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https://www.calgaryherald.com/news/...d+pursue+johns+prostitutes/9468321/story.html
While waiting for clarity from Ottawa, provincial justice officials have found inspiration in Stockholm.
Alberta Justice announced Tuesday it is directing prosecutors to continue bringing cases against men who buy sex from prostitutes, but the new protocol says pursuing charges against sex trade workers is “generally not in the public interest.”
The provincial directive is in response to last December’s Supreme Court of Canada ruling striking down prostitution-related provisions in the Criminal Code — and similar to a law enacted by Sweden in 1999.
“I don’t feel it’s in the best interest of people exploited in the sex trade to operate in a vacuum where there’s no law,” Justice Minister Jonathan Denis said.
The so-called “Nordic model” first employed in Sweden, and later adopted by Norway and Iceland, makes it a crime to buy sex, but it’s not an offence to sell sexual services. The approach is based on the premise all forms of prostitution are exploitative; the law is intended to deter men from buying sex without criminalizing people involved in the sex trade.
Denis said Alberta’s direction isn’t a copy of the Nordic model, but agreed it follows the same principle.
“Charging (sex trade workers) with prostitution or prostitution-related offences victimizes them twice,” he said.
While Alberta has adopted the principles of the Nordic model, there’s debate about whether it has actually decreased prostitution in countries such as Sweden or simply driven it out of view.
Meanwhile, there are countries such as the Netherlands and New Zealand that believe sex work is a legitimate occupation and regulate it.
Although exchanging sex for money isn’t illegal in Canada, the Criminal Code has provisions against soliciting for sex, living off the earnings of prostitutes and keeping a brothel.
Three Ontario sex workers took a constitutional challenge all the way to the Supreme Court, successfully arguing the laws force prostitution underground and violate their Charter right to “life, liberty and security of the person.”
Parliament has one year from the Dec. 20 ruling to come up with new provisions.
Federal Justice Minister Peter MacKay said this week the government has begun drafting new legislation and will introduce it well before the deadline.
While amending the Criminal Code is the federal government’s responsibility, administration of justice is a provincial jurisdiction.
Provincial officials didn’t have a precise number of defendants facing prosecution for prostitution-related offence, but Alberta Justice said there are 400 charges currently in the system that are affected by the Supreme Court ruling.
The Alberta Trial Lawyers’ Association, one of two groups representing the province’s defence bar, has urged the province to stay the existing cases in light of the Supreme Court judgment.
“You wonder why they would still prosecute — the law is unconstitutional,” said D’Arcy DePoe, past-president of the association.
Continuing to prosecute the existing cases and charging additional people under the law as it’s written now will further clog up the province’s congested criminal courts, said DePoe.
“Someone who’s charged under the same law will simply file a (Charter) application to have the charge stayed,” he said.
Julie Kaye, a Calgary researcher who studies human trafficking, said the province’s move won’t have a dramatic effect in Calgary because police are already focused on charging johns and trying to get prostitutes into programs that help them exit the sex trade.
Kaye, an adviser to the Action Coalition on Human Trafficking in Alberta, said a large part of the Nordic model is based on providing adequate supports for people leaving the sex trade, in addition to the legal component.
Enacting laws without the accompanying social programs for the people affected won’t solve the problem, Kaye said.
“Those who are going to exploit others and act violently are less likely to be law-abiding anyway. It could cause them to go deeper underground,” she said.
https://www.calgaryherald.com/news/...d+pursue+johns+prostitutes/9468321/story.html
While waiting for clarity from Ottawa, provincial justice officials have found inspiration in Stockholm.
Alberta Justice announced Tuesday it is directing prosecutors to continue bringing cases against men who buy sex from prostitutes, but the new protocol says pursuing charges against sex trade workers is “generally not in the public interest.”
The provincial directive is in response to last December’s Supreme Court of Canada ruling striking down prostitution-related provisions in the Criminal Code — and similar to a law enacted by Sweden in 1999.
“I don’t feel it’s in the best interest of people exploited in the sex trade to operate in a vacuum where there’s no law,” Justice Minister Jonathan Denis said.
The so-called “Nordic model” first employed in Sweden, and later adopted by Norway and Iceland, makes it a crime to buy sex, but it’s not an offence to sell sexual services. The approach is based on the premise all forms of prostitution are exploitative; the law is intended to deter men from buying sex without criminalizing people involved in the sex trade.
Denis said Alberta’s direction isn’t a copy of the Nordic model, but agreed it follows the same principle.
“Charging (sex trade workers) with prostitution or prostitution-related offences victimizes them twice,” he said.
While Alberta has adopted the principles of the Nordic model, there’s debate about whether it has actually decreased prostitution in countries such as Sweden or simply driven it out of view.
Meanwhile, there are countries such as the Netherlands and New Zealand that believe sex work is a legitimate occupation and regulate it.
Although exchanging sex for money isn’t illegal in Canada, the Criminal Code has provisions against soliciting for sex, living off the earnings of prostitutes and keeping a brothel.
Three Ontario sex workers took a constitutional challenge all the way to the Supreme Court, successfully arguing the laws force prostitution underground and violate their Charter right to “life, liberty and security of the person.”
Parliament has one year from the Dec. 20 ruling to come up with new provisions.
Federal Justice Minister Peter MacKay said this week the government has begun drafting new legislation and will introduce it well before the deadline.
While amending the Criminal Code is the federal government’s responsibility, administration of justice is a provincial jurisdiction.
Provincial officials didn’t have a precise number of defendants facing prosecution for prostitution-related offence, but Alberta Justice said there are 400 charges currently in the system that are affected by the Supreme Court ruling.
The Alberta Trial Lawyers’ Association, one of two groups representing the province’s defence bar, has urged the province to stay the existing cases in light of the Supreme Court judgment.
“You wonder why they would still prosecute — the law is unconstitutional,” said D’Arcy DePoe, past-president of the association.
Continuing to prosecute the existing cases and charging additional people under the law as it’s written now will further clog up the province’s congested criminal courts, said DePoe.
“Someone who’s charged under the same law will simply file a (Charter) application to have the charge stayed,” he said.
Julie Kaye, a Calgary researcher who studies human trafficking, said the province’s move won’t have a dramatic effect in Calgary because police are already focused on charging johns and trying to get prostitutes into programs that help them exit the sex trade.
Kaye, an adviser to the Action Coalition on Human Trafficking in Alberta, said a large part of the Nordic model is based on providing adequate supports for people leaving the sex trade, in addition to the legal component.
Enacting laws without the accompanying social programs for the people affected won’t solve the problem, Kaye said.
“Those who are going to exploit others and act violently are less likely to be law-abiding anyway. It could cause them to go deeper underground,” she said.
