Most recent articles on prostitution related laws, opinions, comments

[gustave55]

In the Economist yesterday

http://www.economist.com/news/brita...proposed-alternatives-are-worse-caveat-emptor

Here is the last paragraphe:

"In contrast to Scandinavia, feminism is not a powerful force in British politics, and neither is Christianity. But Ms Perry [from the NHS] worries that Sweden-style laws could get onto the books anyway. Few want to speak against them, she says. Men worry about accusations of being patriarchal oppressors; women fear being criticised for lack of solidarity. Mr Shuker is encouraged by the passing in February of a non-binding resolution in the European Parliament recommending similar legislation. Britain could end up replacing one set of dismal laws with another."

That is exactly what happened in France least year and exactly what happened in the European Parliament last week. This is the real battleground of today's prohibitionists. Public opinion is against them. They turned into the shaming of politicians. The game in Canada is now on that playing field.

 

[dreamblade]

For those who can read in French:

http://www.ledevoir.com/societe/justice/401788/lar

 

[Moderator]

CBC radio just had a decent discussion, ending with a law professor's recommendation of the New Zealand model. You can listen to it from a link on this page, and vote for their options. The vote options do not make clear the difference between "Legalize prostitution" and "Decriminalize prostitution", which the federal government could do best by doing nothing. There is no need for a law of any kind.

http://www.cbc.ca/day6/blog/2014/03/06/rethinking-prostitution-doc-and-talk/

 

[niniveh]

ELIZABETH RENZETTI
Sex work is work, despite our hangups

Elizabeth Renzetti

The Globe and Mail

Published Monday, Mar. 10 2014, 6:00 AM EDT

Last updated Monday, Mar. 10 2014, 6:00 AM EDT
______________________________________________________________________
Imagine a case where a young woman accuses her employer of sexual harassment. The man in question makes inappropriate comments about the woman’s body and suggests that her co-workers are all having sex with him: “Most girls will do anything for me,” he tells her. The employee feels degraded and intimidated, and has trouble eating and sleeping.

Seems like a pretty open-and-shut case. Show the bum the door! Now, imagine that the woman is a sex worker, and the employer who’s harassing her is actually her brothel manager. Does that change your opinion about her accusation? It shouldn’t.

Last week in Wellington, N.Z., an unnamed sex worker was awarded about $25,000 in damages after a tribunal ruled that her brothel manager had violated the country’s Human Rights Act and caused her “humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to feelings.” In other words, they honoured the “worker” bit of “sex worker” and treated her as if she’d been serving drinks or writing briefs, and was being abused by a bar manager or a judge. She has the same rights as any other person selling her labour in a capitalist society.

This is, of course, not how we tend to look at prostitution. The thickets of morality, judgment and history have grown so thick around sex work that it’s hard to hack away the rhetoric and cut to the heart of the issue: How to provide a safe, regulated framework where the sellers and buyers of a commodity can meet and make their exchanges in peace, and where neither party is coerced or exploited.

Consider that in the United States, you can legally sell your plasma, but not the pleasures of your body (except in Nevada, where you can do both). It’s odd that the proponents of so-called “free markets” assume a Victorian modesty when talk turns to selling sex. “We believe that prostitution is intrinsically degrading and harmful to vulnerable persons, especially women,” Justice Minister Peter MacKay said in January, “and we intend to protect women and protect society generally from exploitation and abuse.”

The federal government is in the process of drafting new legislation around sex work, after the Supreme Court struck down the laws associated with living off the avails of prostitution and prohibiting brothels. It seems the government may be leaning toward the so-called “Nordic model,” pioneered in Sweden, which leaves sex workers above the law but targets their johns. (France and Britain are also looking to Sweden as they revamp outdated prostitution laws.)

Many Canadian advocates for sex workers dislike the Swedish approach, saying it would make their job more dangerous because they wouldn’t be able to conduct business openly and screen their clients. “This federal government is solely interested in its own political safety and could [not] care less about our lives,” Valerie Scott, one of the women who successfully challenged the federal law, told the CBC.

In New Zealand, however, the whole business is decriminalized, and treated as just that – a business, regulated like all other businesses. The very first provision of the country’s Prostitution Reform Act 2003 is that the act “safeguards the human rights of sex workers and protects them from exploitation.”

Of course, this language will seem bloodless if you believe, as many do, that sex work is inherently abusive, degrading and exploitative. But if you accept that the demand for paid sex isn’t going to magically die with the flutter of a politician’s wand, then the best way to legislate for workers’ safety is to ensure that they can operate in the open, buttressed by human-rights law, without shame or fear.

One of the most popular articles in The Globe last week was a thoughtful essay headlined With No Career Prospects And A Pile Of Student Debt, I Thought Prostitution Was The Easy Way Out. Its author, Christine Wilson, wrote about the costs and benefits of the trade – deciding that the former outweighed the latter. In the end, working as a waitress, she says she sometimes feels more exploited by drunks at the bar than her former clients. But Ms. Wilson – the name is a pseudonym, which says much about the stigma around sex work – notes that “our society is based on a system of exploitation, and you have to ask if sexual services are really so different when you get over people’s hangups about sex.”

