Bridget Perrier Explained

Bridget Perrier
Birth Place:Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
Occupation:Anti-prostitution activist, former prostitute
Organization:Sex Trade 101
Children:Tanner (deceased)

Bridget Perrier (born 1977) is an activist and former trafficked prostitute who cofounded Sex Trade 101[1] with Natasha Falle.[2] She became a child prostitute at the age of 12 while she was staying at a group home and an older girl there persuaded her to become a runaway in order to sell sex to a pedophile named Charlie.[3] She had a son, Tanner, who developed cancer as an infant and died at the age of five with the dying wish that his mother get out of the sex industry.[4] In 2000, she moved to Toronto from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.[5] She is the stepmother of Angel, whose biological mother was Brenda Wolfe, one of Robert Pickton's murder victims.[6] In 2009, Perrier accompanied Angel at Toronto's Native Women's Resource Centre for the Sisters in Spirit vigil in remembrance of Wolfe and the other more than 500 Canadian Aboriginal women who have been murdered or gone missing over the past 30 years.[7] In 2010, Perrier picketed a courthouse in downtown Toronto in recognition of International Day of No Prostitution. She was joined by Trisha Baptie, Natasha Falle, Katarina MacLeod, and Christine Barkhouse, all former human trafficking victims.[8] In 2012, after being removed from a news conference relating to Bedford v. Canada, Perrier demonstrated a pimp stick to the media, saying that she had been battered with a pimp stick by her pimp every day that he prostituted her.[9] Perrier opposed the legalization of brothels as proposed in Bedford v. Canada, saying, "Having a legal bawdy house is not going to make it any safer. You are still going to attract serial killers, rapists, perverts."[10] Bridget shared her story in the ground breaking article by Dr. Vincent J. Felitti in Cancer InCytes magazine (Volume 2, Issue 1) about how childhood trauma is associated with chronic diseases during adulthood and how child trafficking will eventually worsen the economic burden on civil governance.[11]

Notes and References

  1. News: Occupational Health and Safety Canada. Ontario court alters sex trade landscape. April 3, 2012. July 23, 2013.
  2. News: Owen Sound Sun Times. Survivors want to help people in sex trade. Denis Langlois. July 16, 2012. July 23, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131227055955/http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/2012/07/16/survivors-want-to-help-people-in-sex-trade. December 27, 2013. dead.
  3. News: Metro International. Child prostitution victims call for group home changes. Jessica Smith. November 15, 2012. July 23, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20150218071637/http://metronews.ca/news/toronto/441750/child-prostitution-victims-call-for-group-home-changes/. February 18, 2015. dead.
  4. News: The Toronto Observer. Court decision could accelerate human trafficking. Victoria Gray. October 3, 2010. July 23, 2013.
  5. News: Toronto Star. Poverty fight must go on despite deficit, activists say. Laurie Monsebraaten. February 6, 2012. July 23, 2013.
  6. News: Toronto Star. Family has appetite for social issues at dinner with Corey Mintz. Corey Mintz. July 5, 2013. July 23, 2013.
  7. News: Toronto Star. Missing, slain women honoured at ceremony. Madhavi Acharya. Tom Yew. October 5, 2009. July 23, 2013.
  8. News: Local2 . Legalizing Prostitution: Local and National Consequences . Steffanie Petroni . June 18, 2013 . July 15, 2013 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20131029185804/http://local2.ca/ssm/viewarticle.php?id=11663 . October 29, 2013 .
  9. News: National Post. Former and current sex workers at odds over prostitution ruling. Adrian Humphreys. March 26, 2012. July 21, 2013.
  10. News: Toronto Star. Should brothels be legal? Supreme Court of Canada ponders issue. Julian Sher. June 12, 2013. July 23, 2013.
  11. Vincent J. Felitti. "Childhood Trauma Linked to Chronic Diseases in Adulthood." Cancer InCytes 2(2), 2013.