person that I love.”
