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Prostitution in Canada Forum
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Wendy
 Nov 10, 07 - 7:43 PM |
Anti Prostitution Laws are Tougher on Sex Workers
Anti-prostitution law tougher on sex workers By PATRICIA BROOKS ARENBURG Staff Reporter Sat. Nov 3 - 8:10 AM When Section 213 of the Criminal Code came into effect in 1985, it was supposed to help curb prostitution by making it more difficult for people to buy sex. But 22 years later, the world’s oldest profession is still making headlines. The Criminal Code of Canada states that anyone caught communicating for the purposes of engaging in prostitution or of obtaining the sexual services of a prostitute — in a car, on a sidewalk, or on the street, in public or in public view — is guilty of a summary offence. As a summary offence, however, the penalties generally include fines, probation and adult diversion programs, such as john school for clients or School 213 for prostitutes. John school is only available to first-time offenders and once completed, the sworn court document containing the prostitution-related charge is withdrawn. Although many johns get a chance to wipe the slate clean, it’s often a different story for the prostitutes. A December 2006 report on Canada’s prostitution laws by the standing committee on justice and human rights states that female prostitutes charged often end up with criminal records, while their male customers are often let off with little or no penalty. In 2003-04, the report states that 68 per cent of women charged under Section 213 were found guilty, while 70 per cent of charges against men were stayed or withdrawn. In 2005, there were approximately 36,000 incidents of crime reported to police in Halifax Regional Municipality, according to a Nova Scotia Justice Department fact sheet. Of those, about 105 led to charges for street-level prostitution offences. In 2006, approximately 50 prostitution-related charges were laid. "And the reason for the drop in the number in 2006 is the (vice) unit was dealing with a number of other issues last year," said Const. Jeff Carr, a Halifax Regional Police spokesman. So far this year, police in HRM have laid about 75 prostitution charges. Separate figures for arrests for prostitutes versus johns were not available Friday. "We do make attempts to target both, but the number of prostitutes charged as opposed to johns would be higher because once again it involves a little more complicated operation to target (johns)," Const. Carr said. "We basically need an undercover officer when we’re targeting johns, something we don’t require when we’re targeting prostitutes." The standing committee was also told that prostitutes also often face further charges and more serious punish-ment by failing to show up for court or returning to the stroll. "It usually wouldn’t end up with a serious sanction, a prison sentence, if somebody was convicted of simply communicating for the purposes," Ann Pollack of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association told the committee. "But after you add on all the breaches of area restriction and failure to attend court, you have all these crimes of process heaped on top of what was a simple offence to begin with, and now somebody is looking at jail time." Toronto police detective Howard Page told the committee that "there’s a large double standard, in the sense that I don’t believe sex-trade workers should receive incarceration periods from the judicial system when we have johns buying their way out of any form of criminal record." |
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