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Prostitution In Canada Essay

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Canada’s first prostitution laws were adopted from the English model that treated prostitution as a violation of public order. These laws criminalized various activities related to prostitution through the bawdy-house and vagrancy provision (Sondhi, 2011). In Canada, prostitution is de facto illegal and has never been de jure illegal. That is, prostitution per se is legal in Canada; however, laws forbid a number of activities associated with prostitution, thus making it impossible to engage in prostitution without breaking the law.
For example, the Criminal Code of Canada currently prohibits several prostitution-related activities, i.e., operating or being found in a bawdy-house, procuring an individual into prostitution, obtaining, or attempting …show more content…

(2014) argue that prohibiting the purchase of sex specifically violates s. 7 of the Charter Rights and Freedoms, i.e., the right to security of the person because it prohibits sex workers from taking preventative safety measures. Despite the objective of Bill C-36 to ‘protect’ women from male violence and exploitation, such provisions further endanger sex workers and limit their police protection that is contrary with the original intent of the bill (Walters, 2015). Moreover, criminalizing clients makes it more difficult and dangerous for sex workers to operate, because sex workers are forced to put themselves at risk in order to protect their clients. Secondly, s. 213 of Bill C-36 decriminalizes public communication for the purpose of prostitution with the exception of locations wherever anyone 18 years of age or younger could be present (Walters, 2015). This provision severely limits sex workers’ options for operating on the street. Not only does this provision force sex workers into isolated and dangerous areas due to its limitation of communicating in spaces. For instance, if a sex worker meets with a client without properly screening them, and she gets threatened or forced into engaging in sexual activity. If the sex worker was able to appropriately assess him, then she would not have been subjected to the physical or sexual abuse. This is just one example that illustrates that Bill C-36 fails to ensure the safety and security of women it intends to

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