Sex-trade workers challenge Criminal Code

Last Updated: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 | 3:08 PM ET

CBC News

Toronto sex-trade workers are spearheading a legal crusade to amend laws they say endanger Canadians working in the industry.

Valerie Scott, executive director of Sex Professionals of Canada, knows it will be difficult to get the amendments to the Criminal Code being sought by her group.
(CBC)

In a statement released Tuesday, advocates for sex-trade workers announced they will launch a constitutional challenge to three provisions of the federal Criminal Code that they say deprive sex workers of a safe working environment.

Valerie Scott and Amy Lebovitch, members of Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC) and former dominatrix Terri Jean Bedford will ask the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to strike down the Criminal Code sections that ban bawdy houses, communicating with potential clients and living on avails of prostitution.

In its written statement, SPOC argues that these laws violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by depriving sex workers of their right to liberty and security.

"The act of prostitution itself is legal in Canada, yet the provisions challenged in this application operate to deny sex workers safe legal options for the conducting of legal business," the statement reads.

A primary concern is how these laws place women in greater danger of physical violence.

Rise in violence

Scott, SPOC's executive director, says there is a link between the introduction of the laws and the rise in violence against female sex workers. She points to the communicating law as a direct cause.

"Since it became law on Dec. 21, 1985, there have been between 400 and 500 sex workers either confirmed murdered or missing in Canada. That's an astronomical amount of women gone missing and this is really a direct result of the law," she told CBC News.

"Women are forced to work alone — not in pairs, not in threes, alone — so no one knows what kind of car they're getting into … they are alone with someone and no one knows where they are. As a result of this, the bodies are surfacing."

With accused serial killer Robert Pickton's trial continuing in British Columbia, violence against sex trade workers remains a high-profile issue in Canada. But SPOC says awareness alone will not protect sex trade workers.

"Though the ongoing trial of Robert Pickton has brought worldwide attention to the dangers sex-trade workers are exposed to on the streets, the trial will not in any way address the larger legal and political issue of how to prevent the continuing disappearance and murder of sex trade workers," the group's statement reads.

"As the Pickton trial unfolds, it must be remembered that this horrific story is not an isolated phenomena."

A massive challenge

Striking down three sections of Canada's Criminal Code won't be easy and Scott admits her expectations aren't high.

"It's a massive legal challenge and we'll be lucky if we receive a judgment at the end of this," she said.  

However, she said she remains confident that any success will trigger many positive changes for sex-trade workers.

"[The industry] would change dramatically. If sex work were decriminalized in Canada, women could work together and most women would choose to work inside, especially given Canada's climate," she laughed.

"We would have protection under general workplace law and I think it would improve the whole profession dramatically."