The government is due to introduce new legislation some time this year. I doubt we’ll be over our hangups by then.

 

[canada-man]

Nordic laws will make the sex trade more dangerous
Proposals to prosecute men who buy sex will not help women, says Sadie Robinson. In Sweden it seems to have driven prostitution underground

The European parliament last month backed a Labour motion to make selling sex legal but buying it a criminal offence.

Some women’s rights **campaigners hail the vote as a victory that will make prostitution safer by reducing the amount of business conducted on the streets.

They say that following the “Nordic model” of prostitution law—so-called because it has been implemented in Sweden, Norway and Iceland—will also make it easier for women to leave the trade.

But there’s no evidence for this, or the claim that women working as prostitutes are automatically safer if they no longer work on the streets.

The Swedish government made buying sex a criminal offence in 1999.

A 2010 review of the law claimed that it led to a 50 percent drop in the number of women working as street prostitutes.

But it also admitted, “It is difficult to determine whether changes in prostitution are as a result of the ban or of other measures or circumstances”.

Underground

A subsequent report into prostitution law in England and Wales claims that the 2010 Swedish review “found that the law has not driven prostitution underground”.

Yet the review did not make that claim.

Sweden’s government doesn’t know what happened to the women who were previously on the street.

It can’t confirm whether fewer men are buying sex because it doesn’t have the figures for how many men bought sex before the law change.

It can’t say if fewer women are involved in prostitution in general because it hasn’t kept the data.

That’s why in 2007 the Swedish government said it could not “give any unambiguous answer” to the question of whether prostitution had fallen.

Elizabeth Bernstein conducted research with women working as prostitutes in Sweden in 2007.

The women she interviewed reported that prostitution had moved underground and that those who had worked on the streets were instead finding clients on the internet.

Sweden’s government agrees that more people are now selling sex on the internet.

Other research has found that for men buying sex “the ban has not changed anything”.

Sweden’s National Bureau of Investigation estimates that in 2009 there were around 90 Thai massage parlours in Stockholm and the surrounding area.

Most were judged to be offering sex for sale. By 2011-12 that estimate had reached 250.

The Swedish government claims to be acting in the interests of women. Yet as in Britain, women are not allowed to work together by setting up a brothel. This ban makes them less safe.

Prostitutes in Sweden say criminalising clients has increased the stigma attached to them.

And research shows that police harassment of prostitutes has increased—women can be forced to appear in court cases against clients, even if they refused to testify.

The Nordic model, rather than making it safer for women working as prostitutes, has only pushed the trade from the streets.

'Every prostitute I've met has been raped by a client'
Criminalising prostitutes or men who buy sex makes women less safe.

But decriminalising prostitution won’t transform it into a safe, attractive job choice for women.

A parliamentary inquiry into prostitution in England and Wales released its report this month. It cited poverty, experience of abuse and addiction problems as reasons for women entering prostitution.

Even people who defend prostitution admit that it is dangerous for women.

Niki Adams from the English Collective of Prostitutes told the inquiry that, “There’s an epidemic of violence against sex workers”.

She added that a “significant number” of women wanted to leave prostitution.

Ruth Jacobs, who has worked as a prostitute, also gave evidence to the inquiry.

She said, “I’ve met over a hundred women in prostitution, and I haven’t met one that hasn’t been raped by a client, and most of us have been raped more than once.”

Helena Evans, who has also worked as a prostitute, described the experience as “that horrific side of my life”.

Rebecca Perry from Safe Exit, Toynbee Hall, told the panel, “We’ve never met a woman who has consciously made a decision” to work as a prostitute.

In Britain the sale and purchase of sex is legal. But people can face charges for taking part in related activities such as soliciting or keeping brothels.

The parliamentary report recommends removing soliciting offences because they target women.

But it recommends using anti-social behaviour (Asbo) legislation against women instead—which could see them thrown in jail if they breach them.

Prostitution isn't a priority for the government
Organisations helping women in prostitution are in crisis as cuts bite.

Rebecca Perry from Safe Exit, Toynbee Hall, told the panel, “We’re going to be closing in the next month because of lack of funding.

The report concludes, “Prostitution isn’t a priority because, by and large, government sends no signal that it is a priority”.

And, criminalisation of prostitution makes migrant women working in the sex industry particularly vulnerable.

Fear of being prosecuted combined with the threat of deportation deters migrant women from reporting crimes or abuse to the authorities.

Canada takes a step forward
Canada’s Supreme Court struck out laws relating to prostitution last year. Justice McLachlin wrote that the laws, which make it illegal to keep a brothel, imposed “dangerous conditions on prostitution”.

“They prevent people engaged in a risky—but legal—activity from taking steps to protect themselves from the risks,” she added.

Repeal the laws that stigmatise
The United Nations Global Commission on HIV and the Law has called for countries to repeal laws relating to buying and selling sex.

