Escorts can work from home

Training classes approved for escorts - Edmonton bylaw allows prostitutes to work from home (Adrienne Tanner, National Post. Wed, July 21, 1999)

The city of Edmonton will hold mandatory classes for independent escorts applying for business licences about the health and tax implications of working as a prostitute.

The unusual training sessions are part of a new bylaw approved by city council yesterday that will allow escorts to work independently from agencies and field calls at home.

Sex, however, must still take place at a hotel or a client's home. Federal laws prohibit the operation of bawdy houses.

City councillors voted for the bylaw because they had no way to stop escort agencies from forwarding calls to prostitutes at home.

"If we're going to be in the business of regulating escorts, we have to recognize new technology," said Wendy Kinsella, a city councillor.

Council also felt the new law will allow women to break free from those greedy escort agency operators who fine women for turning down dates and demand payments over and above the customers' introduction fee.

Four of Edmonton's 10 licensed escort agencies were charged last year with living off the avails of prostitution, said Constable Deb Jolly, an Edmonton police officer and member of the city's dating and escort task force. Unscrupulous companies fine escorts who miss dates and refuse to perform certain sex acts, she said.

Council approved the training classes to ensure that all women who enter the business are doing so with open eyes.

"As part of getting a licence, escorts should be aware of the risks they take," said Dr. Gerry Predy, Edmonton's Medical Officer of Health, who was also a member of the task force.

Dr. Predy said the classes will be short: "Just a couple of hours or a half-day session to make them aware of the health risks."

Carol-Lynn Strachan, an independent escort who applauded the bylaw changes, said the classes, which will feature lectures by police officers and will teach escorts the proper use of a condom and the benefits of frequent medical checks, are a good idea.

"It will show the girls the bad side of the job. It's not all money. There are girls getting hurt out here," she said.

Const. Jolly admitted the new bylaw appears to legalize prostitution.

"Yes. But the misconception amongst the public is that prostitution is illegal when in fact it's not."

It's a crime to run a brothel, live off the avails of prostitution and communicate in a public place for the purposes of prostitution.

It's very possible for a careful escort agency or independent woman to run a prostitution business within the confines of the law, she said.