Vancouver prostitutes seek to establish brothel in time for Olympics

VANCOUVER -- A group of Vancouver prostitutes wants to open a "co-op" brothel in time for the Winter Olympics, saying it would help sex-trade workers by providing a safer working environment when the world comes to visit in 2010.

Susan Davis, a working prostitute, said she envisions as many as five co-operative brothels opening if the BC Coalition of Experiential Communities, which includes men, women and trans-gendered sex-trade workers, convinces the federal government to permit the first brothel on an experimental basis.

The group has support from some politicians, including Vancouver East MP Libby Davies and Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, who believe a brothel owned and run by sex-trade workers would help reduce violence against them.

Ms. Davis said the group is weeks away from incorporating a co-operative corporation and is looking for a possible location in the city's east side. But she said the group won't open the facility, complete with "quickie rooms" equipped with sinks and a bench, unless it has support from the federal government.
 
"What we'd like to see is an exemption given to us along the lines of what was given for the Insite safe-injection site," Ms. Davis said.
 
She believes tens of thousands of men who come to Vancouver during the Games will be searching for sex. B.C.'s booming construction economy has already brought thousands of workers, and along with them, prostitutes, she said.