By ALICE CHEN
MAY 5, 2021
The current set of laws prohibit working together as well as safely advertising, puts sex workers at undue risk and potentially violates their charter rights.
A sex worker advocacy group is pushing for reform to laws that endanger sex workers, using a decriminalization approach that some MPs say has their support.
The Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform launched a constitutional challenge against the current sex work laws earlier this spring, seeking to strike down prohibitions against public communication around sex work, the purchasing of sex, materially benefitting from sex work, and recruiting and advertising for sex work.
"...according to Sarah Kennell, director of government relations at Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, that the two activities [sex trafficking and sex work] shouldn’t be conflated. She noted that “existing provisions within the Criminal Code that address trafficking are relevant and should be upheld, but when we start using them to target sex workers, there’s a problem.”