Decriminalisation makes it easier for women to access health services and advice centres without fear of prosecution or stigma.

It also allows women and men to report crimes, such as rape, assault or trafficking, without fear of prosecution or harassment.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art/37644/Nordic+laws+will+make+the+sex+trade+more+dangerous

 

[GPIDEAL]

Thank you gentlemen.

I'm glad the media is open-minded about reporting this.

 

[gustave55]

Damn are these prohibitionists,of both religious and extreme feminists brands, among the most dishonest people you can find!

Played Out
March 11, 2014 by Maggie McNeill
Come children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out. - William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair

As regular readers know, the chief organization crusading for imposition of the Swedish model on Ireland is Ruhama, the new mask worn by the orders of nuns who for centuries enslaved many thousands of women in the horrible Magdalene laundries. Just barely over a year ago I published “Puppet Show”, in which I shared information from Irish and British activists exposing Ruhama’s chief puppet, Justine Reilly, as a convicted “pimp” with a long history of “reframing her experiences” to transform herself from ruthless businesswoman to naïve hooker to pathetic victim of “pimps” herself (whichever was most profitable at the time). But soon after that column appeared, Ruhama unveiled a new star, Rachel Moran, whom they paid to present herself as the author of a fabricated memoir entitled Paid For. I say fabricated because over a year before it appeared a correspondent wrote to me saying that during a bad time she had shared her own unfinished memoir with people from Ruhama and had reason to believe they had photocopied much of it and would in the near future build some tragedy porn around it; when this book appeared she confirmed that much of it was plagiarized from her manuscript. But while Moran’s pantomime performance as victim-turned-author seems credible to True Believers and ignoramuses, it is utterly unbelievable to those involved in the tiny and close-knit world of sex work in Dublin. For months now, activist Gaye Dalton has been “tweeting” about the holes in Moran’s story, and on February 26th she actually filed an affidavit swearing to that testimony. When I expressed an interest in publicizing the affidavit Gaye kindly provided me with both scans and a transcription; I have combined the scans into a PDF for your perusal (her address and phone number have been pixilated to preserve her privacy), but here’s the heart of the document:

I sold sexual services on Waterloo and Burlington Roads in Dublin…between approximately June/July 1987 and March/April 1993…I worked there 5 or 6 nights a week…usually [arriving] at about 9:30pm and [working] until at least 2:30am. I spent most of my time on the streets either walking or in two places:

At the top of Waterloo Road by the corner of Wellington Lane
Near the corner of Burlington Road outside Dublin Institute of Advanced technology
In cold or wet weather I might also sit in my car either at the top of Waterloo Road, or on Burlington Road looking out on to Waterloo Road. The sex workers and regular clients were a small community that could be compared to the regular clientele of a pub, we all knew each other, at least by sight and were very much aware of new people, unusual occurrences, or any form of crime or abuse. Every woman I knew at that time worked independently, for herself, apart from two women who were in personal relationships that would have been abusive and coercive in any environment…Anyone who seemed underage was prevented from working, sent home if possible and reported to Gardai. Many of the women had teenage children of their own and were not easy to fool in this respect…Drug abuse was extremely rare and many women were actively involved in the “concerned parents” movement in their local communities.

At no time did I ever see, or hear of “Rachel Moran” author of Paid For and founder of “Space International” nor anyone resembling her, working in that area. In her book she claims to have worked near the corner of Wellington Lane from early evening until “the small hours”, which would have placed her within 15 yards of me for several hours most nights. I have asked several people…from that time and nobody else can remember her, or anyone like her, not only there but in any form of sex work indoor or outdoor, at any of the times she claims to have worked, between 1991 and 1998. Beyond this, in her book Paid For and…blog The Prostitution Experience she has described several people, but not one of them even resembles anyone I ever met or heard of. Like any small community of people there was gossip…we knew plenty about each other’s lives and were familiar with the known details of any abusive, awkward, or even interesting clients. She does not allude to anyone recognisable to me at all. At no time does she show any awareness of the terminology we used, nor even the material realities of our work. She has also, at times, claimed to have been arrested for soliciting before 1993. Not only was this impossible, but also, one of the first things you would be told as a sex worker at that time is that you could not be arrested for soliciting. She did not even know that.

Rachel Moran is making money from her book and speaking engagements as well as…making significant input into Justice Committees both sides of the border through totally misrepresenting herself and that entire community and time. Meanwhile real sex workers are denied all…self representation to refute [her claims]…I understand that it is unlawful for a person to obtain financial advantage from deceit, but I am personally more concerned with the damage to vulnerable, voiceless people that Rachel Moran will do with her lies. The idea of anyone so unscrupulous having any degree of control over sex workers’ lives in future…absolutely horrifies me. Justine Reilly, her partner in “Space International” (all reference suddenly removed from website in past few weeks) was discovered to be a convicted pimp in February 2013, after…putting herself forward in the media as a helpless victim. I have never observed her to show any remorse towards the women she exploited, while at least one of these same women has been openly chastised by Ruhama for “disrespect” for alluding to her convictions. During consultations in both North and South of Ireland genuine sex workers have been treated as animals who cannot think and speak for ourselves while dishonest persons such as these have been put forward as speaking for us. Genuine sex workers have been abused, intimidated and excluded while blatant lies are treated with the greatest courtesy and respect…

