As WISH's ED Kara Gillies says, “The City committed to do better; it has now broken that commitment and done so without consultation or notice.”

STATEMENT: Community organizations alarmed after City of Vancouver cuts essential Sex Work Social Planner position | SWAN Vancouver Society

WISH Drop-In Centre Society, PACE Society, @swan-vancouver.bsky.social, @livingincmnty-bc.bsky.social, and RainCity Housing are deeply disappointed to hear that the City of Vancouver has eliminated one of two Sex Work Social Planner positions.

Full statement: swanvancouver.ca/sex-work-soc...

How a Met Police crackdown left sex workers fearing for their lives

"Why aren’t the police and council asking what support women, and particularly mothers, need to survive instead of persecuting and criminalising them?" metro.co.uk/2026/04/11/a...

August sentencing hearing for man guilty of sex assaults outside of Calgary A man who was found guilty this week of sexually assaulting three vulnerable women, and drugging one of them, at a rural home east of Calgary will be back for a sentencing hearing in August.

A man who was found guilty this week of sexually assaulting three vulnerable women, and drugging one of them, at a rural home east of Calgary will be back for a sentencing hearing in August.

Refugees Deserve Health Care. They Shouldn’t Have to Pay | The Tyee New co-payments under the Interim Federal Health Program are poor health policy, doctors say.

"These changes will predictably reduce access to essential care, worsen health outcomes and increase pressure on already overwhelmed emergency departments and hospitals. They will ultimately increase public health-care costs."

Mobile STBBI Testing is now a permanent service at SWAN Vancouver! We successfully completed the pilot stage of the project, facilitating 177 tests with 94 community members. You can help sustain this program: Swanvancouver.ca/donate

Anti-trafficking Awareness Campaigns | GAATW Canada Anti-trafficking awareness campaigns teach people about human trafficking and how to spot it using ‘red flags.’ Learn more here:

So, if most of your work revolves around spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on marketing firms for “red flags” campaigns that constantly paint our community as victims who need saving and police intervention, then you’re not doing evidence-based anti-trafficking work. gaatw.ca/anti-traffic...

Intro to the Harms of Anti-Trafficking | SWAN Vancouver Society Anti-trafficking efforts have problems including stoking a moral panic, sensationalizing narratives, using debunked statistics & informing laws/policies that harm sex workers.

Our awareness campaigns revolve around labour rights, healthcare access, and women’s agency. And yes, a lot of critical anti-trafficking work on approaches that don’t effectively address trafficking but instead target an already marginalized population. swanvancouver.ca/resource/int...

So when exploitation occurs, they know who to call for help—one of the only organizations they can access without fear, stigma, or attempts to pressure them to exit the industry. We do not work with the police or the CBSA, these agencies have used info in reports to arrest, detain, and deport.

SWAN is uniquely positioned to support im/migrant sex workers, and victims of trafficking, because we’ve built trust with the community. We speak with and visit women regularly, and we support them in the areas they want us to: immigration, safety, healthcare access, and criminalization.

I’d like to thank the RCMP for being incredibly candid about its anti-sex work stance, so we can all see more clearly how they’re not interested in stopping trafficking and just want to crackdown on sex work.

The B.C. RCMP Counter Human Trafficking Unit was announced in June 25, funded by the Public Safety and Solicitor General ministry of the province, to apparently catfish clients on the internet.

There has been a quiet withdrawal of SW organization support in B.C., and a shift away from evidence-based policy. Meanwhile, 2025 has been the most dangerous year in recent history for SWAN. Abuser Alerts + hospitalizations are both up, and very few im/migrant workers call the police.

Do you see the problem here? Sex work orgs may be one of the only services community members can access safely. If they contact an anti-trafficking agency, their solution is often to “rehabilitate and rescue.” If workers call police, they could end up in a trafficking investigation.

As Supports Dwindle, Violence Against Sex Workers Is Up | The Tyee Women are worried that conditions could lead to another serial killer operating in the Lower Mainland. A Tyee deep dive.

The B.C. Government would like to point out that while it doesn’t have sex work organization-specific grants, it does fund anti-trafficking very well. Vancouver Police say if a SWer calls 911, there’s a good chance they will be forwarded to the Human Trafficking Unit. thetyee.ca/News/2026/01...

Photo of woman wearing blue medical gloves, holding someone’s finger for a small blood sample.

Close-up photo of a person with blue medical gloves, holding a person’s finger.

Photo of two women, one wearing blue medical gloves and holding the other person’s finger for a small blood sample.

More of our staff have been certified to facilitate Dried Blood Spot (DBS) testing after training with the National Laboratory for HIV Reference Services. Facilitating these tests is a key component of our mobile STBBI testing pilot project.
READ MORE: thetyee.ca/News/2026/01...

