Mr. Speaker, today we are discussing the bill introduced by the hon. member for Westminster--Coquitlam--Burnaby. If I am pleased to be able to speak today, it is essentially because I find the topic interesting, although mainly a cause for grave concern.
I must make it immediately clear, however, that I am far from being in favour of the bill in question. As we all know, prostitution has always been, and will continue to be, a highly controversial subject and one that involves some highly complex interests, values and problems.
As I was saying, the merit of my colleague's bill is that it offers us as legislators an opportunity to ask ourselves some serious questions on this issue. We must admit that the federal government's inaction, or at least its slowness to act, has encouraged others to find solutions to the problem surrounding the world's oldest profession. Canadian law, on the contrary, has lent to prostitution a status of semi-legality, which has resulted in considerable confusion, for sex workers, police and the general public alike.
We all know that prostitution involves issues of feminism, individual freedom and public order. It always stirs up passionate debate.
When I read Bill C-304, however, which is aimed at amending the criminal code in order to make offences related to prostitution offences punishable by a maximum 10 year sentence, I am far from convinced that further criminalization of prostitution-related activities will solve all the problems surrounding it, particularly the impacts and consequences.
Prostitution is, of course, an international problem, and one addressed by many people before us. If there were one single and simple solution, everyone would have adopted it by now. But I am not convinced that this is the case. To quote the rather picturesque expression used by Diane Lavallée, president of the Conseil du statut de la femme du Québec, “When Mars and Jupiter look upon Earth, they do not see the same reality”.
For these reasons, and because the phenomenon of prostitution is a reality in Quebec as it is everywhere else, the leader of the Bloc Quebecois has asked three MPs to provide him with some proposals relating to the specific phenomenon of street prostitution. It is important to clarify that the problem lies mainly with street prostitution, because what is out of sight is somewhat out of mind.
Accordingly, in June 2000, the members for Saint-Bruno--Saint-Hubert and Hochelaga--Maisonneuve and I launched an extensive consultation of community organizations, spokespersons for sex workers, members of the Catholic Church, police officers, and many other stakeholders.
Naturally, our consultation was limited to the Montreal and Quebec City area, and even my riding of Longueuil. In fact, though it may surprise some people, there is also street prostitution in Longueuil.
The assignment was complex but, at the same time, very inspiring. One thing is obvious and that is that indifference is not an option, because prostitution affects our children, our sisters, our brothers, our neighbours, our lives. The causes of prostitution are as numerous as they are varied and, consequently, it would be utopian to look for a complete solution to the problem.
I therefore wonder about the purpose of the bill introduced by the member and on what exactly he is relying in saying that a sentence of up to ten years' imprisonment would solve the problem of prostitution.
It must not be forgotten that prostitution in itself is not illegal. The criminal code is somewhat vague, because it is the activities associated with prostitution which are illegal. The problem lies in when prostitution is allowed, and under what conditions.
We—the committee—therefore decided to develop certain possible solutions, which we put forward. I wish to take the opportunity of this debate to tell the House about them.
The most important involves decriminalizing, for a period of five years, action related to prostitution, specifically the sections of the criminal code having to do with keeping a bawdy-house, procuring, and sexual services. At the end of that period, the federal government, the provinces and the municipalities would conduct an exhaustive evaluation of the effects of this temporary decriminalization.
In this way, municipalities could be given responsibility for putting in place a framework for the exercise of prostitution by setting up an organization responsible for drawing up regulations and enforcing them.
However, since people who engage in prostitution are often addicted to drugs, the committee also recommended to include additional resources to fight drug dependency. To this end, the federal government will have to make available to the provinces a fund to help and support drug addicts.
Finally, one of the last important factors is the status of sex trade workers. In order for the decriminalization of prostitution and its regulatory framework to be truly effective, we must go further in the recognition of the rights and citizenship of these workers. Therefore, the various governments would have to amend the various legislation that would promote such a recognition.
These are essentially the solutions we can envision. However, hon. members are certainly aware that the Bloc Quebecois is not alone to have examined this issue. Many other reports have been published.
In 1985, the Fraser committee concluded that even though most were opposed to increased criminalization of prostitution and its related activities, a large number supported measures to alleviate their nuisance aspects.
The same committee concluded its analysis with the following observation: the problem of prostitution cannot be solved through isolated criminal provisions. On the contrary, we must ensure that all the provisions dealing with prostitution are part of a systematic set. The committee examined three strategies to fight prostitution: criminalization, decriminalization and regulation.
Another report on prostitution was tabled in December 1998 by a federal-provincial-territorial working group, which also concluded that the criminalization of prostitution, or the activities surrounding it, was not an appropriate solution.
The approaches that seem to receive unanimous support are those involving social measures, because it must be realized that there are many factors leading to prostitution, such as drug addiction, poverty, human misery, precarious jobs and so on.
Yes, we must regulate prostitution and ban it in certain areas and under certain conditions, but we must also help sex workers walk away from that trade by providing them with adequate tools and a proper environment. It is not by increasing jail penalties that we will eliminate this plague.
I humbly hope that I have demonstrated this.