Ontario To Uphold Prostitution Law (Bill C-36)

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne made a statement Wednesday, saying that the province will uphold Canada’s controversial prostitution law (Bill C-36), introduced December 6th of last year.

“We will uphold the law. We’ll obviously monitor and determine the impact of the law, but there’s no clear unconstitutionality in the law,” said Wynne who had previously expressed her “grave concern” that the new legislation would endanger the lives and rights of sex workers. Her recent statement was made following a review of the constitutionality of C-36 by Ontario’s Attorney General, the Honourable Madeleine Meilleur.

“The legal opinion that was provided to me is privileged, so I’m not going to express every single detail that was in the legal opinion, but the importance to you is that it’s constitutionally sound.” – Madeleine Meilleur

Meilleur also confirmed that there are at least 26 cases before Ontario courts under the new law, which criminalized paying for sex, communicating for sex, or advertising sex services.

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Maggie’s – Toronto Sex Workers’ Action Project, and SPOC (Sex Professionals of Canada) issued a joint statement in response to Wynne’s comments, urging the Premier to refrain from enforcing the law:

This finding flies in the face of the December 2013 ruling in R. v. Bedford, in which the Supreme Court of Canada rightly upheld the human rights of sex workers. The new law is extremely similar to the old one, which was struck down by the Court as unconstitutional, and even further criminalizes sex work in some respects. More than 190 lawyers from across Canada have gone on record expressing their concerns with the law’s constitutionality (or lack thereof). It should also be noted that the Attorney General chose not to meet with sex workers and their allies while her review was underway, preferring not to hear from those on whose backs these laws will be tested. –SPOC PRESS RELEASE

Sex workers have consistently articulated the many ways in which criminalizing them, their clients and their work settings does nothing to protect them, but instead undermines their ability to control their conditions of work to protect their health and safety. The law ensures that harms to sex workers will continue, and is a terrible step backwards. –SPOC PRESS RELEASE