I wish that I could believe that this affidavit will help to undermine Moran’s credibility with the Irish government, but I have little hope for that considering the obsequious deference it has rendered and continues to render to the Magdalene orders, both on the issue of compensation to their past victims and the issue of their current attempts to bring sex workers under their control once more. But I can and do hope that it has some deleterious effect on her credibility with the Irish people; each revelation like this one adds to the growing heap of evidence that Ruhama, like all prohibitionists, is a pack of sociopathic liars who will stop at nothing to subject all human sexual behavior to police and institutional violence.

http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/played-out/#comments

 

[wetnose]

Ottawa Citizen: the New Zealand model

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/Zealand+work+model/9623498/story.html

 

[crispycp2000]

Today on the National Post: Flawed report could be basis for Tories’ new prostitution law by John Ivison

 

[Sargeant]

Thanks for these articles. Very informative

 

[Moderator]

Today`s Vancouver Province newspaper has an editorial by Susan Martinuk titled "New prostitution laws should target the johns". The inset quote says:

If we believe that sex trafficking can/should be regulated like any other business, and we can control the industry with licensed brothels, then we will be creating a society where women... are just another commodity for sale.

Vancouver Province blog (with same text): http://blogs.theprovince.com/2014/03/25/susan-martinuk-new-prostitution-laws-should-target-the-johns/

It is the same dumb arguments that equate sex trafficking with prostitution etc.

I suggest that we send responses to the editorial and that someone like susi (or another advocate for SPs/"johns") should request the ability to write a similar length editorial.

 

[drlove]

Please ensure you take part in the two polls at the end of the article - Have your say.

2 cities, 2 very different approaches to massage parlours

Saskatoon is permissive, Regina dismissive

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saska...rent-approaches-to-massage-parlours-1.2587572

The sex trade is booming in both Regina and Saskatoon, but the two cities have taken surprisingly different approaches to addressing the phenomenon.

Saskatoon Police have essentially partnered with brothels and are vetting their employees for them. In Regina, city officials insist that — technically speaking — there are no massage parlours in their environs, even though the police vice squad describes it as an exploding industry.

Despite the very different views and approaches to dealing with the sex trade, officials in both cities defend their policies, even though it is obvious that not everyone is on the same page, and not every policy is having its desired effect.

Saskatoon's approach

On Jan. 1, 2013, the relationship between massage parlours and the Saskatoon Police Service changed from adversarial to collegial.

That's when the new Adult Services Licensing Bylaw came into effect, which requires massage parlours to relocate to industrial areas of the city. It also requires escorts and massage parlour workers to buy a $250 dollar licence from Saskatoon police.

"They need to get approval, for lack of a better word, from us in terms of a license," explained Detective Const. Chris Harris.

He added that the officer issuing the licence takes steps to ensure no coercion is involved.

"[That they're] doing it because they want to, that they're not being exploited, [and] that they're of age to do it," he said.

From his perspective, the licensing requirement is a way to take prostitution out of the shadows and into the modern age.

"It's trying to establish it as a little bit more of a legitimate business," he said. "That is no different than if somebody wants to open a shoe store or a Tim Hortons. You've got to get a business licence. It's the same thing."

With a license, a sex trade worker can operate as an escort or work at a licensed massage parlours in Saskatoon.

Brothel owner loves new bylaw

Trish Fisher hires many licensed women at her business, The Lion's Den, which she candidly describes as a "brothel" — a place where the women who work for her exchange sex for money.

"The reason I'm doing it right now is because I can do it with the support of the city and the vice unit and I'm in a position to help people," Fisher explained.

She said licensing is the best thing that's happened to her industry, calling it a partnership with police and the city.

Fisher especially likes how she is relieved of some background checks on workers.

"One of the things that the licensing has done is taken completely out of my hands now, [the need] to make sure that they are who they say they are, that they are of age, that they are Canadian citizens," she said. "By doing the licensing, the city and police, the vice unit, have taken that on."

Police do brothel's HR work

Saskatoon Police freely admit they are doing some of The Lion's Den's human resources work.

"What's the alternative?" Detective Harris asks.

"We just want to open the lines of communication," he added. "I could care less that that's how you choose to make your money. I'm not here to judge anybody."

Harris also notes the the current system is, in his view, a vast improvement from the way police used to do monitor the business. In the past, police looking to check on suspected sex trade activities could only knock on a hotel door knowing the escort was under no obligation to open it.

With the licensing bylaw, officers now have a legal reason to approach women working in the sex trade.

Saskatoon and 'brothels'

Curiously, a Saskatoon city hall official told CBC's iTeam that the municipality licenses adult service agencies (such as massage parlours) but it doesn't license brothels. Canadian law prohibits running a brothel or common bawdy house.

