In Canada, prostitution is legal, and one call girl is speaking out

ONTARIO, CANADA (WIVB) - In Canada, prostitution is legal, but that doesn't mean that line of work can't be risky for the women who choose the profession.

News 4's Ed Drantch spoke one-on-one with a Canadian call girl, who spoke freely about her business in the bedroom and her fight to change the law to make the job safer for others.

Many sex workers are afraid to come forward. They have families, and some have other jobs. But Nikki Thomas is quite outspoken on the issue. She didn't hold back when speaking to News 4, starting right off by saying, "I am a sex worker. I am an individual who provides sexual services for money or compensation."

Thomas clarified the term 'sex worker' by saying, "It doesn't have the same sort of emotional content that a word like prostitute might have."

At 31-years-old, Thomas has been selling sex for five years. For her safety, she met Drantch in a generic location to discuss her business.

Though she wouldn't say how much she makes in this business, she did say she does "okay." News 4 spoke to several sex workers, and were told they all fall into different tax brackets, with some making as much as six figures a year.

But deep in the fine print of Canadian laws on prostitution, there's a catch.

"The problem is that the way to do it the most safely is the way that's also considered to be illegal, which is in the privacy of your own home, when you have control over the surroundings," Thomas explained.

According to the law, it's illegal to have sex for money in a location set up for that purpose, known as a common bawdy-house. It's also against the law to "live on the avails of the prostitution of another person," meaning a sex worker like Thomas cannot have a booker, someone who manages clients, nor any paid security.

Thomas said, "Sex workers' rights are human rights and we absolutely deserve the same protections and the same freedoms as everyone else."

She and the other sex professionals of Canada are taking on the government, petitioning for the repeal of those laws, and taking their case all the way to the Supreme Court.

"We do feel that the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation and what happens behind closed doors should be interfered with by the laws or other parts of society," Thomas argued.

Cynthia Henderson agrees with her, "I believe it would be a good thing to have laws to protect people and their businesses and this is another business."

Others are absolutely against having the laws overturned.

Cathy Collis said, "I just don't believe in legalizing it because I think it's contributing to allowing the prostitution."

Thomas responded, "They're worried that it's going to lead to a huge influx of sex workers coming from all different parts of the world and it's going to lead to an influx of traffiking and that simply isn't the case. All that will happen is one of the most marginalized and vulnerable groups of society will finally have access to the justice sysyem and to the same protection and rights everyone else has."

She added, "There have been a few times where I had to slow people down and make sure they didn't push my boundaries. And they responded appropriately."

But in the case that a client doesn't respond, Thomas has no legal way of getting help. So she does her homework, getting a client's name, phone number, and physical description. A friend, she says, always has that information.

"If a client is aware of this, then that means the opportunism disappears," Thomas noted. "And the vast majority of violence against sex workers is opportunistic. People perpetuate violence against sex workers because they think they can get away with it."

For safety, if nothing else, Thomas says the change in law will have a positive impact on a lucrative, legitimate business.

"It's something that I've done, it's something that I choose to do out of my own free will and I don't have any regrets about it," she concluded.

The Supreme Court in Canada is likely to rule on the laws in the coming years. As for now, the way Thomas conducts business is still illegal, but she says no court will prosecute these cases until the high court rules.