Category: Uncategorized

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.

May 28, 2024 – For immediate release – The Supreme Court of Canada has rejected sex workers’ request to intervene and participate in Kloubakov v Canada, a case concerning the constitutionality of sex work laws based on sex workers’ Charter rights. The Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform (CASWLR) is a coalition of 23 leading sex workers’ rights organizations across Canada, the majority of which are led by and for sex workers. This decision highlights the ways the Supreme Court excludes those most directly affected — and whose Charter rights underpin all the legal questions before the Court — in its consideration of important constitutional issues.

Members of our coalition have been collectively litigating the constitutionality of criminal sex work laws for many years. Our member groups are led by and serve sex workers, including migrant sex workers, Indigenous sex workers, trans sex workers, Black sex workers, sex workers who use drugs, and sex workers living with HIV. Sex workers represented in our coalition have diverse identities, experiences and locations, including experiences of violence, coercion and other abuse — who can attest firsthand to the impacts of the sex work offences. This means the only organization representing those most immediately impacted by these provisions has been barred from bringing this unique and essential perspective before the Court.

While an appeal of our own 2021 constitutional challenge is pending, Kloubakov is a separate constitutional challenge brought by non-sex worker third parties engaging only two of the sex work offences in the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act. CASWLR, along with many other organizations, sought leave to intervene. In our intervention application, we referred to our litigation as well as our law reform efforts, which ground our expertise in precisely the issues at stake. Yet, we have been denied leave to intervene on the basis that our involvement would “have the effect of expanding the case,” despite our deep and extensive experience with the challenged provisions.

The constitutional arguments being advanced by the accused in Kloubakov — who are not themselves sex workers —are grounded in how the sex work offences violate sex workers’ Charter rights. Once again, the Supreme Court will hear from people speaking about and for sex workers, without sex workers’ voices actually being present.

The Alliance represents, by far, the largest group of sex workers in Canada, with longstanding, collective knowledge of constitutional issues related to the sex work offences. Sex workers bear the most immediate, harmful and numerous impacts of these laws, yet the Supreme Court is silencing the very intervener that is in the best position to assist it in determining their constitutionality.

Also denied leave were the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, and Pivot Legal Society — who were highlighting the interests of Indigenous, racialized and migrant sex workers currently working under criminal sex work laws.

We are appalled that our lives and realities are being determined by third parties who are not sex workers debating sex workers’ Charter rights. We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will recognize this grave error and reverse its decision by granting us leave.

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Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform
514.916.2598
contact@sexworklawreform.com

Monday, September 18, 2023 — Today, the Ontario Superior Court released its decision in CASWLR v Attorney General (Canada), a case that sought to strike down harmful provisions of the Protection of Communities and Exploited People Act (PCEPA) on the grounds that they violate sex workers’ Charter rights. Sex workers across Canada are devastated to learn that the Ontario Superior Court has upheld all the provisions that cause grave harm to all sex workers. The decision is incredibly dismissive of sex workers’ concerns, knowledge, and intersecting realities, and we are deeply disappointed.

Sex workers and our colleagues will continue to be at risk of criminalization, social and racial profiling, and targeted violence.

Despite all the evidence confirming the gravity of these many harms, the court discounted and rejected evidence from sex workers and relied heavily on evidence from law enforcement to find that “there is a considerable body of evidence that many sex workers are manipulated or coerced into sex work or trafficked while in it.”

Troublingly, the Court also concluded that sex workers misunderstand the law. This patronizing conclusion ignores the extensive evidence submitted describing how sex workers and non-exploitative third parties, and particularly migrant and Black sex workers, are being arrested for third-party tasks. The Court also denied the evidence detailing how criminalization causes stigma, which leads to violence against our communities, claiming “a lack of empirical evidence.”

“Sex workers deserve a decision that recognizes the human rights violations faced every day from a criminal law that systematically discriminates, over polices, and under protects all sex workers, particularly those who are most marginalized by that same criminal law,” said Jenn Clamen, national coordinator of the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform.

