Ina George
P.O. Box 518
Grenfell, SASK
S0G 2B0

Tuesday, May 20, 1997

Dear Ina and family,

I want to say that I was very saddened to hear about Pamela's death and about your loss. I first read about her murder and Judge Mallone's statements in the Globe and Mail late last December and I was immediately outraged. I got a call from a friend in Toronto, telling me to watch the news. You may not have been happy that Pamela worked as a prostitute, but I think that hookers and their loved ones all across the country got a knot in their stomachs from feelings of fear and great sadness when they heard about Pamela's murder.

Many of my friends found tears welling in their eyes and remembered a special friend or co-worker who was killed or hurt during the course of working. Because she worked as a prostitute, someone believed they could violate her rights and even take her life with impunity. Anyone who has worked in the trade knows this reality. It is that experience of loss and fear that has made many prostitutes want to work to change the laws and the way society sees us.

I was first driven to fight for the rights of my co-workers in 1992. I was already involved with sex trade activists because I worked as a prostitute and was active in the AIDS and gay movements in Toronto. In December 1992, my friend Candace went missing. Many hookers in Toronto feared the worst and waited. Candace was someone I knew from an escort service I worked for. We partied in the same bars and had lots of fun together. We all knew Candace too well to think she had just not kept in touch. But I think, too, we hoped that it was some crazy scheme and she had really left for some other country. But she hadn't. She was murdered by a client, someone she had seen a few times before, a jail guard named Patrick Daniel Johnson. I vowed at that time that I would always fight for the right to work as a prostitute without the fear of violence. Since then I have witnessed other tragedies in the lives of hookers who have been my friends.

I also support the struggle for Aboriginal rights in this country. I am aware of the kinds of injustice Aboriginal people face. I volunteer with the Sex Workers Alliance of Vancouver and have developed an Internet website about prostitution -- the Commercial Sex Information Service. (http://www.walnet.org/csis/) On this website I have started a section with memorials to prostitutes who have passed on -- whore heroines and heroes.

Kripa Sekhar, Saskatchewan Regional Representative, National Action Committee on the Status of Women sent me a packet of papers about Pamela, some newsclippings, a letter to Justice Minister Allan Rock and one to Solicitor General Herb Gray, regarding Judge Mallone, a memorial page to Pam and an announcement of a trust fund. I plan to put all of these things, as well as information for a letter-writing campaign, on the website.

I would like your blessing for including Pamela's story in this project. I would also appreciate any contributions you would like to send: pictures, speeches, from her memorial, even audio or video tapes -- anything I could put on the site. All originals and copies would be returned to you promptly. A lot of people see this website. During the month of February, the site was visited 31,000 times. I have also enclosed a "traffic report" from the first quarter of this year.

I have also photocopied the letters and sent them on to other prostitute activists I know in Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax, Montreal, Niagara Falls, as well as friends here. I know that it's not always easy to have access to the Internet, so I have also enclosed copies of some of the pages from the website in case you aren't online, so you can see a bit of the work I have done.

Sincerely,

Andrew Sorfleet
Sex Workers Alliance of Vancouver