"On paper, in our file, they're not operating a brothel until somebody goes out and finds out they are," Alan Wallace, Saskatoon's director of planning and development, said. "That's usually a police matter."

When CBC's iTeam pointed out that police have acknowledged at least some massage parlours in the city, like The Lions Den, are brothels Wallace explained the city simply handles the paperwork.

"We only license what they say they're going to do and we only evaluate it against what's legal and what's not," he said. "So, whatever happens out there, there's a real world out there, and if things are not happening according to the law, well, we're not licensing that. We're licensing the legal part of it."

Regina's approach

Regina also has a bylaw dealing with adult services although Regina's version appears to be unenforced when it comes to massage parlours.

The city's Adult Entertainment Establishment Bylaw was adopted in the early 1990s, and in part, targets massage parlours which it defines as establishments where, for a price, a massage would be "administered to the human body for sexual pleasure."

The bylaw requires that any massage parlour in the city be located in an industrial area and be a minimum of 182.88 metres from any school, home, church, private club, rink, bowling alley or funeral home.

If a massage parlour meet these criteria, the application would then go before city council for its consideration.

According to research by CBC's iTeam, there are at least three places operating as massage parlours outside of Regina's industrial zone.

No massage parlours in Regina?

The manager of planning for the city of Regina, Fred Searle, explained that when it comes to massage parlours, the bylaw hasn't seen any action.

"Under the current bylaw provisions, we processed no applications for a massage parlour," Searle told CBC's iTeam.

In other words, currently there are no massage parlours in Regina, according to city hall, which seems to contradict what the Regina Police Service has told CBC.

"We're seeing more and more massage parlours open up," Detective Corporal Tim Filazek said. Filazek noted that a decade ago Regina had two or three such places, whereas today "you're seeing 15 to 20."

CBC's iTeam asked the manager of planning about that.

"If there are operations in the city that are operating and the city would to become aware of those through a complaint process, we certainly have bylaw enforcement processes to follow up on those and then it would be incumbent on the operator to demonstrate their compliance with the bylaw," Searle said, adding that he is unaware of any complaints.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most Canadian cities not doing enough


Diane Redsky said Regina's approach to the issue of massage parlours is consistent with what she's seen right across Canada.

The project director for the Canadian Women's Foundation Human Trafficking Taskforce told CBC's iTeam "We saw across the country that the majority of massage parlours operate illegally."

She recently led a research delegation on a 10-city tour, including Regina and Saskatoon, investigating how governments and communities are dealing with the sex trade.

"I think everybody just thought that somebody else was watching and something is being done about it and that's why it's such a surprise to everyday citizens that no, in fact, there is nobody. There may be a bylaw in place but the enforcement is another matter."

Redsky said this lack of rigour could have real consequences for women and girls who are being exploited.

"Our concern is that there's little enforcement, regulation, supervision and inspection of these massage parlours by anybody whether it's the municipality or what form of partnership they have with policing to do that."

She's pleased to see the proactive work that the city of Saskatoon is doing though she noted "it's too early to tell whether it's going to have the impact that's needed in the protection and prevention of trafficked women and girls."

According to Redsky, the Canadian Women's Foundation has commissioned research on how municipalities are dealing with massage parlours across the country.

"It is something that is very important for us to be able understand not only how these are allowed to operate but what is the best way to ensure that vulnerable women and girls are protected."

 

[drlove]

Am I going blind??? Where are the two polls. Any links anywhere?

Click on the red link at the top of the article in the previous post. The two polls are at the very end of the article. They are not that noticeable so I can understand if not everyone saw them.

 

[canada-man]

Academics concerned over plans to change Canadian prostitution laws

A collection of 300 academics have written a letter to the federal government expressing concerns over plans to make the purchasing of sex illegal.

The group’s letter says making sex purchasing illegal will lead to the marginalization of sex workers and ultimately put them in a more dangerous work environment.

“We call on the Government of Canada to join with global leaders, community, researchers and legal experts in rejecting criminalization regimes,” the letter reads. “Including those that criminalize the purchase of sexual services, and instead support the decriminalization of sex work in Canada as scientifically grounded and necessary to ensuring the safety, health, and human rights of sex workers.”

The group said it would like to see more evidence-based policies used to determine such legislation in Canada.

It insisted criminalizing prostitution does nothing to eliminate the practice.

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/2014/03/2...er-plans-to-change-canadian-prostitution-laws

 

[gustave55]

http://www.straight.com/news/615581...s-call-decriminalization-sex-work-canadaMarch 27, 2014

Right Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada,
Mr. Thomas Mulcair, MP, Leader of the Official Opposition, the New Democratic Party of Canada,
Mr. Justin Trudeau, MP, Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada,
Mr. Jean-François Fortin, MP, Interim Leader of the Bloc Québécois,
Ms. Elizabeth May, MP, Leader of the Green Party of Canada,


Dear Sirs
 and Madam,

Re: Evidence-Based Call for Decriminalization of Sex Work in Canada and Opposition to Criminalizing the Purchasing of Sex

We, the undersigned, are profoundly concerned that the Government of Canada is considering the introduction of new legislation to criminalize the purchasing of sex. The proposed legislation is not scientifically grounded and evidence strongly suggests that it would recreate the same social and health-related harms of current criminalization. We join other sex worker, research, and legal experts across the country and urge the Government of Canada to follow the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision and support decriminalization of sex work as a critical evidence-based approach to ensuring the safety, health, and human rights of sex workers.