“Sex workers who are Indigenous, Black, migrant, and trans experience the most harmful impacts of the criminalization of sex work, as we are communities that are already overpoliced and under protected,” added Monica Forrester, one of the individual applicants in the case. “We need sex work laws removed from the Criminal Code so there is at least one less tool law enforcement can use against us.”

The systemic inequalities that are exacerbated by the criminalization of sex work cannot be ignored. These violations will not end until sex workers’ rights are recognized, and sex work is fully decriminalized through the removal of all criminal provisions introduced through the PCEPA.

Our Alliance member groups are grateful to all our allies who have stood with us in solidarity in this this case. We know this is not the end of the fight for sex workers’ rights and we are prepared to defend them all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

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For interviews with the Alliance or one of our member groups contact: Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reformcontact@sexworklawreform.com or 514.916.2598

Alliance member organizations include: Action santé travesti(e)s et transsexuel(le)s du Québec (ASTT(e)Q); ANSWER Society; BC Coalition of Experiential Communities (BCCEC); Butterfly Asian and Migrant Sex Work Support Network; HIV Legal Network; Émissaire; Maggie’s Toronto Sex Workers’ Action Project; Maggie’s Indigenous Sex Work Drum Group; PEERS Victoria; Projet L.U.N.E.; Prostitutes Involved Empowered Cogent Edmonton (PIECE); PACE Society; Rézo, projet travailleurs du sexe; Safe Harbour Outreach Project (S.H.O.P); SafeSpace London; Sex Workers’ Action Program Hamilton (SWAPH); Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC); Sex Workers’ Action Network of Waterloo Region (SWAN Waterloo); Sex Workers of Winnipeg Action Coalition (SWWAC); Sex Workers United Against Violence (SWUAV); Shift Calgary, HIV Community Link; Stella, l’amie de Maimie; Stepping Stone; SWANS Sudbury; and SWAP Yukon.

We are individuals, academics, and organizations coming together to express our opposition to Bill S-224. Its proposed amendments to the human trafficking offence will intensify the criminalization of sex workers, racialized people, and migrants under the guise of fighting human trafficking. It also has damaging, wide-reaching implications that extend to workers beyond the sex industry.

You can still sign on here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfpZen_ggdhzmpe5yiUL37n1Llba3Sm8AOZjzuc5UM5kEIo7A/viewform

In the last few decades, groups that are anti-sex work, racist, and anti-migrant have weaponized anti-human trafficking campaigns and policies to promote their agenda. While claiming to combat human trafficking, they advocate for the criminalization of all sex work, including increased policing and prosecution of Black, Indigenous, racialized, migrants, sex workers, and their communities. Bill S-224 is another example of this criminalization that functions to further erase and silence sex workers speaking to their experiences.

When anti-sex work groups, policymakers, and law enforcement wrongly equate sex work with sexual exploitation and human trafficking, sex workers — particularly Black, Indigenous, racialized and migrants — become the targets. Raids of sex industry workplaces have ballooned with increases in anti-human trafficking funding, initiatives, and policies. In the last two years, thousands of sex workers in Canada have been harassed, investigated, racially profiled, evicted, detained, deported, and incarcerated by law enforcement in the name of anti-human trafficking initiatives. Instead of being protected, their privacy, rights, autonomy, and safety are violated and under the false guise of “protection” sex workers are cast as victims, their voices and experiences erased.

Bill S-224 will make it easier for courts to convict people without evidence of exploitation and without proving a “threat to safety”. This will exacerbate the conflation of sex work and sexual exploitation, casting the net of criminalization far too wide and further endangering sex workers and their support networks. While Bill S-224 further erases the experiences and perspectives of sex workers by conflating sex work with sexual exploitation and human trafficking, it will also lead to the further criminalization of Black sex workers, who are already disproportionately targeted, policed and identified as perpetrators of violence, traffickers and aggressors through racist policing strategies. Third parties associated with sex workers — such as family members or employers who advertise services, translate, or screen clients for safety — are already criminalized under current laws. If Bill S-224 passes, these essential support figures will risk human trafficking charges and up to 14 years in prison. Without their networks, sex workers will be pushed underground into dangerous and vulnerable conditions.

