OTTAWA, Canada – Despite strong opposition from sex-worker groups, on Tuesday Canada’s Conservative-dominated Parliament passed Bill C-36, an anti-prostitution law targeting johns instead of prostitutes.
The law passed by a vote of 156 to 124. All that remains is for C-36 to go through Canada’s appointed, Conservative-dominated Senate for one last perfunctory review, and then the law will be brought into force.
Bill C-36 replaces Canada’s old prostitution law, which the country’s Supreme Court struck down last year because it violated sex workers’ legal and human rights. Prostitution itself remains legal in Canada, as it always has been, but unlike the old law — which forbade prostitutes conveying a “sex for sale” message — the new law allows open communication but forbids purchasing the services. The approach is known as the Nordic Model because it was introduced in Sweden.
Bill C-36 largely ignores a critical issue the law supposedly was passed to address: Sex workers remain at risk because criminalizing their clients drives the trade even farther underground. With an election coming up in 2015, the moralistic tone of Bill C-36 is expected to play well with the Conservative-dominated government’s right-wing voter base.
Sex workers are debating seeking a judicial opinion about Bill C-36 in the hope the country’s Supreme Court will overturn the new law for the same reasons it tossed out previous anti-prostitution legislation.
