In December 2013, the Supreme Court ruled all existing legislation concerning sex trafficking and prostitution in Canada unconstitutional. Prior to the Court’s ruling, prostitution was legal in Canada. However, activities related to sex trafficking, such as pimping or running a brothel, as well as communication in a public space for the purposes of prostitution, were not.
It is precisely these laws that the Court condemned, claiming that the legislation put prostitutes in danger and infringed on their right to “security of the person” under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The federal government was then given until the end of this year to provide an alternative to the laws.
This past June, Justice Minister Peter MacKay introduced Bill C-36, a new anti-prostitution acts that he argues can “provide safer working conditions for sex workers,” according to a recent article published by the Huffington Post.
Bill C-36 makes prostitution illegal, but it provides legal immunity for those who sell sex. Under the new law, prostitutes will be fully able to conduct business related to sex work, as long as they are doing it of their own free will and they are not working in areas where children are likely to be present, such as near a daycare or school. Additionally, the law allows for sex workers to advertise their services, provided that they advertise it themselves.
Instead of going after sex workers, the bill goes after pimps and individuals who buy sex, criminalizing them with penalties that can include up to ten years of jail time in certain cases and minimum cash fines. Moreover, any form of publicized advertising for sexual services will be penalized if the publishing platform is unrelated to the sex worker themselves, such as newspapers or websites.
“Prostitution is now de facto illegal, but the emphasis and the focus is on the purchaser and the perpetrator—the pimps who are attempting to exploit and gain materially from prostitution itself,” MacKay was quoted saying in the Huffington Post article.
The proposed new legislation has received mixed reviews.
Supporters argue that sex workers are forced into the sex trade due to issues related to poverty, racism, and sexism, and therefore need protection from the law by going after those who instigate the services, or pimps and johns.
Despite government efforts to limit sex trafficking by proposing this new law, critics are justified in claiming that Bill C-36 may place sex workers in even more dangerous situations than what is expected. Opponents of the bill assert that just like the laws that were previously in place, Bill C-36 will also be ruled unconstitutional due to the danger that it can put sex workers in, perhaps making exploitation worse by criminalizing offenders.
Quoted in a recent Huffington Post article, Conservative Senator Don Plett pointed out that if a pimp were losing many customers as a result of the bill, that might mean more pressure on the prositute to work harder to bring in business.
Despite its efforts, a situation like this is one that Bill C-36 may not be able to prevent. The issue of sex trafficking is a complex one, with over 78 percent of Canadians agreeing that girls aged 16 and younger are forced into prostitution, according to an opinion poll conducted by the Canadian Women’s Foundation.
On September 15, the debates at the Senate committee will end and the law will return to the House of Commons. The future of Bill C-36 remains to be seen, but the government has pledged to pass the bill by this December.
Information obtained from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canadas-new-prostitution-la…, http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/09/09/bill-c-36-prostitution-bill-sena…, http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/09/10/leader-of-suit-against-canadas-p…, http://www.canadianwomen.org/trafficking
Images obtained from: http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/the-new-prostitution-law-is-a-tou…, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canadas-new-prostitution-la…