Proposed law raises danger of sex work, MPs warned

OTTAWA — In 2011, Ottawa police took the unprecedented step of publicly warning sex workers to take extra precautions because of concerns that a serial killer was targeting prostitutes.

That advice — to work in groups or pairs in well-lit areas and carefully screen customers — will be much more difficult for sex workers to follow under proposed federal legislation, the head of a group representing Ottawa prostitutes told the House of Commons justice committee Tuesday.

“Bill C-36 will put sex workers at increased risk of violence,” said Emily Symons, who chairs a group called Prostitutes of Ottawa-Gatineau Work Educate and Resist (POWER).

Symons said john sweeps and other efforts to move street prostitutes out of neighbourhoods do not reduce the sex trade, but often make the work more difficult.

Some Ottawa-area prostitutes work full-time, on the street or indoors; others work just until they have made enough money to cover bills, she said. “Sex workers will do sex work when their oven breaks down, when they have bills to pay.”

Her organization would like to see Canada follow New Zealand’s example and legalize prostitution, which Symons believes would help create safer working conditions, answering concerns raised by the Supreme Court of Canada when it struck down existing laws last year.

“We envision a world in which people freely choose to do sex work or not to do sex work, and those who choose to can do so safely.”

She also said she would like to see more social supports for those who choose sex work so they are free of harassment or fear of arrest.

Symons’s concerns that the new law would push sex work farther underground, making it more dangerous, have been echoed by others representing sex workers.

But in contrast to those voices, the committee has also heard from people who hope new laws will help eradicate prostitution in Canada.

Calgary Police Chief Rick Hanson, who also testified Tuesday, said Canadian policy should be the “complete abolition of prostitution, and passing Bill C-36 is required in order for us to reach this goal.”

He said Canada needs a national strategy including significantly more money than the $20 million allocated in the bill to help people exit prostitution.

Hanson also said police should use provisions in the bill to arrest prostitutes to help direct them toward other options and “extract” themselves from sex work.