Justice committee  As I said, the case law comes to very different conclusions. We have conflicting results, and I've explained that already, but maybe I can note, as you'll likely recall, that during the study of Bill C-36 some parliamentarians did express their view that Parliament isn't precluded from imposing limits on where and how the sex trade may be conducted.

Justice committee  We did partner with the crime statistics division of Statistics Canada to do the Juristat. A Juristat was done just prior to the enactment of C-36 for a comparison. Soon we will be releasing a report on the experiences and characteristics of those who were served by the organizations that received the funding that was attached to Bill C-36.

Justice committee  All Nordic approaches aimed to end the sex trade. That is because they view the sex trade as a form of discrimination against women and girls and a problem for their equality. So yes, that is one of the objectives, but I think Nordic model supporters would tell you that it's very different from a prohibitionist model in the sense that the Nordic model posits that there is a power imbalance between the person who purchases and the person who provides sexual services, and that power imbalance is recognized by not using the criminal law against people who provide their own sexual services.

Justice committee  I tried to give an overview of the relevant data that speaks to all of this, including the Juristat from Statistics Canada and the jurisprudence. We have numbers for charges under each offence that can be reviewed in the Juristat itself. I think that the Juristat could be very helpful to this committee in assessing the impact of Bill C-36.

Justice committee  No, but I could speak to the charter jurisprudence, if that could help.

Justice committee  The constitutionality of the sex trade offences has been and remains before courts. Some of these offences have been assessed for charter compliance at the trial level in the context of prosecutions. In particular, the material benefit, the procuring and the advertising offences have been considered, with conflicting results.

Justice committee  There is a range of different legal regimes applicable to the sex trade that have been implemented around the world. The prevailing debate, though, internationally, concerns whether decriminalization or the Nordic model best addresses the risks associated with involvement in the sex trade.

Justice committee  I've already gone over the available data for the committee for members' information, but I'd be very happy to speak to the bill's objectives, which are, of course, articulated in its preamble as well as in the parliamentary record, which includes the Department of Justice's technical paper on Bill C-36, because it was tabled before both committees that studied that bill.

Justice committee  I can really speak to you only about the knowledge that we have right now. Safety issues were front and centre when Parliament was considering Bill C-36. Parliament, back then, acknowledged that some people choose to engage in sex work and that that's likely to continue to be the case, even in a regime that's designed to end the sex trade.

Justice committee  I believe that's an enforcement issue. We know from the jurisprudence, which I can speak to, that there are reported cases. Considering the advertising offence, it's most often charged alongside the material benefit and the procuring offence in cases in which people are procuring or profiting from others' sexual services.

Justice committee  The research shows that due to colonization and intersecting factors of marginalization, indigenous women and girls are disproportionately represented among those who are involved in the sex trade or who are trafficked for sexual exploitation. Individual groups representing indigenous interests and individuals as well have very different perspectives on the impact of the laws.

Justice committee  I would like to make a few comments on the data that we have on the sex trade. It comes from a range of different sources, including social sciences, criminal justice statistics, and of course jurisprudence interpreting relevant offences. The available social science evidence in Canada and internationally tells us about the groups that it studies.

Justice committee  Yes, there are, for sure. There's the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform matter. The Attorney General of Canada is responding to that. I didn't get to the next part of my data, if you'd like to hear about that. The studies that I referred to focus on individuals who identify as sex workers.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the opportunity to speak to criminal coercive control offences, which criminalize a pattern of conduct that serves to entrap the victim who is a current or former intimate partner of the accused and thus eliminate their sense of freedom. A broad range of coercive and controlling conduct may be employed, but the focus is on how the pattern of that conduct serves to subjugate, not the individual incidents by which an abuser has exercised control.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for that referral. I'm not sure how much time I have, but I'm here today to speak to what I know the committee is interested in, which is existing criminal coercive control legislation that's in place in various jurisdictions. The U.K. is one of them. Is that something that you would like to hear about?