A large body of scientific evidence from Canada,[1] Sweden and Norway (where clients and third parties are criminalized), and globally[2] clearly demonstrates that criminal laws targeting the sex industry have overwhelmingly negative social, health, and human rights consequences to sex workers, including increased violence and abuse, stigma, HIV and inability to access critical social, health and legal protections. These harms disproportionately impact marginalized sex workers including female, Indigenous and street-involved sex workers, who face the highest rates of violence and murder in our country. In contrast, in New Zealand, since the passage of a law to decriminalize sex work in 2003, research and the government’s own evaluation have documented marked improvements in sex workers’ safety, health, and human rights.[3]

Therefore, we call on the Government of Canada to join with global leaders, community, researchers and legal experts in rejecting criminalization regimes, including those that criminalize the purchase of sexual services, and instead support the decriminalization of sex work in Canada as scientifically-grounded and necessary to ensuring the safety, health, and human rights of sex workers. Below, we briefly outline our key concerns.

1. Criminalization of any aspect of sex work undermines access to critical safety, health and legal protections: The science is unequivocal that where sex work operates within a criminalized and policed environment –whether targeting sex workers, their working conditions, or the people they work with, for, or hire (clients, managers, bodyguards, or other third parties)– sex workers are placed in an adversarial relationship with police and are unable to access critical social, health and legal protections. Both peer review research and the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry Report have shown that within criminalization environments, stigma and discrimination of sex workers are major barriers for sex workers to reporting violence and abuse to authorities and accessing other critical health and social supports both in Canada and globally [4] In the official evaluation of the ban on purchasing sex in Sweden, sex workers clearly reported that the law increased police scrutiny, stigma and discrimination, and deterred reporting to police.[5] In contrast, the New Zealand Prostitution Reform Act (2003) placed the human rights and occupational health and safety of sex workers as the central goal of their law reform; and government’s own evaluation showed sex workers were significantly more likely to report abuse to authorities following decriminalization.[6]

2. Enforcement prohibiting communication in public spaces between sex workers and their clients directly elevates risks for violence, abuse and other health and social harms. Since the Communication Law was enacted in 1985 to reduce “public nuisance”, the number of sex workers who have gone missing and been murdered in Canadian cities has escalated dramatically, with disproportionate numbers of Indigenous women. Evidence has consistently shown that in order for sex workers and their clients to avoid police detection, sex workers have to work alone, in isolated areas and rush into vehicles before they have the opportunity to screen prospective clients or negotiate the terms of transactions, severely limiting their ability to avoid dangerous clients or refuse unwanted services (e.g. unprotected sex).[7] The Supreme Court of Canada identified client screening as one of the most vital tools available to sex workers to protect their safety and health.[8] In Sweden and Norway where laws criminalize the purchasing of sex, research has shown that enforcement targeting clients still forces sex workers to operate in clandestine locations to avoid police, increases their insecurity,[9] and places them at continued and increased risk for violence, abuse and other health-related harms, including HIV infection.[10] A report commissioned by City of Oslo in Norway (2012) found that the rate of strangulation and threat with a deadly weapon of sex workers had increased substantially in the three years since the implementation of the criminalization of clients.[11]

3. Criminalization of any aspect of sex work hinders sex worker’s ability to establish safer workspaces, to work collectively, and engage third parties who can increase their safety. Both the Supreme Court of Canada and the two lower courts in Bedford clearly highlighted access to indoor spaces as a critical safety measure, based on two decades of evidence from local and international sex workers, academics, and legal experts.[12] In Canada, an evaluation of safer indoor work spaces in 2012 within supportive low-income housing in Vancouver demonstrated that when sex workers have opportunities to move off-street, they can increase their control over their working conditions and are able to adopt safety and security measures that protect their health, safety and overall well-being.[13] Safer indoor spaces also provide a critical connection with social, health, and legal supports, including accessing police protections in cases of violence or abuse. However, in a law enforcement environment where clients remain targets for arrest, criminalization would continue to prevent sex workers from bringing clients indoors to safer indoor spaces; thereby reproducing the same harms as the current criminalized model. By contrast, in New Zealand and New South Wales, Australia, where sex work is fully decriminalized, sex workers have access to safer indoor work spaces and have increased control over the conditions of their work.[14]

4. Criminalizing the purchasing of sex does not reduce or eliminate prostitution. Following the ban on purchasing of sex, a number of evaluations of the criminalized regime from Sweden have found no evidence that the overall number of sex workers was reduced.[15] Of note, public health researchers in New Zealand have repeatedly estimated the size of the sex industry in 5 locations, and compared with 1999 (prior to decriminalization), the data show no increase in overall numbers of sex workers.[16]