Many other industries will feel the effects of this Bill as well. By drastically expanding the definition of exploitation, many situations could lead to a trafficking charge. Meaningfully addressing labour exploitation and abuse requires a clearer understanding of the underlying issues. These harms are rooted in unfair labour, gender, and class relations and a web of discriminatory laws and policies, and should be addressed through labour protections — not by casting the net of criminalization even wider.

We urge the government to reject Bill S-224 and adopt a human rights-based approach to the violence and exploitation faced by the communities that centres labour rights, migrant rights, and sex workers’ rights. Effective strategies must address structural barriers that lead to exploitation and abuse, including poverty, precarious immigration status, and lack of access to affordable housing, healthcare, and social services- particularly the barriers racialized communities, migrants and LGBTQ2s+ communities experience in accessing these vital resources.

We urgent the federal government to:

• Reject Bill S-224 in its entirety.
• Fully decriminalize sex work by removing all sex work specific criminal offences.
• Remove immigration regulations prohibiting migrants from working in the sex industry.
• Stop surveillance, raids, detention, and deportations of all sex workers, including the disproportionate targeting of queer and trans, Black, Indigenous, racialized and migrant sex workers.
• Support non-carceral forms of safety such as decent work, healthcare, and housing for all.
• Ensure full and permanent immigration status for all in Canada, without exception.
• Invest in grassroots communities so they can support each other.

The following organizations have signed the statement as well as committed to stand in solidarity and fight against Bill S-224:

Aangen: A Community Service Organization

AESHA Project – University of British Columbia

Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights

Action Santé Travesti(e)s et Transsexuel(le)s du Québec

AIDS Committee of Ottawa

ANSWER Society

Asian Canadian Labour Alliance

Asian Community AIDS Services (ACAS)

AWCCA Program at George Brown College

Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic

BC Civil Liberties Association

Bureau Of Power And Light

Butterfly (Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network)

BWSS Battered Women’s Support Services

Canadian Labour Congress

Canadian Women’s Foundation

Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity – University of British Columbia

Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples

Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic

Coalition des organismes communautaires québécois de lutte contre le sida

Collaborative Community Solutions

COCQ-SIDA

Cooperativo Da Vida

Decent Work and Health Network

DisAbled Women’s Network of Canada||Réseau d’action des femmes handicapées du Canada

Downsview Community Legal Services

Egale Canada

Elizabeth Fry Toronto

Embrave: Agency to End Violence

Émissaire

Eri Maestro/Migrante Canada

Family Service Toronto

Filipinas of HamOnt

Friends of Chinatown Toronto

Hamilton Asian Alliance

Hamilton Social Medicine Response Team (HAMSMaRT)

Healing For Everybody

HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario (HALCO)

HIV Legal Network

Hope 24/7

IAVGO Community Legal Clinic

Independent Jewish Voices – Toronto and York Region Chapter

International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific

Jane Finch Action Against Poverty

Justice fo Migrant Workers (J4MW)

Justice for Workers

Justice for Workers Guelph

JusticeTrans

Kareem Ibrahim Law

La Dauphine

Legal Clinic of Guelph and Wellington

Maggie’s SWAP

Migrant Sex Workers Project

Migrant Workers Alliance for Change

Mississauga Community Legal Services

Muslim alliance for sexual and gender diversity MASGD

No Pride in Policing Coalition

No More Silence

OCASI | Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants

Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC)

OPIRG Toronto

PACE society

Parkdale Community Legal Services

Peterborough AIDS Resource Network

Pivot Legal Society

Policing-Free Schools

Pozitive Pathways Community Service

Queer Ontario

Red Umbrella Sweden

RÉZO

S4 Collective

Safe Harbour Outreach Project (SHOP)

