By MIKE STROBEL — For the Toronto Sun
“In the morning!?” says Valerie Scott. (What was I thinking?)
“You expect a hooker to meet you IN THE MORNING?!”
So we meet in the afternoon, at her haunt, the cool Jet Fuel Cafe, up Parliament St.
The walls are red, the lattes hot and sexy. James Brown is in the air.
“One-two, one-two-three, uh!
Hot pants, hey hot pants, uh! smokin’ “
Val Scott, Laurel Ronan and a co-worker named Amy finish their cigarettes and drift to a table.
They are leaders of Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC). Today at 1 p.m., by Old City Hall, SPOC members in saucy attire will mark International Sex Workers’ Rights Day.
It is too late to send a card.
If you are in the area, though, take a look at their pamphlet.
It explains how they want prostitution “decriminalized,” requiring only a business licence.
As opposed to “legalized,” which makes hookers a sort of controlled substance. Legal, but only at designated brothels, with auditions, shift work and heavy fees.
“Who in their right mind works under those conditions?” Val says. “In Amsterdam, it’s women from poor parts of eastern Europe.”
Val is rail-thin, except in all the right places, and has a 29-year-old son. She is coy about her own age, but in 1988 she too was 29.
She still turns a trick or two with longtime regulars. This is fine with the stockbroker to whom she is engaged.
Eight years ago, he was her chemistry tutor. Oh, yes he was.
“She’s a revolutionary,” Laurel Ronan says of Val. “We need her. She gives a rip.”
Laurel is built like a dominatrix. She is as quick with a quip as she is with a whip.
“I’ll spank you if you let me have that camera,” she says to our Mark O’Neill.
Mark knocks over a latte.
Laurel, 27, works in a fetish cooperative with other ladies of leather in a downtown studio.
Aren’t you afraid your parents will read this?
“I have to tell them sooner or later. I’m not ashamed of what I do.”
Val has fought for a free sex trade since Laurel was knee-high to a nipple clamp.
Not much has changed. You can buy sex legally, strictly speaking. But bawdy house and solicitation laws drive hookers into dark and dangerous places.
“If you make us work in the gutter, that’s where we’ll be,” Val says. “We’ve made no progress legally, so we’re trying to educate the public.”
Hence, today’s demo.
SPOC even has a guide to being a good john.
“Pleeease brush your teeth.”
Plus, cheeky guesses at what our leaders are like in bed.
“Dalton McGuinty: ‘I’ll make it up to you, I promise. You know I’m a good man. Where’s dinner?’ “
There’s a serious side, too, of course. The sex trade is a good way to get beaten up, or worse.
SPOC says lifting the maze of laws will make pimps and other hoodlums go away. Who will need them?
Prostitution will never go away. It is all around.
“People need to get their jollies,” Laurel says.
“There’s a brothel on practically every block in the city,” Val says. “They’re just very discreet.
“All those condos on the lakeshore? One big brothel.”
Well, that’s a stretch.
So is SPOC’s dream of hookers free to patrol (they call it advertising) any commercial street in Toronto.
The God-fearing merchants of Yorkville will choke on their espresso when they read that.
“If we offend, get over it,” Val says.
Earning a degree
But the hookers have a point. The murder and mayhem that came with Prohibition must have taught us something.
If we call it a crime, guess who shows up? Criminals.
Amy, 26, knows this. She turns tricks to pay for sociology courses at Ryerson.
Those morning classes are a real crime.