[SWAF-Potluck] Sweeping new law to make buying, selling sex in public illegal

[Andy Sorfleet]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
GLOBE AND MAIL
Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Kathryn Blaze Carlson and Sean Fine




Sweeping new law to make buying, selling sex in public illegal

[photo caption]
The Supreme Court of Canada struck down three key sections of Canada's
prostitution law in December, 2013.
(JOHN LEHMANN/THE GLOBE AND MAIL)

OTTAWA -- Buying sex or trying to sell it in public areas involving
people under 18 can be found illegal and punishable by up to five
years in prison under a sweeping new prostitution law introduced in
the House of Commons.

A new offence of advertising sexual services would also be created,
and police would be given new powers to seize "voyeuristic" materials,
on obtaining permission from a judge.

The new law modernizes the purposes of the anti-prostitution law:
Instead of trying to contain a nuisance, as under previous laws
stretching back generations, the law says that its aim is to promote
human dignity and equality, and protect vulnerable people.

The new legislation -- what Justice Minister Peter MacKay calls a
"Canadian model" -- is the Conservative government's answer to a
Supreme Court decision that last year struck down some of the
country's major prostitution laws. The court found that bans on street
solicitation, brothels and people living off the avails of
prostitution create severe dangers for vulnerable women and are
unconstitutional.

The court suspended its ruling for one year to give Parliament time to
respond, creating a murky enforcement landscape in which provinces
started taking a case-by-case approach to prostitution offences. Mr.
MacKay had promised to roll out the new legislation well before the
December deadline, and by tabling the bill Wednesday, lawmakers will
have the opportunity to scrutinize the Conservatives' plan before the
House breaks for summer recess later this month.

"It was a challenge [crafting the legislation], there's no question,"
Mr. MacKay told reporters Wednesday before the bill was tabled. "This
is a very emotional and often very divisive issue, and very personal
for those whose lives have been touched and in some cases devastated
by prostitution."

He said the bill would recognize "the inherent dangers associated with
prostitution, including many of the other real challenges in the
country, including poverty, violence, addiction, mental health. And
whatever we do legislatively will of course be accompanied with
programming aimed at helping women -- predominantly women -- exit
prostitution."

A lawyer who helped persuade the Supreme Court to strike down the
country's main prostitution laws said the new law doesn't answer the
court's concerns about safety of sex workers.

Alan Young, who teaches law at Osgoode Hall Law School, said keeping
prostitutes out of areas in which people under 18 are found, while
also banning advertising of sexual services over the Internet, leaves
them with no safe place.

"At the end of the day it still raises the question of what is a safe
forum for someone to legally sell sexual services," he said in an
interview. "I think the government position is ‘we don't want to
provide a safe forum.' But that isn't really their call anymore."

The Supreme Court case garnered so much attention that the Justice
Department launched a public consultation to hear the views of
Canadians, including those who work in prostitution. "I personally sat
down with a large group that covered the spectrum from those who
advocated for complete legalization to those who advocate for complete
criminalization," Mr. MacKay said.

The Conservatives' new take on prostitution laws was foreshadowed
earlier this week, when the results of the month-long consultation
showed a majority of Canadians felt purchasing sexual services and
benefiting economically from the prostitution of an adult should be
criminal offences. According to the Canadian Press, which obtained the
findings culled from 31,000 responses, about two-thirds said selling
sexual services shouldn't be an offence.

Criminalizing one side of the transaction -- the buying, but not the
selling -- is dubbed the Nordic model thanks to the nations that
subscribe to it. Proponents say the approach, which also includes
social programs aimed at getting people out of prostitution, protects
prostitutes and seeks to eradicate sex work. Critics say the model
further stigmatizes sex work and makes prostitution more dangerous by
moving the sex trade out of public view and away from potential police
interaction.

"There is a strong body of evidence to show that this approach is
harmful and inconsistent with sex workers' constitutional rights to
health and safety," the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Reform said
Wednesday before the bill was tabled but amid widespread speculation
it would take the Nordic approach. "This form of criminalization
reproduces and increases the harms and violence that sex workers
experienced under the laws that were struck down in [the Supreme Court
case, Canada v. Bedford]."

The group said Canada should respect women's constitutional rights and
take the New Zealand approach: rather than criminalize prostitution,
it should take a minor regulatory role, such as limiting the
purchasing of sexual services from those younger than 18 and requiring
that condoms be used.

Asked by reporters about his thoughts on the Nordic model Tuesday,
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau would say only he looked forward to
seeing the bill and discussing it with his caucus and Canadians across
the country.

The legislation currently on the books in Canada is a hybrid of
decriminalization and prohibition, an approach taken by countries like
England in which prostitution itself is legal but almost every
activity associated with it is criminalized.