Long Table event to explore sex work history and advocacy in Hamilton

The long table event will explore the historical and contemporary realities of sex work in Hamilton through archival materials and discussions

The Centre for Community-Engaged Narrative Arts will host Archiving and Educating about Sex Work in Hamilton, a community long table event on Feb. 12, 2025 in partnership with the Sex Worker’s Action Program.

Jelena Vermillion, the current director of SWAP, will discuss ongoing advocacy efforts in Hamilton. She will explore the past, present and future roles of storytelling, policy and public perception in shaping the discourse surrounding sex work. Amber Dean, a professor in McMaster’s department of English and cultural studies, will facilitate the discussion.

The event is part of a broader effort on the part of SWAP to document and engage with narratives from sex workers in the city. Attendees will be able to interact with archival materials, including books, media and newspapers.

SWAP provides harm reduction, advocacy and education resources for sex workers in Hamilton. The organization advocates for and supports sex workers with material resources, peer-led outreach and community programming that addresses immediate needs as well as broader systemic challenges they face.

SWAP initially focused on harm-reduction outreach, distributing drawstring backpacks containing safer injection and inhalation supplies, condoms, dental dams and other safer-sex materials. Over time, the organization expanded to include curated resource pamphlets, personal care items and seasonal necessities such as hand warmers.

Vermilion is a long-time advocate for sex workers’ rights and has played a leading role in these outreach efforts. She emphasized that SWAP’s approach goes beyond harm reduction and aims to affirm the dignity of sex workers in a society that often dehumanizes them.

“The idea was that it was not just about harm reduction supplies; it was about showing compassion, care, nurturement and real consideration towards how underserved and vilified sex workers have been,” said Vermilion.

At the height of its operations, SWAP also ran a drop-in centre funded by Women and Gender Equity Canada.

The Greater Hamilton Health Network partnered with the space to host community health initiatives, including sexual health screenings, vaccinations and general health services. However, the network’s funding only covered a year, so the center had to close once the grant period ended.

While the loss of a dedicated physical space presented challenges, SWAP continues its advocacy work, collaborating with researchers, harm reduction groups and policymakers to address systemic barriers impacting sex workers in Hamilton.

Vermilion has spent years advocating for the rights of sex workers and harm reduction. She has facilitated workshops for service providers, guest lectured at universities across Ontario and led discussions on sex-work policy at various levels of government.

The long-table event on Feb. 12 will focus on an archive Vermilion has been curating for the past five years. It includes books, media, ephemera, magazines, legal documents and personal accounts from sex workers. The archive was recently featured on Toronto Metropolitan University’s We Met U When podcast, where Vermilion discussed the challenges of preserving sex-work histories and the importance 

“It’s one thing to have an archive of a dataset or materials. It’s another thing to get people to interact with it, to understand the lives, the histories, the struggles and the resilience behind it all,” said Vermillion.

Attendees will have access to approximately 25 banker’s boxes of archival material, containing narratives from sex workers which, according to Vermillion, are in many cases ignored by society and government. Vermilion highlighted that sex workers in Hamilton face casual cruelty and exclusion in political and social spaces.

Vermilion shared with The Silhouette about her experiences at Hamilton City Hall, where she has seen that advocates for sex work and the rights of sex workers are often questioned disproportionately or met with attitudes of dismissal.“

There’s a distinct difference in how many questions I get asked compared to other delegations . . . They’re happy to comply with the law that requires them to let the public speak, but they don’t actually want to engage with the recommendations being made,” said Vermillion.

This lack of engagement, she said, reflects a broader societal attitude that views sex workers as disposable. She suggests that it is this exclusion from decision-making, combined with ongoing stigma, that places sex workers at disproportionate risk of violence.

“Sex workers are used as symbols to scare women into compliance, to keep people in line. But when sex workers are safe, everyone is safer. The fight for sex workers’ rights is a fight for bodily autonomy, for labour rights, for human dignity,” said Vermillion.

She encouraged those outside the sex-work community to take an active role in pushing for change.

“People who aren’t sex workers need to take on the stigma too . . . They need to be willing to have these conversations, challenge harmful narratives and use their privilege to push for policies that protect people,” said Vermillion.

The long table event aims to provide a space for conversation where sex workers’ stories are not only archived but engaged with, discussed and recognized as an integral part of Hamilton’s social fabric.

The event is free to attend and open to the public.