VANCOUVER — A coalition of groups preparing to intervene in a Supreme Court of Canada hearing into the future of the country’s prostitution laws is advocating for a “third way” that would ensure sex workers aren’t turned into criminals while ensuring johns and pimps can still be prosecuted for buying and selling women and girls.
The Women’s Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution — which includes the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres, the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies and the Vancouver-based Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter — is among more than a dozen interveners in a hearing scheduled for June 13.
The hearing stems from an Ontario Court of Appeal decision that struck down the Criminal Code ban on bawdy houses last year because the law puts sex workers in danger by forcing them to work outside.
The case has revealed deep divisions among organizations that work with and advocate for the women — often poor, drug-addicted, and in many cases trafficked from outside Canada — working in the sex trade. Some groups are advocating for a form of legalization, while others insist prostitution must remain against the law.
“There is a third way,” Janine Benedet, the coalition’s lawyer, told a news conference in Vancouver on Wednesday.
“There is something besides simply criminalizing everyone involved in prostitution — including women — and decriminalization and legalizing the sex trade so men are free to buy women at will.”
The group will urge the court to craft a decision that removes criminal sanctions for women involved in the sex trade but continues to target pimps and johns.
