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Sex Work’s Governance: Stuff and Nuisance

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Abstract

Sex work’s governance throughout the Commonwealth has historically been animated by the objective of rendering the sale of sex, and those who engage in such transactions, invisible. To achieve this end, lawmakers have characterized public, viewable sex work as a nuisance meriting criminalization. Although prohibition results in unequivocal perils for sex workers, governance strategies in this domain remain centred on criminalization. A new law in Canada, Bill C-36: the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, exemplifies this point. While Bill C-36 purports to shift criminal law’s focus from sex workers to their clients and profiteers, it continues to expose sex workers who work in public view to criminal prosecution. It thereby preserves sex work’s characterization as a nuisance, offensive to a community’s senses and deserving of proscription. Although Bill C-36 proclaims to promote dignity and equality rights, it prioritizes the interests of communities over those of sex workers. In the result, this new law will revoke sex workers’ social and political citizenship and thwart their personal security.

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Notes

  1. S.C. 2014, c. 25 [Bill C-36].

  2. Canada (Attorney General) v Bedford 2013 SCR 72 [Bedford].

  3. Bedford, ibid struck down ss. 210, 212(1)(j) and 213(1)(c) of Canada’s Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46 [Criminal Code]. These offences outlawed keeping or frequenting bawdy houses, living on the avails prostitution, and public solicitation for the purpose engaging prostitution or obtaining sex services from a ‘prostitute’.

  4. Criminal Code, supra note 3 at s. 213(1).

  5. Criminal Code, supra note 3 at s. 213(2); R v Smith (1989), 49 CCC (3d) 127 (BC CA).

  6. Criminal Code 1970, RSC 1970, c C-34 at s. 175(1)(c).

  7. Parliamentary Information and Research Service 2003. Prostitution, by J.R. Robertson, CIR 82-2E Ottawa: Library of Parliament [Robertson, Prostitution]; Canadian Bill of Rights, SC 1960, c 44.

  8. Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1972, SC 1972, c 13 at s. 12.

  9. Robertson, Prostitution, supra note 7.

  10. Hutt v The Queen [1978] 2 SCR 476.

  11. For example, compare R v Dudak (1978), 3 CR (3d) 68 (BC CA) and R v DiPaola (1978), 4 CR (3d) 121 (ON CA).

  12. Robertson, Prostitution, supra note 7.

  13. Department of Justice. 1985. Pornography and Prostitution in Canada: Report of the Special Committee on Pornography and Prostitution Ottawa, Canada: Dept of Justice Communications and Public Affairs.

  14. Robertson, Prostitution, supra note 7.

  15. Bill C-49, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (prostitution), 1st Sess, 33rd Parl, 1985 (assented to 20 December 1985).

  16. House of Commons Debates (Canada), 33rd Parl, 1st Sess, Vol 5 (9 September 1985) at 6373 (John Crosbie) [House of Commons Debates, John Crosbie].

  17. House of Commons Debates, John Crosbie, supra note 16 at 6378.

  18. Department of Justice. 1989. Street Prostitution: Assessing the Impact of the Law: Synthesis Report at 7; House of Commons Debates, John Crosbie, supra note 16 at 6375; House of Commons Debates (Canada), 33rd Parl, 1st Sess, Vol 5 (9 September 1985) at 6409 (Margaret Mitchell).

  19. Department of Justice. 1989. Street Prostitution: Assessing the Impact of the Law: Synthesis Report Ottawa: Department of Justice at 7.

  20. House of Commons Debates, John Crosbie, supra note 16 at 6375.

  21. See R v Skinner (1987), 35 CCC (3d) 203 (NS SC (AD)); R v Smith (1989), 49 CCC (3d) 127 (BC CA).

  22. The constitutional right to free expression is guaranteed in Canada by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982, being Schedule B to the Canada Act 1982 (UK), 1982, c 11 s 2(b) [Canadian Charter].

  23. Reference re ss 193 and 195.1(1)(c) of the Criminal Code, [1990] 1 SCR 1123 [Prostitution Reference].

  24. Prostitution Reference, supra note 23 at para. 2.

  25. Section 1 of the Canadian Charter, supra note 22 provides that interference with constitutional guarantees can be upheld where these are established as “reasonable limits” that can be “demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.”

