|
 Voices
for Dignity: A Call to End the Harms Caused
by Canada's Sex Trade Laws
This report was published in March 2004 by Pivot
Legal Society's sex-work subcommittee.
EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT:
Executive Summary
The sale of sexual services between consenting
adults is legal
under Canadian law. However, the "bawdy-house" provision
(s. 210 & 211), the "procuring" provision (s.
212) and the "communicating" provision (s. 213)
make it very difficult to engage in prostitution without breaking
the law.
The result is that many sex workers face criminal
consequences for engaging in what is an otherwise legal activity.
This punitive legal system exacerbates the unequal social
and economic position of sex workers in Canada.
Over the past several years, the public has
become increasingly aware of the issue of violence against
sex workers. With over 60 women missing from Vancouver's Downtown
Eastside, the trial of William Pickton and the charges against
Donald Bakker, there is ample evidence to conclude that sex
workers live and work in conditions of extreme violence and
danger.
Many of the participants in this project confirmed
this conclusion by describing incidents in which they were
sexually assaulted, beaten, robbed and held hostage, and some
described having narrowly escaped murder attempts.
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| "With
over 60 women missing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside
. . . there is ample evidence to conclude that sex workers
live and work in conditions of extreme violence and danger." |
Sex workers are in the best position to describe
what it is like to work and live under the current social
and legal framework and to recommend the ways in which their
circumstances should be improved. In the form of affidavits,
this report presents the expert opinions of sex workers and
their experiences working within the current legal framework.
The affidavits highlight many ways in which
Canada's sex trade laws worsen the already harmful conditions
under which sex workers live, add to the stigma of their employment
and social position, and support the inference that sex
workers are less worthy of value than other members of society.
Given this evidence, it is argued that the laws
violate the expression, liberty, security and equality provisions
of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is found that these
violations cannot be justified in a free and democratic society.
This report puts forward the following recommendations for
law reform:
Continued...
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