Human-trafficking fight draws criticism

The Salvation Army is coming under fire for what it calls a "weekend of prayer for victims of sex trafficking." But Vancouver advocacy groups say the event is misleading and degrades sex trade workers.

The Salvation Army's national website recommends people conduct prayer walks near strip clubs and massage parlours during thisweekend's campaign, which is focused on human trafficking in the sex trade and its connection to the 2010 Olympic Games.

The campaign, dubbed "The Truth Isn't Sexy," also suggests that participants set up mannequins clothed in tattered, blood-stained dresses.

The campaign is fundamentally dishonest, in the view of Pivot Legal Society lawyer Katrina Pacey

"What they are trying to do is create real hysteria about this issue, as opposed to coming up with productive solutions," Pacey told CBC News Thursday.

Pacey said the Salvation Army needs to publicly recognize human trafficking what the Salvation Army called "sex-trafficking" involves a small percentage of those in the sex trade.

Human trafficking often involves criminal organizations that bring women from poorernations into developed countries under false pretenses and forces them to become sex trade workers.

'They've gone out on a white horse'

The Salvation Army's proposed methods were also criticizedby Esther Shannon, a spokeswoman for Vancouver-based prostitution advocacy group FIRST. Shannon said the Salvation Army's advertisements have a narrow perspective and will further alienate trafficking victims, while doing little to get them out of danger.

"They've gone out on a white horse to rescue trafficking victims and they may very well have made it more difficult for those victims to be able to report or gain any safety," she said.

The B.C. division of the Salvation Army was unaware of some of the activities suggested by the national organization, according to spokesman Maj. Brian Venables.

"Oh man, where did that from?" Venables said when told of the suggestion of blood-stained dresses.

Nobody from the Salvation Army in B.C. will be setting up bloody mannequins, said Venables.

"This is not a campaign about prostitution. It's not about people who sell themselves on the street. It's about people who are sold on the street, who don't have a choice," he said.

Venables said he didn't know how the message made it onto the website, and said guerilla tactics are not the way of the Salvation Army.