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.
At the Alberta Court of Appeal, we have the Kloubikov case in 2021. That case struck down the material benefit and procuring offences. Then in N.S., the Ontario Superior Court of Justice struck down all three provisions. Both decisions have been appealed, so they are before the Alberta and Ontario appellate courts. Also, in three 2021 decisions that were subsequent to the N.S. decision, the Ontario Superior Court found the N.S. decision plainly wrong and refused to allow it.
One of the main issues the court is grappling with is the scope of the material benefit and procuring offences, and in particular whether they capture sex worker co-operatives or sex workers who help each other. The parliamentary record, as I've said, indicates that these activities are not intended to be captured, but some decisions have found otherwise, so it's a live statutory interpretation issue that has to be resolved prior to assessing the provisions for charter compliance.
It's very difficult at this stage to answer your first question, when we're not even sure what the courts will say about the scope of the offences.