5. Criminalizing any aspect of sex work undermines efforts to address human trafficking. The conflation of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation with sex work (the exchange of sex for money among consenting adults) undermines efforts to address these critical human rights issues. In the US and increasingly in Canada, funds intended for use to address human trafficking have been misused on anti-prostitution enforcement efforts. In two separate governmental evaluations of the Swedish criminalization regime, police reported that it creates an obstacle to prosecuting “traffickers and coercive pimps”.[17] Furthermore, scientific evidence and the experience of anti-trafficking organizations suggest that criminalizing the purchase of sex renders it more difficult to assist individuals in situations of coercion and abuse.[18]

Canadian researchers and academics call for evidence-based policies that are consistent with safety, health and human rights for sex workers and communities.

We are calling on the federal government to demonstrate leadership when addressing these challenging issues by promoting evidence-based laws and policies that protect the safety, health and human rights of sex workers. We encourage Canada to adopt the decriminalization of sex work recommendations of the World Health Organization, UNFPA, UNAIDS Advisory Group on HIV and Sex Work, and the Global Commission on HIV and the Law.[19] We invite you to work together with sex workers, researchers and legal experts to develop evidence-based policy approaches that promote the safety, health, and human rights of sex workers.

We look forward to your response.

CC: Members of Parliament of Canada


[1] Lowman J. (2000) Violence and the outlaw status of (street) prostitution. Violence Against Women, 6(9), pp. 987-1011; Shannon K (2010) The hypocrisy of Canada’s prostitution legislation, Canadian Medical Association Journal, 182(12), p.1388.

[2] WHO (2012) Prevention and treatment of HIV and other STIs for sex workers in low and middle Income countries: Recommendations for a public health approach; Shannon K & Csete J (2010) Violence, condom negotiation and HIV/STI risk among sex workers. Journal of the American Medical Association, 304(5) pp. 573-4; Csete J. & Cohen J., (2010) Health benefits of legal services for criminalised populations: The case of people who use drugs, sex workers and sexual and gender minorities. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 38(4), pp. 816–831.

[3] Abel G., Fitzgerald L., & Brunton C. (2009) The impact of decriminalisation on the number of sex workers in New Zealand. Journal of Social Policy, 38(3), pp. 515-531; Abel G., Fitzgerald L, & Brunton C. (2007) The impact of the Prostitution Reform Act on the health and safety practices of sex workers’, Report to the Prostitution Law Review Committee, University of Otago, Christchurch.

[4] Supra note 2; See also Oppal WT., (2012) Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry; Shannon K. et al. (2008) Social and structural violence and power relations in mitigating HIV risk of drug-using women in survival sex work. Social Science & Medicine, 66(4), pp. 911-921; Lazarus L. et al. (2012) Occupational stigma as a primary barrier to health care for street-based sex workers in Canada. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 14(2), pp. 139-150.

[5] Skarhed A. (2010) Selected extracts of the Swedish Government Report SOU 2010:49, The ban against the purchase of sexual services: An evaluation 1999-2008, Swedish Institute.

[6] Supra note 3.

[7] Supra note 1, 2 and 4; See also Shannon K. et al. (2009) Structural and environmental barriers to condom use negotiation with clients among female sex workers: Implications for HIV-prevention strategies and policy. American Journal of Public Health, 99(4), pp. 659-665.

[8] Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford, 2013 SCC 72

[9] Gerdts AH. (2010) Lokale Konsekvenser av Sexkjøpsloven i Bergen. En kartleggingsrapport om kvinnene, markedet og samfunnet. Bergen: Utekontakten i Bergen; Skilbrei ML. & Holmström C. (2013) Prostitution policy in the Nordic region: Ambiguous sympathies, Ashgate Publishing Company, Burlington.

[10] Chu S & Glass R. (2013) Sex work law reform in Canada: Considering problems with the Nordic model, Alberta Law Review, 51(1), pp. 101-124; Dodillet S. & Östergren P. (2011) The Swedish Sex Purchase Act: Claimed success and documented effects; Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police, Working Group on the Legal Regulation of the Purchase of Sexual Services (2004) Purchasing sexual services in Sweden and the Netherlands: legal regulation and experiences. Oslo, Norway; Östergren P. (2004) Sex workers critique of Swedish prostitution policy; Levy J. (2013) Swedish Abolitionism as violence against women, Sex Worker Open University (SWOU) Sex Worker’s Rights Festival, Glasgow, April 6, 2013.

[11] Bjorndahl, AU. (2012) Farlige Forbindelser: En rapport om volden kvinner i prostitutusjon i Oslo utsettes for.

[12] Supra note 7.

[13] Krusi A. et al. (2012) Negotiating safety and sexual risk reduction with clients in unsanctioned safer indoor sex work environments: A qualitative evaluation, American Journal of Public Health, 102(6), pp. 1154-1159.

[14] Supra note 3.

