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November 13, 2014

Canada Sex Work Bill C-36 Signed Into Law

LOS ANGELES—Despite the fact that conservatives and liberals both had expressed disdain for C-36, Canadian Justice Minister Peter MacKay's ill-conceived legislation that made the sale of sex legal but kept illegal "many other aspects of the prostitution trade, including 'communicating for the sale of sexual services'—that is, interactions between prostitutes, johns, and pimps," as reported by Newsweek—the bill was signed into law last week. As summarized on the Canadian Parliament website: This enactment amends the Criminal Code to, among other things, (a) create an offence that prohibits purchasing sexual services or communicating in any place for that purpose; (b) create an offence that prohibits receiving a material benefit that derived from the commission of an offence referred to in paragraph (a); (c) create an offence that prohibits the advertisement of sexual services offered for sale and to authorize the courts to order the seizure of materials containing such advertisements and their removal from the Internet; (d) modernize the offence that prohibits the procurement of persons for the purpose of prostitution; (e) create an offence that prohibits communicating—for the purpose of selling sexual services—in a public place, or in any place open to public view, that is or is next to a school ground, playground or daycare centre; (f) ensure consistency between prostitution offences and the existing human trafficking offences; and (g) specify that, for the purposes of certain offences, a weapon includes any thing used, designed to be use or intended for use in binding or tying up a person against their will. The enactment also makes consequential amendments to other Acts. As previously reported by AVN, sex workers and grassroots organizations providing support for Canadian sex workers had testified before Parliament against the bill, which, if passed, "would erase all of the gains for Canadian sex workers that were provisionally realized as a result of last year's Supreme Court ruling in Canada v Bedford..." A more salacious development at the time was the warning by Canadian dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford that if the law were passed, "I’m going to make you guys forget about Mike Duffy, because I’ve got more information and more proof on politicians in this country than you can shake a stick at, I promise." Hopefully, that is one promise that is kept.

 
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