
Montreal’s F1 race brings yearly sexual exploitation fears
Montreal’s F1 race has earned the reputation of turning the city into a hotbed for sexual exploitation and human trafficking, but some argue it’s a myth that merely serves to fuel a yearly crackdown on sex workers by authorities.
Every year, various groups stage campaigns to tackle a perceived uptick in the phenomenon, but Stella, a Montreal organization that advocates for sex-trade workers, says the evidence doesn’t back it up.
What women working in the trade do encounter during the week is an increased police presence as well as repression that has a lasting effect, said Stella executive director Sandra Wesley.
Wesley said police agencies will visit hundreds of sex workers under the guise of looking for victims of sexual exploitation and rooting them out through online ads and other techniques. Migrants who might be working in the trade find themselves at risk of deportation.