SWAN’s Sexual Health Testing Meets Women Where They’re At | The Tyee Immigrant and migrant indoor sex workers across the Lower Mainland can be tested anonymously, for free, at their workplaces.

"SWAN has been partnering with and supporting immigrant and migrant sex workers for nearly 23 years, so there’s a foundation of trust that helps women know they can use this health-care service and have their identity protected."
thetyee.ca/News/2026/01...

“Aquino says Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s chief of staff Trevor Ford made — depending on your perspective — a request or demand.

‘We needed to issue a statement apologizing to the mayor,” said Aquino. “We needed to not only retract, but to apologize.’”

The messy politics behind the battle for a Filipino Cultural Centre in Vancouver | CBC News Vancouver council will vote on whether to work with a new non-profit, the Filipino Legacy Society, to fast-track approval and development of a cultural centre on a piece of land at Main Street and Eas...

“Filipino B.C. had been meeting every quarter with city council and had their own dreams of a cultural centre. But by all accounts, the relationship turned sour around the period when they criticized the city’s proposed benefit concert at Rogers Arena…” www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Teal graphic with “Healthcare Without Fear,” a $10,000 fundraising message, a “Donate Now” button, and SWAN + GivingTuesday logos.

Text graphic explaining healthcare barriers for im/migrant sex workers and listing services donations support, including mobile testing and interpretation.

Donation grid showing amounts from $25 to $500 and what each supports, such as supplies, transportation, testing, and accompaniments.

This #GivingTuesday, support Healthcare Without Fear, our campaign to raise $10,000 for SWAN’s safe, confidential, and language-accessible healthcare access programs. Donate today: swanvancouver.ca/donate

Leave Britney alone!

SWAN Vancouver has launched mobile STBBI testing in partnership with the Vancouver Infectious Diseases Centre (VIDC). As an alternative to in-person visits to clinics, our staff collect samples at women's workplaces, transport them for testing, and work with our partner clinic for follow-up.

Graphic announcing Blackbird Fabrics as a matching donor, matching up to $1000 for SWAN Vancouver’s “Healthcare Without Fear” campaign launching Dec. 2, 2025, with gift boxes in the background.

Your gift goes twice as far this #GivingTuesday! For the second year, Blackbird Fabrics is matching donations up to $1,000 to our "Healthcare Without Fear" campaign — supporting healthcare access designed to protect im/migrant sex workers’ safety and privacy. swanvancouver.ca/donate/

An Open Letter to the Filipino Community in British Columbia — Filipino BC From RJ Aquino, Chair - Filipino BC NOVEMBER 14, 2025 My dear community, For many years, Filipino BC has believed that our community deserves more than temporary spaces and improvised solutions. ...

“To build something worthy of our community, any proposal brought forward in our name must be grounded in transparency, sound planning, and accountability.“ filipinobc.com/fbc-news/202...

“Court records show that the property at 1940 Main is tied up by two separate foreclosure proceedings initiated by lenders.

In one case, Reyes and his companies were ordered last month by the B.C. Supreme Court to pay $2.7 million to a lender called MIB Enterprises after defaulting.”

Current Journalistic Representation: Assessment & Suggestions from Im/migrant Women Engaged in Indoor Sex Work | SWAN Vancouver Society Current Journalistic Representation: Assessment & Suggestions from Im/migrant Women Engaged in Indoor Sex Work

"The women who work here are not forced to do anything [...] if they want to leave, they can leave anytime." @swan-vancouver.bsky.social showed women Canadian news stories about sex work, which was often conflated with human trafficking. Here's what they said: swanvancouver.ca/resource/cur...

‘High-end brothel’ serving politicians and executives busted, feds say The client list, which could number in the hundreds, included elected officials, business executives, professors and military officers, according to prosecutors.

The Washington Post reports that the woman arrested was born into poverty in South Korea and was a sex worker for years before becoming a madam. She screened clients, workers kept half the proceeds of services and they were allowed to refuse any services. www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/...

“Despite many of the sex workers involved being Asian—a fact that greatly increases the odds of a prostitution bust being called a 'human trafficking sting'—news reports have largely refrained from trying to portray the women involved as hapless victims of sexual servitude.” - @enbrown.bsky.social

Cambridge brothel case: What's the point? Massachusetts is in the midst of prosecuting people who patronized a fancy sex business near Harvard University. But what's the point?

Reporters dropped the "sex slave" narrative while covering the Boston brothel sting, and Journalism Professor Elizabeth Nolan Brown says it finally cleared the air for the public to ask, What's the point? reason.com/2025/04/09/c...

How do Canada’s sex work and immigration laws affect massage parlour workers? Im/migrant women who are simply trying to earn a living face arrest, detention and deportation when police enter their workplace. Learn more: swanvancouver.ca/resources/