[SWAF-Potluck] Ottawa unveils new prostitution law targeting those who buy sex

[Andy Sorfleet]

http://www.thestar.com/
TORONTO STAR
Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Tonda MacCharles, Ottawa Bureau



Ottawa unveils new prostitution law targeting those who buy sex

Justice Minister Peter MacKay heralds approach as "Canadian model"
designed to help women exit prostitution, but bill also takes aim at
those who would sell sex in "public" places.

[photo caption]
SEAN KILPATRICK / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Justice Minister Peter MacKay has unveiled legislation that would
impose a high penalty on those who buy sex. The law would include
punishments of up to five years, or fines of $1,000 to $4,000, with
more severe penalties in cases where the exchange happens in public
places, in parks or near schools.

OTTAWA -- The federal Conservative government will try to abolish the
sex trade by targeting "johns" who purchase sex and anyone else who
profits from or advertises the sexual services of others, all the
while trying to persuade prostitutes to quit selling their bodies.

A bill tabled Wednesday to overhaul Canada's prostitution laws views
the sex trade as an illicit activity practiced by women who have no
options. "The bill ... recognizes that the vast majority of those that
sell sexual services do not do so by choice. We view the vast majority
of those involved in selling sexual services as victims," said Justice
Minister Peter MacKay.
It sets a high penalty for an offender who pays for sexual services --
up to five years in jail, or 10 years in the case of prostitutes under
age 18. Fines could range from $1,000 to $4,000, with more severe
penalties levied in cases where the exchange happens in public places,
in parks or near schools.
Despite the government's claim it wants to protect vulnerable women
and target only at those who profit from victimizing them, the
Conservative bill takes aim at prostitutes, too, depending on where
and how they practice their trade.

The bill criminalizes the act of selling sex in public places or
places "where children could reasonably be expected to be present," in
MacKay's words. It bans the advertisement of sex for sale online, as
well as targeting anyone who receives a "material benefit" as a result
of an "exploitive relationship" with prostitutes, he said.

He said the aim is not to arrest physicians or cab drivers who might
interact with prostitutes. However, when asked about drivers or
bodyguards hired by prostitutes for personal security reasons, MacKay
said the test for a court would be the existence of an exploitative
relationship.

The Supreme Court of Canada had overturned the law against "living on
the avails" of prostitution because it was too broad and did not allow
prostitutes to voluntarily hire bodyguards, drivers or receptionists
who could help them in setting safe working conditions.

Inspired by similar laws in Scandinavian countries known as the Nordic
model, MacKay called his approach "a Canadian model."

He says it amounts to a "substantive and comprehensive plan" that
addresses not only "community protection, but protection of vulnerable
people," and that it recognizes "the inherent dangers associated with
prostitution, including many of the other real challenges in the
country, including poverty, violence, addiction, mental health."

MacKay said his legislation is accompanied by "programming aimed at
helping women exit -- predominantly women -- exit prostitution."

"This will not be a legislative response that will answer all the ills
associated with prostitution," said MacKay. "If there were a perfect
black and white, simple answer, after thousands of years, I think it
would have been discovered."

But prostitutes and their legal advocates were aghast, saying the bill
is actually worse than what existed before the high court struck down
communications and brothel laws.

"I'm devastated and heartbroken," said Caroline Newcastle, a
25-year-old escort who works as a prostitute in Ottawa while she does
doctoral studies. "It's essentially full re-criminalization," she
said, pointing to the provisions that will ban her from advertising on
a website her services or communicating online with clients regarding
safe sex practices or fees for service.

However, the text of the bill appears to provide an exemption or
immunity from liability for those who advertise or derive material
benefit from the provision of their own sexual services.

Newcastle is not looking for programs to help her "exit" the trade,
saying it is her choice and the government's approach was patronizing.
"It's making the assumption that sex work is bad. And it's not
necessarily bad.

"We all need to pay rent ... . We all do things to make ends meet when
it comes to finances, and limiting where and how we can work does
nothing to help us as sex workers. Limiting the circumstances under
which we can work, how we can communicate about our work, how we can
attract clients ... . I have no idea how a public place is going to be
defined ... . Is the Internet considered a public place?

"It is recriminalizing the communicating (of prostitution services),"
said Newcastle, who said she represents a group called POWER
(Prostitutes of Ottawa-Gatineau, Work, Educate, Resist).

Valerie Scott, a sex worker who was one of the original three
prostitutes behind the Bedford challenge to the Canadian laws and got
back into the trade after the Supreme Court ruling, said the bill
would further drive prostitution into dark corners to practice their
trade. "This is a huge gift to sexual predators."

"We're allowed to work indoors but not tell anyone. Clients are going
to be terrified to identify themselves to us, thinking we're the
police, so we're going to have to accept calls and book clients from
blocked numbers." As for advertising, she said prostitutes will have
to pay huge fees to websites hosted out of the country "like the girls
in Sweden do."

Katrina Pacey, of Vancouver's Pivot Legal Society, predicted the worst outcome.

"We will see more missing and murdered women in my view as a result of
this legislation," she said.
NDP justice critic Françoise Boivin said she is still reviewing the
35-page bill as to whether it will meet the concerns raised by the
Supreme Court about vulnerable prostitutes and those who would harm
them.

"I cannot tell you if it will make it more safe. They'll find ways to
do it, but elsewhere. Will they have as much protection? Will they
have time to review the person that could be the client?"
MacKay tabled the bill Wednesday, nearly six months after the Supreme
Court of Canada struck down as unconstitutional three other criminal
laws first brought in by the Progressive Conservative government of
Brian Mulroney.

The high court's Bedford ruling said Canada's laws against
communicating for the purposes of buying or selling sex, keeping or
attending a brothel, and living on the avails of prostitution were
overly broad. By barring women from being able to work at safe houses
indoors or hiring drivers or bodyguards, the laws forced them onto
streets or into furtive exchanges that prevented them from screening
for "bad dates," the court said. By creating conditions that risked
the health and safety of vulnerable women, the laws were declared a
breach of their right to security of the person under the Charter of
Rights and Freedoms.

"Parliament has the power to regulate against nuisances, but not at
the cost of the health, safety and lives of prostitutes," the court
said.

A report released Tuesday by a coalition of Canadian prostitutes
warned the Conservative government that proposals to target the
clients will drive the trade only further underground and increase the
danger the women face, and would eventually be found unconstitutional.

The Vancouver-based Pivot Legal Society, along with a group from
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside called Sex Workers United Against
Violence, cited research results showing that this was the impact
after Vancouver police adopted new guidelines that were effectively a
Nordic model of law enforcement.

They said when police target clients or places where prostitutes work,
"the presence of law enforcement makes it harder to earn an income and
forces sex workers to take clients or agree to riskier services that
they would otherwise refuse due to safety concerns."

In the Commons, MacKay was challenged about why the Justice Department
did not release a public opinion poll it commissioned of 3,000
Canadians, and instead released only its online consultations.
La Presse newspaper cited a Jan. 13 memo written by Justice Department
officials to MacKay that said the opinion poll results that don't
reflect the current policies of the government "may necessitate
explanations."

MacKay told the Commons the poll "will be released in due course." The
Conservatives have required public opinion polls commissioned by the
government to be released within six months, or by July in this case.

Instead, MacKay's department has pointed to the results of online
consultations that elicited more than 30,000 responses. It suggests 56
per cent of respondents supported criminal penalties for the purchase
of sex, while 66 per cent believed the sellers of sexual services
should not be subject to the criminal law.

With files from Alex Boutilier