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DOZENS OF SEX workers and their allies marched today from the Vancouver Art Gallery to the Downtown Eastside to protest the Conservative government’s new prostitution legislation.
Chanting “start with rights, end with freedom”, they wanted to send a message that if Bill C-36 becomes law, it will jeopardize the lives of sex workers.
That’s because it will become far more difficult for them to work indoors and potentially push them into dangerous locations, where they’ll be more vulnerable to predators.
Justice Minister Peter MacKay unveiled the bill earlier this month after the Supreme Court struck down Canada’s old laws governing sex work in December 2013 that prohibited brothels, communicating with potential clients and “living off the avails” of prostitution.
The proposed new rules seek to put an end to the sex trade by targeting those who purchase or profit from sex work, while casting sex workers as largely victims. It’s met fierce resistance from sex workers and their advocates.
Jean McDonald, executive director of Maggie’s Toronto Sex Workers Action Project, said stipulations in the bill that criminalize selling sex in public, advertising services online and benefiting from the sale of sex would endanger sex workers by forcing them to even more isolated, marginalized areas.
“In many ways, this legislation is a gift to sexual predators,” said McDonald, wearing a Maggie’s T-shirt that reads “It’s been a business doing pleasure with you” across the back. “It means they can’t work in groups to watch out for one another and say, ‘I’ll be back in half an hour.’ And people who would do women harm, who would do sex workers harm, will know this.”
McDonald accused the federal government of “spitting in the face” of the Supreme Court ruling, which held that Canada’s laws put sex workers at risk by making it illegal for them to, for example, hire a security guard or pre-screen a client.
The federal government has insisted the bill will include programs to help sex workers exit the trade, contending that the “vast majority” do not sell sex by choice.
Agencies/Canadajournal
Why Criminalize this activity of John’s and Pimps ? Just start Taxing them and Start Licensing the professional Sex-Trade Workers more effectively, with periodic medical checks and criminal back ground checks! Let the local governments make more money to cover their ongoing fiscal deficits through this direct taxation. Please legalize the Brothels and various Comfort Houses as the legitimate places of commercial human activity!
Unfortunately, this law prohibits brothels, communicating with potential clients and “living off the avails” of prostitution.