We are deeply disappointed, but not surprised, with the recent decision of the Supreme Court in R v Kloubakov rejecting the Kloubakov appeal after considering the constitutionality of two sex work offences – material benefit (s. 286.2(1)) and procuring (s.286.3(1)). Both the courts and Parliament have been divorced from the nuanced realities of sex workers’ lives and the ways the current sex work offences criminalize sex workers since the inception of the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA) laws.Despite the case challenging the constitutionality of sex work laws based on sex workers’ Charter rights, it failed to engage the numerous, substantial ways that sex workers experience criminalization and police surveillance resulting from these two offences.
This decision only concretizes and deepens sex workers’ insecurity. These offences make sex workers vulnerable to: institutional abuse, targeted violence, xenophobic raids that result in deportations and shutting down of safe indoor workspaces, the constant threat of surveillance, unwanted contact with law enforcement, and other forms of harmful interference in our lives as sex workers. Criminalizing sex work is not benign: it isolates sex workers from society and resources, and positions sex workers as targets for violence, discrimination, and labour exploitation.
Our constitutional challenge – that was set to challenge all of the provisions that make sex work illegal – has been on hold as we awaited this decision. We hope one day to see the fall of a regime that is so clearly based on morality and not on any concern for women’s health, safety, autonomy and equality. We are in the process of analyzing the Kloubakov decision and our next steps to continue our fight for a safe and just world for everyone.