[15] Supra note 5; See also The National Board for Health and Welfare of Sweden, Socialstyrelsen (2007) Prostitution in Sweden; National Council for Crime Prevention, Regeringskansliet (2000) Förbud mot köp av sexuella tjänster Tillämpningen av lagen under första året BRÅ-rapport, Stockholm.

[16] Supra note 3.

[17] Supra note 11.

[18] Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW). (2011) Moving beyond ‘supply and demand’ catchphrases: Assessing the uses and limitations of demand-based approaches to anti-trafficking; La Strada International et al. (2014) NGO Platform Statement ahead of the vote in the European Parliament on the Report of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality on sexual exploitation and prostitution and its impact on gender equality (2013/2103(INI)). (Accessed March 8, 2014).

[19] Global Commission on HIV and Law (2012), Risks, rights and health; Supra note 2.

Click on the link to see the list researchers who signed

 

[canada-man]

Joy Smith being pwned again!




Calum Bennachie: The problem’s with Sweden’s prostitution law

There are so many things wrong with the MP Joy Smith’s arguments regarding prostitution (‘Prostitution must not be legalized,’ March 25).

She misquotes the Prostitution Law Review Committee report in exactly the same way as anti-prostitution activist Melissa Farley, who was discredited by the Canadian court system. According to Ms. Smith, the “New Zealand Prostitution Law Review Committee Report referenced by Mr. Ivison clearly stated that ‘the majority of sex workers felt that the law could do little about violence that occurred.’ “

Just like Ms. Farley, Ms. Smith omits the whole paragraph, which puts a different spin on the issue: “The majority of sex workers interviewed felt that the PRA [New Zealand's Prostitution Reform Act] could do little about violence that occurred, though a significant minority thought that there had been an improvement since the enactment of the PRA. Of those feeling in a position to comment, the majority felt sex workers were now more likely to report incidents of violence to the Police, though willingness to carry the process through to court is less common.”

Ms. Smith misses the point entirely. The PRA does not decriminalize violence against sex workers; it enables sex workers to complain about it when it does happen. It would be like trying to claim that decriminalizing sex between men stopped all the nasty violence gay men were the victims of. Yet Canada decriminalized sex between men in 1969, and violence against gay men still continues. According to Ms. Smith’s logic, the amendment to section 159 of Canada’s Criminal Code was a failure, because it has not stopped violence against gay men. That’s not how decriminalization works.

Violence against sex workers still happens in Sweden and Norway. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that violence against sex workers has increased since Norway outlawed the purchasing of sex, as Norwegian sex workers have indicated they are less likely report violence against them. It can therefore be said that the Swedish law did nothing to stop violence against sex workers in Sweden and Norway. Yet Ms. Smith says this law has been a success.

This claim is inconsistent with her previous assertion in relation to the PRA in New Zealand. Ms. Smith claims that, “under New Zealand law, brothels can easily exploit women by threatening to fire them if they do not provide the services demanded.” Yet, the PRA say that it is illegal to coerce someone into having commercial sex. This is the legal protection that Ms. Smith says is not there. Furthermore, she is obviously unaware of the laws against rape that New Zealand has. Or does she always make up fiction like this?

The Swedish government has admitted, in its own evaluation of its law, that criminalizing clients increases stigma against sex workers. For some reason, the Swedish government believes this increase in stigma “must be viewed as positive.” What sane politician would want to increase stigma against any section of the community they live in, and, presumably, help govern? Ms. Smith likes to claim that the law criminalizing clients decreased the number of sex workers, yet the Swedish police contradict that claim, stating that there has been an increase in Thai massage parlours, commonly known to be brothels, in Stockholm — from 90 in 2009 to 250 in 2011. This is certainly not a decrease. So why does Ms. Smith continually claim things about the Swedish law that are not true? The evidence, obtained from reliable, academic research and government reports, shows her claims are untrue.

National Post

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com...e-the-problems-with-swedens-prostitution-law/

 

[Cobra Enorme]

can you imagine we institute the nordic model, then the nordics legalize prostitution and brothels and then we're stuck looking like losers that got in late on a trend? Like wearing scarves in nightclubs. Embarrassing.

 

[gustave55]

Police officers are like any citizens, they have personal views on prostitution. Some go to church, some believe in the ability of others to makes personal decisions, some think prostitution is exploitation, some are clients of sex workers. The Montreal police chief is pretty strongly in favor of criminalization. Many in his service are against it. Whatever their personal position, I think the important role of canadian police people in this debate should be to provide the information they have on the industry as objectively as possible. They know damn well what the industry is and the level of exploitation there is in it. Give us the figures: the level of citizens' complaints, the number of inquiries, the number of cases recommended for prosecution, the involvement of criminal gangs, etc. The Sureté du Québec does it once every few years. In Montréal as in Québec in general, prostitution is by no means a priority issue for LE for one simple reason: the level of criminality in it is pretty low. It may be different in Vancouver for example. But then, if so, more policing effort is put into it I imagine.

 

[Cobra Enorme]

was it the conservative govt that banned romanians from coming here to strip years ago?

 

[canada-man]

Mckay the flip flopper is confused