BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN
A report released Tuesday by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network urges the federal government to decriminalize the practice of prostitution because current laws prevent sex workers from doing their jobs safely.
?The law in Canada makes it illegal for sex workers to work in ways that protect their health and safety,? says Glen Betteridge, a lawyer with the organization who spent two years consulting with sex workers before writing the report.
?Sex workers, under the current criminal prohibition on prostitution-related activities, don?t enjoy human rights that the rest of people in Canada take for granted, and in our view this has to change.?
Prostitution itself is actually legal in Canada, but there are laws against most of the practices surrounding it.
The report recommends repealing laws that prohibit communicating in public for the purposes of prostitution, operating a ?bawdy house? (a residence
regularly used for prostitution) or living off the avails of prostitution.
When prostitution was legalized in countries like New Zealand, there were many positive changes for sex workers, says Betteridge.
?In June 2003, New Zealand made sex work legal work and put in occupational health and safety protections for sex workers,? he says.
?Now sex workers who formerly worked in illegal massage parlours and escort services can work in ways that help protect their safety...They would have the right to refuse a client just in the same way factory workers have the right to refuse unsafe conditions.?
In Canada, prostitutes have to work quickly and furtively because they are under constant threat of arrest, and often don?t have the chance to refuse clients or insist they use condoms, says Betteridge.
This puts them at a higher risk of contracting HIV and becoming victims of violence, he says.
Before the federal election was called last month, there was a sub-committee of the House of Commons looking into decriminalizing the activities surrounding prostitution.
Their work was lost when parliament was dissolved.
?We?re calling during this election campaign on all the parties to say whether they respect full rights and protections for sex workers and whether they would decriminalize sex work if elected,? he says.
?It?s an important health issue and an important human rights issue.?
Const. Corinne Jutila of the Greater Sudbury Police Service doesn?t think much of Betteridge?s plans to decriminalize the activities surrounding prostitution.
She was one of the officers who planned a recent crackdown on prostitution in the city?s downtown core. Ten men and four women were arrested and charged with communicating for the purposes of prostitution.
?I?m totally opposed to (decriminalizing the practice of prostitution)...The laws that we deal with are mostly the communicate section. If that section was eliminated, we?d have absolutely no way of deterring this type of activity,? she says.
From the police officer?s experience, it would be hard to regulate sex trade workers and implement health and safety practices because most of them are addicted to drugs.
The Sudbury police are making arrests right now because sex workers are out in public places and bothering citizens, says Jutila.
They have also re-introduced a program called DISC (Deter and Identify Sex Trade Consumers).
Police will stop vehicles that are identified as frequenting areas where prostitution is prevalent, or those who stop and talk or pick up prostitutes, to discourage people from participating in the sex trade.
Back in the 90s, the Sudbury police had planned a program to get women out of the sex trade called Unhooked, but it was never implemented, says Jutila.
Betteridge is definitely missing the big picture, says Barb Garon, co-ordinator of the Sudbury Women?s Centre.
Instead of changing prostitution laws, we should make sure women never have to sell their bodies by eradicating violence and poverty and improving
access to drug and alcohol programs.
?Maybe they would have more access to health and safety in (Betteridge?s) world. We know that to make prostitution legal is almost like saying it?s a fully viable job. That turns Johns and pimps into businessmen,? says Garon.
The Sudbury police are doing the right thing by arresting Johns and pimps, she says.
?I think it?s more important to go after the people who are accessing the services. We then need to give alternatives to women that are forced to leave the trade.?
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