Prostitution #YXE: An inside look at life working the streets

Annette was bounced around to 36 different homes.

But the abuse started even earlier when she was torn from her family to attend residential school, a place where she was hit for speaking to a friend in her native language.

“I remember the blood pouring down my face,” she said.

By the time she reached 10 years old, a group of teens she looked up to would pick her up and take her to strange men's homes to party.

“They would get me to walk around this man's house naked and I thought it was normal,” she said.

She said she didn't understand what oral sex was at that age, but would go through with what men wanted her to do. Annette soon learned that her friends were getting money every time she performed. By the time she was 13, she decided to make her own cash.

She said that before this, she never had anything of her own and the financial freedom made her feel powerful. Her eyes light up when she describes going into a store for the first time with money in her pocket and being able to buy whatever she wanted.

As the years passed, Annette lived on many levels of the sex trade – violent pimps, high-end jobs and walking the street, giving the look, to get her next high.

Stuffed in a suitcase in her basement is a beautiful fur coat, given to her from a former john. Dozens of designer shoes line her closet from the days when she catered to rich men. But Annette also carries scars from countless bad dates and years of addiction.

One of her worst nights happened in Regina. Two black men pulled up in a TransAm, and offered Annette and two other women $700 each for the night.

“They took us out to Regina Beach. They somehow got someone's boat out on the dock,” she recalls.

“They took us out on the boat. They told us if we didn't do certain things, they would drown us.

“After they were done with us, they beat the shit out of us to get back the money and to leave us at the beach.”

The following weeks were painful. Annette's body was covered in bruises; she couldn't walk for a month. She isn't sure how she survived the brutal attack, but it wasn't enough to scare her off the streets for good.

“If I got beat up, it didn't matter to me because after getting a gun pulled into your face, getting told that you have to work, beaten with clothes hangers, a lot of times I would wish they would kill me.”

It was after her first daughter was born that she decided to call it quits.

“I remember losing some of my street sisters to the street, and I remember the impact that those children faced knowing that their mother died on the street.”

The first time a man didn't want anything from her, it almost killed the little self-esteem she had. Annette had figured that any man involved in her life needed some sort of sexual gratification. Friendship was foreign territory.

Even today, 20 years out of the sex trade, she struggles with the concept.

“I figure that they're either gonna want to use me for something or I have to use them for something,” she said.

“With my life experience, I can't have a normal relationship.”

Today, Annette has a peaceful home. The walls are covered in painting and photos, her garden and grandchildren bring her joy.

She has been accepted into a nursing program at SIAST this fall and homes to work with girls on the street when she is finished.

“The street is my life,” Annette said.

“Those people out there are my people.”

For more on Prostitution #YXE:
Part 1: Underage sex sells in the city
Part 2: Seeing sex work through the eyes of VICE
Part 3: Getting caught buying sex lands johns a trip to school

news@panow.com

by Ashley Wills

Prostitution #YXE: An inside look at life working the streets

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