The Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform and six individual applicants are challenging Canada’s sex work-specific criminal offences and are seeking to strike them down on the basis that they violate sex workers’ constitutional rights. Se workers argue that the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA) harmed them, causing harassment, police profiling, surveillance and arrest.
The act criminalizes most aspects of sex work—including communicating to obtain sexual services, placing advertisements, renting work space to sex workers, working for sex workers, and managing or hiring sex workers. While these provisions are in place, sex workers will continue to be criminalized for their work.
Back to 2007 Terri-Jean Bedford, Valerie Scott and Amy Lebovitch took the Canadian government to court to challenge three sex-work related criminal offenses. The courrt ordered the govenment to strike down the laws. The Conservative government did this, but introduced a new set of laws which introduced the Nordic Model. In reality sex workers are still criminalized, Even providing sex workers with vital assistance like taking down licence plate numbers and client descriptions to make sure that the client is not a known abuser is an offence.
Since this law has been inplace, research has revealed that sex workers now face higher levels of violence, reduced access to sexual health services. They are unable to negotiate sexual services and screen out bad clients.
The fight against PCEPA is a vital next step in defending the lives and dignity of sex workers. But it will take more than the courts to transform sex workers lives. It will take solidarity from a society that recognizes every sex worker’s life is worth fighting for.