Sheri Kiselbach, left, and lawyer Katrina Pacey outside the B.C. Court of Appeal in Vancouver, where they are hoping to win the right to challenge prostitution laws.Sheri Kiselbach, left, and lawyer Katrina Pacey outside the B.C. Court of Appeal in Vancouver, where they are hoping to win the right to challenge prostitution laws. (CBC)

A former Vancouver sex-trade worker was at the B.C. Court of Appeal Thursday fighting for the right to challenge the constitutionality of Canada's prostitution laws.

Sheri Kiselbach was seeking to overturn a December 2008 B.C. Supreme Court decision that she could not challenge the laws because she was not an active worker in the sex trade and was not facing criminal charges for prostitution.

'It's unreasonable to ask individual active sex workers to come forward'—Lawyer Katrina Pacey

"My ultimate goal is to have sex workers from all walks of life to be able to work safely," Kiselbach said outside the court in Vancouver.

Prostitution in Canada is technically legal but there are prohibitions on keeping a bawdy house, communicating for the purposes of prostitution or living off the avails of prostitution.

Those laws force sex workers onto the streets, where they face an increased risk of violence, Kiselbach said.

"I feel I have the right, even though I'm out of sex work, to be an expert on this issue and that my experiences in sex work are as valid today as they are for other sex workers that are working right now."

Kiselbach's challenge is supported by a legal team of civil rights advocates such as the Pivot Legal Society, the West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) and the Trial Lawyers Association of B.C.

"We say that it's unreasonable to ask individual active sex workers to come forward because of all the barriers they face in terms of accessing the court system," said lawyer Katrina Pacey of Pivot.

Another of Kiselbach's lawyers said the implications go beyond the rights of sex workers to include any group that faces discrimination and fears going to court.

"This case is really about widening that access, about getting more people into the courts to be able to assert their rights," said Kasari Govender of West Coast LEAF.

The appeal court hearing is scheduled to continue through Friday.