Image via WikipediaHalifax hosts groundbreaking conference on Canada's sex tradeGlobal Maritimes: Friday, May 27, 2011 3:13 PM
An Ontario Supreme Court ruling last year could pave the way for decriminalization or legalization of prostitiution in Canada. Stepping Stone, a support group for sex workers in Nova Scotia, and Mount Saint Vincent University hosted a conference debating the issue.
HALIFAX - nk" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_worker" rel="wikipedia" title="Sex worker">Sex workers may see their trade legalized if an Ontario Supreme Court ruling, declaring Canada’s prostitution laws unconstitutional, holds.
Three sex trade workers successfully argued against the laws last September, but the outcome of an appeal hearing next month could pave the way for prostitution to be decriminalized, or even legal, across the country.
The argument for decriminalizing the sex trade industry was the focus of a groundbreaking conference - titled Green Light, Red Light: Regulating the Sex Trade in Halifax - hosted by a local support and advocacy group, Friday
Stepping Stone has been working with former and active sex workers in Nova Scotia since 1985 and in that time 18 women in the province, known to be working in the trade, have been murdered or gone missing.
“Everybody has a voice, says Stepping Stone executive director Rene Ross, “and we’re not going to do anything about the violence in our community unless we come together to hear everybody.”
Violence against sex workers has increased in recent years, Ross adds.
The laws don’t forbid exchanging sex for money, just all of the other activities that surround the transaction.
That’s what often forces sex workers into dangerous and sometime violent situations.
Lawyer Allan Young, who successfully argued last fall against the current criminal code provisions on prositituion, says people often worry legalizing or decriminalizing the sex trade will open a “Pandora’s box,” leading to a rise in pimping and the trafficking of women and underage children.
Young says people shouldn’t be afraid of what might happen if prostitution is decriminalized and he’s confident he will prevail in his fight for the constitutional rights of sex workers.
The appeal hearing against the ruling is set for June 13.
Click here for the daily Met-Art Gallery. Never be disappointed :-)
