Prostitution In Canada

Prostitution in Canada §Contents§ ¨ Canada's Criminalization of Prostitution.

¨ Failure of Criminalization - Failure to protect prostitutes - Failure to protect public ¨ Why prostitution is staying criminalized ¨ Conclusions Canada's Criminalization of Prostitution Under Criminalization all forms of prostitution are criminalized in Canada. Prostitution has been criminalized because it is seen as having no social or moral values and because it is believed that prostitution is degrading to both the prostitute and the public that must witness them standing on the street corner. While the trend in other western countries has been to move away from criminal sanctions for prostitution, Canada has done the exact opposite. It has brought in a tougher anti-communication law (s. 213.) government committees and task forces have called for even tougher laws as well as more vigorous enforcement of the current legislation. In 1990 the Standing Committee on Justice recommended more strengthening of the laws including fingerprinting and photographing prostitutes and the removal of drivers licenses for those charged with communication for the purpose of prostitution.

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Prostitute talking to a potential customer in West...

Prostitute c.1890

The government has chosen enforce, rather than change the laws of prostitution. Equal application of the communication law (s. 213) was noted as a concern because prostitutes had both a higher arrest and sentencing rates than their customers.

This obviously means that prostitutes are being arrested more than their clients. This also means that s. 213 is not being properly enforced.

Both the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Justice, and the Wilson Task Force, were accompanied by poor ideas for providing job retraining and counseling programs for prostitutes (Realizing that prostitution is not a career people usually want, but simply a career chosen out of economic instability.) Yet the belief of both groups seems to be that prostitution must be "solved" through criminal sanctions instead...