Prostitution In Canada Essay

615 Words2 Pages

Prostitution has historically been the topic of moral and legal discussion. This was especially true under Canada’s former conservative government. Recently, however, there has been a greater focus on the legality of prostitution as a result of the election of liberal Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. The current legal position in Canada is outlined by the Nordic model of Bill C-36 which explains the illegality of selling sex work. The current law has many flaws, including the unclear explanation of a sexual service, and does not help to protect the basic human rights of the prostitutes. For the purpose of this paper, prostitution involves women selling their bodies to men although there are many men who participate in the selling of their bodies …show more content…

In December of 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada took away existing laws surrounding a ban on having or being in a brothel, a ban on communicating in public about sexual acts for material benefits, namely money, and “living on the avails of prostitution” (Wingrove, 2014). Therefore, one of the reasons the bill was implemented was that there would be no bill that dealt with sex work otherwise. The focus of the bill was theoretically on criminalizing those who buy others’ sexual services. Bill C-36 also made it illegal to receive material benefits from someone else selling their body for sexual service. However, the exception was that an individual may sell their own body for material benefit as long as it complied with the jurisdictions and other stipulations outlined by the bill (Wingrove, 2014). Additionally, any knowing advertisement of sexual services by a third party is prohibited under the law and there is a sentence of up to ten years for such a crime (Wingrove, 2014). The bill generally focuses on criminalizing those who buy sex or receive material benefits from someone else selling their body for sex, excluding people who sell their own bodies. There is a problem with what constitutes a sexual service as well as the social stigma associated with being a prostitute that affects a person’s livelihood outside of sex

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