Natasha Falle

Natasha Falle (born 1973) is a Canadian professor at Humber College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, who was forcibly prostituted from the ages of 15 to 27 and now opposes prostitution in Canada. Falle grew up in a middle-class home and, when her parents divorced, her new single-parent home became unsafe, and Falle ran away from home. At the age of 15, Falle became involved in the sex industry in Calgary, Alberta.

Falle's pimp kept her falsely imprisoned and trafficked her across the country. He married her and tortured her, breaking several of her bones and burning her body. In order to cope with the trauma of prostitution and violence, Falle became dependent on cocaine and almost died. Eventually, she got out of prostitution and, with her mother's support, went through drug rehabilitation, finished high school, and eventually received a diploma in Wife Assault and Child Advocacy from George Brown College.

In 2001, Falle began counselling women in prostitution at Streetlight Support Services, and counselled more than 800 women in the subsequent decade, 97% of whom wrote on their intake surveys that they wanted to exit the sex industry. In order to make this statistic more widely known, Falle founded Sex Trade 101. She began offering training for police and partners with the Toronto Police Service's sex crimes unit. Falle was one of the main proponents of Member of Parliament (MP) Joy Smith's private member's bill, Bill C-268, which was passed in June 2010 as An Act to amend the Criminal Code (minimum sentence for offences involving trafficking of persons under the age of eighteen years), and she helped the Canadian government formulate their appeal of the decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Bedford v. Canada to strike down various prostitution laws. Falle advocates adopting a law in Canada analogous to Sweden's Sex Purchase Act, which would decriminalize the selling of sex and criminalize the purchasing of sex.

Early life Natasha Falle grew up in a middle-class home in Nova Scotia, Her mother managed stores in the wedding industry and her father was a police officer with a vice squad, arresting drug dealers and pimps. While she was growing up, Falle had multiple family members with addictions. She slept at friends' houses, on their couches and in tents in their backyards, concealing her presence from her friends' parents. A 25-year-old man at the party who had forged identity documents convinced her to sell sex for money and give him half of her earnings.

Abuse

I couldn't admit that I was not there by choice. We couldn't live in our own skin if we admitted that. We needed to believe that it was our choice. — Natasha Falle, discussing her time in the sex industry At her peak, Falle owned a Ford Mustang, bought her pimp a Mercedes-Benz, and lived in a four-bedroom penthouse apartment, but she continued to experience violence. Her best friend was killed by her pimp. On her 27th birthday, Falle left her husband and returned to her mother. In 2012, Falle sought to bring a lawsuit against her former pimp to demonstrate to other women who are or have been forcibly prostituted that it is possible to oppose one's pimp. In 2013, she said that, while she has left much aggression and profanity behind since leaving the sex industry, some of the issues that she developed will stick with her until the end of her life.

Sex Trade 101

Because Streetlight Support Services is administered by the office of the Attorney General of Ontario, Falle could not be politically active in her capacity as a counsellor with them. Falle said, "I couldn't be silent anymore, because the strong voices that we were hearing were the minority few saying [prostitution] is liberating, it's a job choice ... I couldn't stand that lie anymore." She said that this minority only want to continue in prostitution because "they've never had a healthy comparison." Falle founded a Toronto-based dedicated to protecting the rights of women who have been in prostitution. She met many women who had no family to support them in exiting the sex industry, and she decided to found an organization to provide that support. The organization helps prostitution victims exit the sex industry and is composed of 12 women who had escaped forced prostitution and who offer training for police in order to change perceptions about people involved in the sex trade. The organization is also involved in prevention work in high schools. In 2012, Falle and Bridget Perrier represented Sex Trade 101 in Owen Sound where they launched ReStart, a mentorship program to aid women and youth who are at risk of sexual victimization, to help people exit the sex trade, and to provide support once they have exited. in Toronto, where she teaches in the police foundations program, Falle was one of five award recipients at the ceremony, the other four being the other primary proponents of Bill C-268. and expressed surprise and disappointment. She said that she did not believe that the average Canadian realized the implications of striking down these laws, which she said were that "your next door neighbours can run a brothel right beside you. Your children could be exposed to condoms left on their driveway, johns propositioning them." She also expressed her concern that striking down anti-prostitution laws normalizes prostitution as a career option for children to consider. That November, Falle was a panelist at a debate about the case. At the debate, which was hosted by the Queen's Law and Public Policy Club at Queen's University, Falle said that, whatever the outcome of the appeal, she was glad that the case was removing the taboos surrounding talking about prostitution. The following June, Falle and more than twelve others intervened in the case, arguing that the laws should be reinstated to protect women from pimps. Falle testified in the lower courts, saying that "the more they say the women are there by choice, the harder it is for us to convince police, social workers and everyone else that these people are vulnerable." Falle said that all the applicants in Bedford v. Canadaincluding Terri-Jean Bedford, She intended to bring a pimp stick to the Supreme Court of Canada in June 2013 as a visual aid in explaining how pimps often abuse the women they prostitute. That September, Falle attended Toronto's second annual Freedom Walk, which was hosted by Stop Child Trafficking Now, Freedom Relay Canada, and Oakville's Free-Them. At this event aimed at raising awareness about human trafficking nationally and internationally, Falle was joined by other abolitionists including Tara Teng, who was Miss Canada at the time; Trisha Baptie, co-founder of EVE; Shae Invidiata, founder of Free-Them; Timea Nagy; Constable Lepa Jankovic; MP Joy Smith; MP Olivia Chow; and MP Terence Young.

In October 2012, Falle was the keynote speaker at a symposium on street prostitution and human trafficking, which took place at Croatian Hall in Greater Sudbury and was attended by approximately 100 people. Sergeant Corinne Fewster of the Greater Sudbury Police Service said that the manner in which Falle was aided in her transition out of prostitution is a good example for local social and health services to follow in helping other women exit the sex industry.

In March 2013, Falle spoke at the 57th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, where she sat on a panel called "Survivors Speak: Prostitution and Sex Trafficking" that was sponsored by Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. That May, Falle spoke at a fundraiser for the Servants Anonymous Society of Calgary, an organization that supports sex workers in the city. It was her first time in Calgary since she had been part of the sex industry there. The fundraiser was called "Cry of the Streets: An Evening for Freedom" and raised money for Servants Anonymous Facilitates Exit, a women's shelter for those seeking to leave the sex industry. At the fundraiser, Falle advocated adopting a law in Canada analogous to Sweden's Sex Purchase Act, which decriminalized the selling of sex and criminalized pimping and the purchasing of sex. Falle argued in support of modelling prostitution law in Canada after Sweden's laws because she believes that prostitution cannot be regulated. At another time, she had said that "it's not Canada's laws that make prostitution unsafe, it's the johns who are raping and abusing the women and their pimps." Also in 2013, Falle said that the average age at which girls get involved in prostitution in Canada is 14, and that their emotional intelligence does not develop while in prostitution, preventing many of them from leaving. She also said that prostitution has grown significantly in Canada since she left the sex industry, and that most human trafficking victims in Canada were born and raised in Canada.