Thank you, Mr. Wallace, and thank you to the committee for inviting me to speak.
Thank you as well to Ed and Linda Smith for sharing from your personal tragedy.
I began my career as a youth worker in 1984. One of the first young people I worked with hitchhiked away from her small town in British Columbia and her broken home life there and was forced into prostitution on the streets of Edmonton at 12 years old.
Since that time I've walked alongside countless young people as they have broken free from prostitution. I've designed and overseen outreach programs and support groups for those who have been trapped in that lifestyle. In my work I've had the opportunity to study and understand the workings of the Canadian sex trade. I speak from personal observations that I've made in my work both in Ontario and British Columbia. This is real-world experience that spans three decades.
I've observed that when young women and men remain involved in prostitution or connected with the street culture, they commonly view prostitution as normal. Given the opportunity to distance themselves from that lifestyle, the vast majority shift to an abhorrent view of the sex trade, recognizing it as extremely harmful. This phenomena must be considered as we listen to witnesses who represent current prostitutes, and therefore we should pay particular attention to former prostitutes who have distanced themselves from the street and progressed on their journeys of healing. These women have a much greater perspective.
I'm a supporter of Bill C-36 and I'm not fully satisfied with it in its current state. The preamble of the bill creates a long-overdue paradigm shift. It helps Canadians from all walks of life to view the prostitute from a well-informed perspective. She is worthy of dignity and those who would seek to exploit her are in the wrong. It clarifies that the protection of an exploited person needs to be the priority.
Then Bill C-36 addresses the buyer, the client, as one who perpetuates the processes of an industry that destroys young lives. I applaud the bold move to make buying sex illegal in Canada. I support the government in its recognition that the exploitation of minors is inseparable from the adult sex industry. In Canada right now a high demand for paid sex creates business opportunities for human traffickers. Their most common prey is female and under 18 years of age.
I agree with the added protections Bill C-36 will give to these young people, including those at risk of exploitation by the production and distribution of child pornography. If it is a priority to safeguard Canadian young people against the horrors of the sex trade, you must pass Bill C-36, but there are some important changes that need to be done.
As it stands, Bill C-36 can be expected to create a modest decrease in the demand for paid sex. Given the level of violence perpetrated against countless young people, more than a modest response is warranted. The effectiveness of Canada's new prostitution laws will be borne out in the hands of our police agencies and in our courts. Right now Bill C-36 to some degree actually plays into the hands of human traffickers, and I'll explain how that is.
The Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional soliciting in public, running a brothel, and living off the avails of prostitution. It's important that these provisions remain in place, yet Bill C-36, with some limitations, legalizes all three.
While the intention is to protect the interests of the victims in the sex trade, it actually creates some opportunities for pimps and buyers to continue to operate with a low risk of being criminally prosecuted. Under the proposed laws, the prostitute will be allowed to solicit in public. Since the buyer, who also solicits in public, will be an easy caller, street prostitution if controlled by police enforcement will only continue to decrease.
Under the proposed laws, the prostitute will be allowed to operate a brothel. The challenge for a seller of sex would be to decrease the likelihood of police interference with the buyer. In-call prostitution would move out of the hotels and more and more into residential neighbourhoods where you and I raise our families. Paid sex in massage parlours will probably remain very strong. It may in fact increase. Out-call prostitution will flourish.
These changes would protect the buyer, but not the prostitute. As a result, the demand for paid sex will remain very strong. That is counter to the objectives of Bill C-36, and we must not allow that. Under the proposed laws, living off the avails of prostitution will be legal within certain parameters. Human traffickers will claim status as roommates, as common-law husbands. In terms of their business involvement, they will claim to be no more than drivers or bodyguards. They will in reality still control the minute-by-minute movements of the prostitute. This will actually strengthen the position of the pimp because he will be more difficult to prosecute. That, too, goes against the objectives of the bill. We must not allow that.
Two weeks ago a detailed study by Max Waltman at Stockholm University was published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender. The purpose of the study was to assess evidence arguments and inequality in Bedford v. Canada. Mr. Waltman writes:
This article assesses the evidence relied on by courts to strike down the laws, finding that evidence was misrepresented and misevaluated, thus did not support their decision. By invalidating these provisions, Canada will expose prostituted people to predators while protecting their exploiters. Their decisions overturn previous precedents that shielded prostituted people from abusive pimps, and violate Canada’s commitment to promote equality among historically disadvantaged people, ....
As it stands, Bill C-36 heads us in a very positive direction, and its major flaws can easily be rectified, at least from my layman's perspective as a youth worker. There's a very strong move to ban all manner of advertisements for prostitution. If you allow the prostitute to advertise herself, she will do that, and in a high percentage of cases she will do that because she is being forced to make money for her pimp. We will see at best a small decrease in such advertising, but you can expect the advertisements will become even more explicit.
Ladies and gentlemen, there are countless teenage girls and young women being trafficked right now in Canada's sex trade. Some will die in the commission of prostitution activities. Many more will die by causes linked to prostitution. All will be profoundly harmed.
If you wish to significantly decrease prostitution in Canada, and the violence that accompanies it, you will need to remove the immunity for prosecution of the prostitute and you'll need to keep the present definition of “common bawdy house”, including in that definition that it is a place that is kept for the purpose of prostitution. Doing so will most effectively serve the interests of those who are exploited and in harm's way. These necessary adjustments will not forfeit the wonderful work of people like MP Joy Smith who have brought the abolitionist ideology to the forefront of discussion.
The intent of the legislation, as stated in the preamble, emphasizes those clear objectives. This approach should reasonably satisfy the many who seek legislation patterned after the Nordic model and still give those who enforce the laws the tools to accomplish those objectives.
Give us a Canadian model of prostitution legislation, but one that will be effective in stemming the demand for paid sex, thereby saving our young people from human trafficking.