Health and legal groups’ reports suggest prostitution laws targeting clients likely unconstitutional

published on June 3, 2014 in Straight

A pair of reports out today (June 3) outline health and legal arguments for a possible next step in the decriminalization of sex work in Canada.

The first, drafted by researchers at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BCCFE), examines the consequences for the health and safety of sex workers when antiprostitution laws are enforced against clients. The second, drafted by Pivot Legal Society and Sex Workers United Against Violence, provides a legal analysis of those implications, and concludes that laws targeting clients “likely” violate the rights of sex workers.

“When the police target clients, both clients and sex workers have to take steps to avoid police detection,” the Pivot report states. “They move out of familiar and populated areas to areas where sex workers face greater risk because of the degree of isolation. The presence of police, therefore, has a destabilizing effect on their work, with far-reaching consequences on sex workers’ health, safety and control over their work.”

The report was prepared in the context of the Bedford decision, a December 2013 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that found three of the country’s prostitution laws inconsistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Those sections of the Criminal Code concern communicating for the purposes of prostitution, living off the avails of prostitution, and keeping or being in a common bawdy-house. The court found those laws were in a “demised public interest” when applied against sex workers, and in violation of section 7 of the charter, which guarantees security of the person.

Travis Lupick
Straight
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Health and legal groups’ reports suggest prostitution laws targeting clients likely unconstitutional

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