LOS ANGELES—A petition to decriminalize sex work in Canada appears to have enough signatures to force a debate in the government’s House of Commons, according to the Vancouver weekly newspaper The Georgia Straight. An existing Canadian law, Bill C-36, passed in 2014 legalized the act of receiving money for sexual services — but outlawed that act of paying for those services, effectively allowing sex work to remain criminalized.
The law also banned advertising for sexual services, and receiving “material benefit” from them. Then-Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau opposed the bill in 2014, and when he became Prime Minister the following year, he pledged to “review” Bill C-36 after it had been in effect for five years. But the five year period ended in 2019, and Trudeau has yet to take any action on the law.
The online petition started January 29 by sex worker rights advicate Rysa Kronebusch calls for the full repeal of the existing law so that “all Canadians, regardless of their chosen profession, are not denied their constitutional right to security of person.” The petition has already accrued 5,100 signatures.
According to the Georgia Straight report, that total is enough to guarantee certification by the House Clerk of Petitions. That means that the petition’s parliamentary sponsor, British Columbia member of parliament Randall Garrison of the New Democratic Party — a progessive party whose positions are generally to the left of Trudeau’s ruling Liberals — may bring the repeal proposal to the House floor.
Canada’s Supreme Court effectively decriminalized sex work in 2013, by striking down laws against operating a brothel, maming money from sex work, and publickly communicating for the purpose of selling sexual service. The Bill C-36 law was the then-ruling Conservative Party’s response to the court decision, finding what activists called a “roundabout way” of keeping sex work criminal.
Human rights groups have tried to pressure Trudeau, and demanded that whoever won the 2020 nationwide election in Canada should legislate the decriminalization of sex work. But though Trudeau’s Liberal Party retained power in the October election, and he held on to the Prime Minister’s job, the party lost 20 seats while the rival Conservatives gained 26. Trudeau was able to form a minority government, but found himself in a politically weakened position and has not yet taken up the sex work issue.The new petition says that criminalization of sex work causes sex workers to be “at risk of being beaten, raped and killed,” because it impedes their ability to seek help from law enforcement. The laws also hinder sex workers’ ability to “negotiate the terms of employment,” the petition says.
Photo By Makaristos / Wikimedia Commons