Safe Works Access Program (SWAP) – St. John’s

Sex Professionals of Canada

Sex Work Population Project

Sex Workers Advisory Network of Sudbury

Sex Workers’ Action Network of Waterloo Region

Shift (SafeLink Alberta)

Showing Up for Racial Justice – Toronto

Showing Up for Racial Justice Saskatoon – Treaty Six

SJSWC Margaurites Place

Society of Queer Momentum

South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario

South Asian Women’s Centre

SRHR Hubs

St. John’s Status of Women Council

Safe Harbour Outreach Project

St. John’s Women’s Centre

Social Planning Toronto

Stella, l’amie de Maimie

Stepping Stone Association

Streetworks

Students for Queer Liberation

Sudbury Workers Education and Advocacy Centre

Sustainable Mississauga

SWAN Waterloo Region

SWAP Hamilton

SWAPY Yukon

Table des organismes communautaires montréalais de lutte contre le VIH/sida (TOMS)

The 519

The Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies

Transnational Law and Racial Justice Network

Trellis HIV & Community Care

University of British Columbia – Division of Social Medicine

Vivimos Juntxs, Comemos Juntxs

West Coast LEAF

Wisdom2Action

Women’s Centre for Social Justice, o/a WomenatthecentrE

Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF)

Women’s Shelters Canada | Hébergement femmes Canada

Work Safe Twerk Safe

Workers’ Action Centre

York University Critical Trafficking and Sex Work Studies Cluster

Yukon Status of Women Council

YWCA Toronto

Media Statement:

Amendments to the Expungement Act: Liberals Once Again Pay Lip Service to Equality

March 8, 2023 – On the day before International Women’s Day, this government yet again failed to recognize this country’s most marginalized women working in the sex industry. Yesterday, Public Safety Canada announced that it was making amendments to the Expungement of Historically Unjust Convictions Act, which came into force in 2018 and created a procedure for the expungement (permanent destruction) of historically unjust records of convictions. The Schedule to the Act was expanded to include abortion-related, bawdy house, and related indecency-based offences as eligible for expungement. As the government claimed, this move is an “important step towards righting historical wrongs.”

However, the amendments explicitly exclude people charged with these laws in the context of prostitution and the exchange of sex for money, even though the bawdy house laws for the purposes of prostitution (then section 210 of the Criminal Code) was struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2013. These prostitution offences disproportionately impact women.

The exclusion of sex workers from this equality-seeking remedy is a direct contradiction to the concern that this government feigns for sex workers. The Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCPEA) is based on claims that sex workers are victims, and that these laws shelter sex workers from the effects of criminalization, including the harmful impacts of having a criminal record. Current and past governments have acknowledged the harms of having a criminal record, including the inability to obtain employment, restrictions on mobility, keeping women in poverty, and, they claim, in prostitution. Yet, this move to exclude women with prostitution-related charges from expunging their criminal records is the exact thing that continues to limit mobility and economic and employment options for sex workers.

2SLGBTQ organizers agree. Long-time queer activist and author of the Canadian War on Queers, Gary Kinsman states, “This is a major discriminatory exclusion against all sex workers and people accused of or associated with sex work in terms of bawdy house charges. It is an attack on sex workers and an attempt to break the major coalitions between queer and trans activists and sex workers!”

Historian and researcher Tom Hooper adds, “The Liberals went out of their way to exclude sex workers, and in the process, they excluded all the men arrested in the bath raids. None of them will qualify for record expungement. Sex work was part of the allegations police made in the baths.”

This government needs to get its story straight: either they are concerned about sex workers’ ability for social and economic mobility, or they simply want to find every opportunity to curb and disrespect sex workers’ human rights.

Cherry-picking which communities are entitled to record expungements is a classic Liberal move to maintain certain communities in disadvantage. Blatantly excluding sex workers from this effort to free people from the discrimination that results from criminal charges attached to these laws – laws deemed unjust by the country’s highest court itself – highlights the hypocrisy of this government when they claim they want to protect and liberate people working in the sex industry.

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For comment contact@sexworklawreform.com or 514-916-2598