The federal government has recently taken steps to introduce a new piece of legislation regulating prostitution. After the Supreme Court deemed previous prostitution laws unconstitutional, the Conservative government proposed Bill C-36, a bill also known as, “The Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act.”
Unfortunately, the sex workers the bill is supposed to protect are now in greater danger because of it.
The bill follows the premise of a Nordic or Swedish model in which the pimps, johns, and clients involved in the trade are criminalized, but the actual sex workers aren’t. The aim of this course of action is to target those who fuel the demand for prostitutes so that the industry will eventually die out.
However, this is hardly the case. Rather than prostitution dying out, it will just move elsewhere — a more dangerous elsewhere. Since the bill forbids communicating and offering sexual services, street-based sex workers can be arrested for advertising. This clause will certainly force them to conduct their services in secret, spending longer hours looking for clients, and being forced to choose worse clients, thus making them more vulnerable to rape and violence.
The bill ignores the fact that there are many who work in the sex trade willingly, and enjoy what they do.
The term “sexual services,” which is used regularly throughout the bill, is broad and vague. Sexual services can define a stripper’s line of work through dancing at a bachelor party just as much as a prostitute selling sex on the street.
Bill C-36 is one-sided, targeting prostitution as a form of male sexual violence, when this is just a small portion of the type of sex work which goes on in the industry.
All in all, the bill seems to suggest that human dignity can only be realized when one is no longer working in the sex trade. This ignores the fact that there are many who work in it willingly, enjoy what they do, and take pride in their work.
A reasonable alternative to consider, which is currently enforced and working, would be the legislation in effect in New Zealand. New Zealand has decriminalized prostitution and it operates under public health laws. There is still regulation in place as prostitution that is not consensual (for instance, in terms of human trafficking) or involves a minor is still illegal. Yet sex workers under this model receive protection, support from police, and better working conditions.
This system is in line with how WorkSafe BC would protect workers in any other line of employment. It protects sex workers from exploitation while still respecting their human rights.
People can forget that sex workers are also human beings. A bill that is involved in regulating their line of work should also include their voice, and not just target the pimps who run their businesses. They deserve respect like any other person, which this bill does not provide. Nobody, regardless of their occupation, should have to live in fear.
