The Larger Problem

Prostitution is criminalized in Canada. This ignores the underlying factors that push people into the space. A lot of times, it is not a person's choice - they may be forced or coerced or groomed into sex work by trusted or threatening people, such as pimps. Sex workers may have been manipulated or groomed into it at a young age, or drugged and kidnapped and sold. The point is, criminalizing prostitution does nothing to stop the demand for it, nor does it stop women from at risk.

Racism is prominent in today's society and was arguably worse in 1995. In Canada, racism towards Indigenous folk is prevalent in government, in perception and mainstream media. The last Residential school was still open at the time of Pamela's murder. History has swayed in the favour of the white man for centuries and we see this operating in the case of George v Kummerfield and Ternowetsky when the jury decided that this case was basically two university students making a drunken mistake and an Aboriginal woman suffering the consequences in a space that was familiar to her, but outside the norm for the assailants. The Stroll - where prostitutes work in Regina was considered "other" to the men, and familiar to George. This connects to colonialism and a history of white men taking what is not theirs. 

The relationship between space, bodies, and justice is skewed in the eyes of the law and makes people turn a blind eye to injustice in unfamiliar spaces.