Sagittarius
Trisha: I have read on another website that you are looking for a reporter who has intimate knowledge of the lives of sex trade workers to report on the Pickton trial. I am not looking to be that reporter straight off the top, but I am truly disturbed after learning who you are considering for the job.
Who am I to want to throw in my two cents, you may ask? Well, I am a former prostitute, who worked in the Downtown Eastside from the ages of 19-26, so I do have the experience to speak on this subject.
My problem with the person you are considering is that she/he wishes to legalize prostitution. While she/he has done good for some of the girls, if you look at his/her standing within the community and organizations that help survival sex trade workers, I really don't know how good her/his name is. I do not know his/her standing in the native women's community either. The native community has a HUGE voice in this trial that needs to be heard too.
I truly hope you find the right voice for this trial because its implications extend far beyond this trial. If done correctly, this trial could be a springboard effecting real change in the lives of at-risk women.
Hopefully it will cause us to look at the bigger issues, which are lack of funding for rehabs, dealing with past abuse in the native community due to residential schools, looking at the social conditioning that makes it ok for men to think they can buy and use women's bodies and examining how we're grooming an entire generation through media to be ok with prostitution, among so many other issues.
COMMENTS (2)
RATE THIS STORY
Nude photos of the MTV reality star surfaced on the...
Hollywood's 1952 film The Gift of the Magi retells O'Henry's 1906 story of love and...
Comments
Re: The Pickton Trial: In The Beginning
By Trisha Baptie, December 13, 2007 at 14:58Wow, that reminds me of all the stories yet to write!!
Re: The Pickton Trial: In The Beginning
By Robyn Stubbs, December 12, 2007 at 11:53I was writing for 24 hours Vancouver when the Pickton trial first began last January. It was a miserable, wet and cold first day - the weather matched the mood, and it seemed fitting.
The media was everywhere, and the other press people were running on this weird adrenalin that I just didn't have. I wanted to leave, and never come back. Luckily, my editor sensed my reluctance and lack of enthusiasm and I was back on my regular beat within a few days. Two of my colleagues stayed on the trial until the end. I should say that I was the only female member of the Pickton team coverage, so I think the whole case hit me differently than it did my male cohorts. That's not to say it wasn't a tough slog for them - I'm sure it was. But us women are kindred spirits, and that combined with some other personal stuff I don't want to get into, I do think I had more trouble keeping emotions in check.
About six months into the trial, I came to Orato.com. I knew about their Pickton coverage and felt really comfortable with it - it was an effective way to remind people to look past the label of "drug addicted prostitute from the DTES" and supplement traditional media with some much needed subjectivity in this case.
When the verdict came in on Sunday, I was sitting down to dinner in front of the TV. I had prepared pork chops; suffice to say, I didn't have much of an appetite after the breaking news shot across my screen.
The first thing that ran through my head was "Oh my God." Then, "Thank God." Then, "I'm so glad I'm not down there with covering that as a traditional journalist."
It took a while to sink in and digest - I think there was an element of surprise because half my brain had resigned to the fact that there very could be an acquittal. The Crown did a great job, but so did the Defense team.
We need to keep in mind that there is likely another trial and that 20 more families are still living in limbo. This story is not over.