'Escorts' and 'Agencies': Just hookers and pimps, says a Classy Lady's mom
Louise Dickson Victoria Times Colonist October 4, 2001
Escort agencies are pimps and escorts are hookers, a Victoria woman whose daughter is an escort for Classy Ladies said Wednesday.
"My daughter's not going to get out of it," said the woman, who requested anonymity to protect her three other children. "But I would like to deglamourize it for other young girls, the ones that haven't started it yet."
A friend warned the woman Tuesday that her daughter's picture had been published in the Times-Colonist. The picture accompanied a story about Songhees residents who are upset that Classy Ladies escort agency, owned by Rebecca Wilkinson, is being operated from their luxurious waterfront condo. Later that day, the woman watched in anger as TV crews filmed the exclusive, fully furnished penthouse suite and interviewed Wilkinson about her business.
"I can't believe this woman could go on the news and say everything is fine. I would like her to see pictures of my daughter as a young girl -- not that she'd care -- and justify to my face that this is all above board," said the mother, who was still shaking with anger during an interview Wednesday morning.
"They use the fancy words 'agency' and 'hostess.' ... 'Pimp' and 'hooker' that's what it is."
Other young girls may be impressed by the look of the penthouse and the lure of easy money, said the mother. But she wants them to know her daughter, who is 21, will never live a normal life.
"Do you think my daughter's ever going to work at an $8-an-hour job after making $180 an hour? That's the problem. Once they start, the money is just too much to give up."
Shaking her head, the petite 43-year-old said she still doesn't know what made her daughter start working as an escort.
"She had a normal life," said the mother, pulling out an envelope, filled with family photos of earlier, happier times. "No child could have been loved more than her. She was wonderful. People used to say, 'You'll never get an ounce of trouble out of that one.'"
But there was trouble.
Her daughter dropped out of high school after becoming pregnant in Grade 10. She gave birth to her first child just before her 17th birthday.
About 21Ú2 years ago, the mother was shown an escort agency ad that featured a picture of her daughter.
"I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. It was like 'Oh my God. Oh my God. I'm thinking 'no!'"
She picked up the phone and asked her daughter when she had changed her name. Her daughter told her that she didn't work for sex, she was just an escort, working for the agency.
"I told her I hate that name 'agency.' What agency? I told her she was a hooker."
The woman said her second-oldest daughter has been approached by an escort service.
"They're recruiting in the bars, handing out cards to girls and giving them the same jargon about high class it is. There's nothing high class about an escort agency."
Meanwhile, she is afraid her escort daughter will lose her one-year-old daughter, just as she lost custody of her son.
"I don't know what she's going to do when she gets a little older and these 'classy' places don't want her. I can already see it in her face. Victoria's small. This is going to follow her. People know. This isn't something she'll be able to put behind her."Back to Victoria Report Home Page
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