Expected sentencing for three killings has Vancouver Rape Relief calling for end to prostitution
Posted September 9, 2015 9:39 pm.
Last Updated September 10, 2015 10:22 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NEW WESTMINSTER (NEWS 1130) – A man awaiting sentencing for the killings of three people is due in New Westminster court Thursday. The case has one local anti-violence group calling for an end to prostitution.
Two women were murdered in the same apartment building in New Westminster two weeks apart back in August 2013. Both of them were sex trade workers.
Hilla Kerner with Vancouver Rape Relief is calling for an end to prostitution.
“The case was tragic evidence that prostitution is not safe. It was another reinforcement of our fight to end prostitution and to end male violence against women.”
She argues there are no conditions that can make sex trade work safe.
“So, most women will never be able to have a safer way to do that. There is a myth that if women are indoors, they’re safer but we know from many women in prostitution that it’s not the case.”
She’s calling for basic reforms; she wants men to be stopped from purchasing sex from women. She believes prostitution isn’t the only problem, as she explains violence against women must be eradicated.
“Many women have been murdered in British Columbia and we do not remember them. In this year alone, six women have been murdered by their husbands. So women have been brutally attacked by men and have been murdered by men. It could be ‘the john’, the husband it can be the rapist.”
Last Spring, Sarbjit Bains pleaded guilty for the deaths of Jill Lyons, Karen Nabors and Amritpal Saran.
