Prostitution shouldn't be decriminalized: report
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 28, 2002 | 8:38 PM ET
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The Quebec Council on the Status of Women released a report on prostitution in Quebec on Tuesday. It says sex workers everywhere are getting younger, with the youngest prostitutes in their early teens.
"In Montreal, in Quebec in general, it's about 14," said Diane Guilbault. "In Thailand and Asian countries, young girls, 12 years old, are working as prostitutes."
Guilbault says that's because those who use prostitutes think younger people are more likely to be free of disease.
The report details the violence, drug addiction, and discrimination prostitutes face.
What it doesn't do has at least one group angry. Stella, a group that supports women, transvestites and transsexuals who work in Montreal's sex trade, is angry it doesn't recommend that prostitution be decriminalized in Quebec and Canada.
In its report, which is being sent to a Quebec government committee studying prostitution, the council says there's no proof decriminalization would help.
But Stella says the current law forces sex workers into society's margins.
"It's very disappointing," said Claire Thiboutot, Stella's executive director. "We already know that the status quo is problematic for prostitutes in general."
Thiboutot says as long as the sex industry remains in the shadows, sex workers continue to suffer.
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