Special to National Post
The federal government is currently reviewing the laws governing one of society’s most controversial issues — sex work. It is time for Canada to decriminalize sex work between consenting adults.
The federal government is currently reviewing the laws governing one of society’s most controversial issues — sex work. It is time for Canada to decriminalize sex work between consenting adults.
In 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down provisions in the Criminal Code that criminalized sex work, only for those laws to be replaced shortly thereafter by the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA), which essentially does the same thing. PCEPA purports to protect vulnerable individuals, but instead unfairly punishes consenting adults for trying to make a living.
It is important to note that sex work, the commercial trade of sexual services for money or barter between adults, is categorically distinct from human trafficking, which is the commercial trade of human beings of all ages and genders for exploitative purposes.
Human trafficking can involve forced sexual labour, but also occurs in many other contexts, such as sweatshops, the illegal sale of infants to adoptive parents and organ harvesting. Alarmists across the political spectrum often conflate sex work with human trafficking, but the difference is stark. It is the difference between enslavement or indentured servitude and paid employment.
Here we come to the crux of the issue: slavery and indentured servitude, it goes without saying, are abominable and must be wiped out. Seeking to make a living by willingly selling services — however intimate, provided that both seller and buyer are adults with the full capacity for consent — many would argue, is a human right.
As a former social worker and longtime activist for human rights, I have had the privilege of meeting many sex workers, all of whom were resilient and resourceful individuals seeking to make the best of their economic circumstances, as all of us do.
Some were also brilliant businesspeople, primarily women and LGBT people from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds who used their bodies and brains to achieve a middle class standard of living — an opportunity that might have otherwise been denied to them. Many are raising and supporting families.
PCEPA is based on the so-called “Nordic model” adopted by some European countries, which claims to protect sex workers while punishing their clients by allowing for the independent sale of sexual services by an adult, while criminalizing the purchase of those services. Also criminalized are third parties who might facilitate the sale of sexual services, such as advertising platforms and escort agency agencies.
The idea that this protects sex workers is nonsense. Imagine trying to run a plumbing or hairdressing business in a country where everyone trying to hire a plumber or get a haircut was committing a criminal offence.
People would still get their toilets fixed and bangs trimmed, but it would be vastly more difficult for those who ply such trades to make a living. It would also make it more difficult for them to form honest business relationships and receive the same legal protections as everyone else takes for granted.
PCEPA has driven sex work into the shadows, endangering the very communities it claims to serve. Not only does it place sex workers in serious financial precarity, it makes it hard for them to change careers and prevents them from working together to improve their safety, since law enforcement may interpret this as selling another person’s sexual services. PCEPA also makes screening out potentially abusive clients far more challenging, because it makes them more reticent to provide identifying information.
It should go without saying that the law should prioritize the protection of children and vulnerable individuals. But women and children are forced to sew clothing for terrible wages all over the world. That does not mean that the garment industry should be criminalized. Instead, we should work to ensure that everyone’s human rights are protected.
We all deserve the right to make a living in the way we see fit, so long as our work doesn’t harm others. Sex workers are no exception.
National Post
Kai Cheng Thom is a writer and consultant based in Toronto. She holds a master’s degree in social work and a master’s degree in couple and family therapy from McGill University.
It is important to note that sex work, the commercial trade of sexual services for money or barter between adults, is categorically distinct from human trafficking, which is the commercial trade of human beings of all ages and genders for exploitative purposes.
Human trafficking can involve forced sexual labour, but also occurs in many other contexts, such as sweatshops, the illegal sale of infants to adoptive parents and organ harvesting. Alarmists across the political spectrum often conflate sex work with human trafficking, but the difference is stark. It is the difference between enslavement or indentured servitude and paid employment.
Here we come to the crux of the issue: slavery and indentured servitude, it goes without saying, are abominable and must be wiped out. Seeking to make a living by willingly selling services — however intimate, provided that both seller and buyer are adults with the full capacity for consent — many would argue, is a human right.
As a former social worker and longtime activist for human rights, I have had the privilege of meeting many sex workers, all of whom were resilient and resourceful individuals seeking to make the best of their economic circumstances, as all of us do.
Some were also brilliant businesspeople, primarily women and LGBT people from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds who used their bodies and brains to achieve a middle class standard of living — an opportunity that might have otherwise been denied to them. Many are raising and supporting families.
PCEPA is based on the so-called “Nordic model” adopted by some European countries, which claims to protect sex workers while punishing their clients by allowing for the independent sale of sexual services by an adult, while criminalizing the purchase of those services. Also criminalized are third parties who might facilitate the sale of sexual services, such as advertising platforms and escort agency agencies.
The idea that this protects sex workers is nonsense. Imagine trying to run a plumbing or hairdressing business in a country where everyone trying to hire a plumber or get a haircut was committing a criminal offence.
People would still get their toilets fixed and bangs trimmed, but it would be vastly more difficult for those who ply such trades to make a living. It would also make it more difficult for them to form honest business relationships and receive the same legal protections as everyone else takes for granted.
PCEPA has driven sex work into the shadows, endangering the very communities it claims to serve. Not only does it place sex workers in serious financial precarity, it makes it hard for them to change careers and prevents them from working together to improve their safety, since law enforcement may interpret this as selling another person’s sexual services. PCEPA also makes screening out potentially abusive clients far more challenging, because it makes them more reticent to provide identifying information.
It should go without saying that the law should prioritize the protection of children and vulnerable individuals. But women and children are forced to sew clothing for terrible wages all over the world. That does not mean that the garment industry should be criminalized. Instead, we should work to ensure that everyone’s human rights are protected.
We all deserve the right to make a living in the way we see fit, so long as our work doesn’t harm others. Sex workers are no exception.
National Post
Kai Cheng Thom is a writer and consultant based in Toronto. She holds a master’s degree in social work and a master’s degree in couple and family therapy from McGill University.
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