  26. Bedford, supra note 2.

  27. Criminal Code, supra note 3, ss 210, 212(1)(j), and 213 (1)(c).

  28. Section 7 of the Canadian Charter, supra note 22 guarantees the “right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.” This constitutional right was at the heart of the Supreme Court’s analysis in Bedford, supra note 2.

  29. Bedford, supra note 2 at para 4.

  30. Bedford, supra note 2 at para 136.

  31. Bill C-36, supra note 1 at s. 20 (which creates a new provision of the Criminal Code, s. 286.4). Arguably, the ban in Bill C-36 related to advertising furthers this paper’s argument regarding its orientation toward the suppression of sex work that has a viewable, public dimension. The focus of this article, however, remains on sex work offences that target direct, personal communication, which is at the heart of sex work’s characterization as a public nuisance.

  32. Bill C-36, supra note 1 at s. 20 (which would create a new provision of the Criminal Code, s. 286.2).

  33. Bill C-36, supra note 1 at s. 15(3).

  34. Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights (Canada), Minutes and Proceedings, Meeting No 44 (15 July 2014) [Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights]. Clause 15 of Bill C-36 was amended by replacing lines 13–15 on page 8 with the wording “open to public view that is or is next to a school ground, playground or daycare centre”. See also O’Malley 2014.

  35. Street Offences Act 1959 (UK), c 57 at s. 1(1) [Street Offences Act].

  36. Street Offences Act, supra note 35 at s. 1(4)(b).

  37. Amended legislation was the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (UK), c 42 Schedule I, para 2 [Sexual Offences Act].

  38. Sexual Offences Act, supra note 37 at s. 1(4)(a). The term ‘street’ is also given a wide meaning at s. 1(4)(c) of the legislation.

  39. Metropolitan Police Act 1839 (UK), 2 & 3 Vict, c 47.

  40. Town Police Clauses Act 1847(UK), 10 & 11 Vict, c 89.

  41. City of London Police Act 1839 (UK), 2 & 3 Vict, c 94.

  42. Parliamentary Debates (UKHL), vol 216, col 784 (9 June 1959) (Lord Stonham) [Parliamentary Debates, Lord Stonham].

  43. Parliamentary Debates (UKHL), vol 216, col 822-3 (9 June 1959) (Lord Grantchester).

  44. Parliamentary Debates (UKHL), vol 648, col 184 (13 May 2003) (Lord Lucas) [Parliamentary Debates, Lord Lucas].

  45. Parliamentary Debates, Lord Lucas, supra note 44.

  46. Parliamentary Debates, Lord Stonham; Parliamentary Debates (UKHL), vol 216, col 804 (9 June 1959) (Lord Chancellor); Parliamentary Debates (UKHL), vol 216, col 830 (9 June 1959) (Lord Denning).

  47. Parliamentary Debates (UKHL), vol 216, col 787 (9 June 1959) (Lord Archbishop of Canterbury).

  48. Bill 51, Modern Slavery Bill [HL], 2014–2015 sess, 2014.

  49. Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, supra note 34.

  50. Prostitution Licensing Authority. 2010. Submission to the Crime and Misconduct Commission Review of the Prostitution Act 1999. Brisbane: Crime and Misconduct Commission, at 5 [Austl, Review of the Prostitution Act 1999].

  51. Bedford, supra note 2 at para 359.

  52. Austl, Review of the Prostitution Act 1999, supra note 50.

  53. Sisterwatch Project of the Vancouver Police Department and Women’s Memorial March Committee, The Tragedy of Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women in Canada: We Can Do Better (2011) at 10.

  54. Oppal Q.C., The Honourable Wally T. (Commissioner). 2012. Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry (Victoria: Ministry of the Attorney General, 2012). See also Lowman 2000.

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Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to Alyssa Clutterbuck, Beth Mountford, Neesha Rao and anonymous peer reviewers for insightful comments on earlier drafts of this essay. The author further acknowledges support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the McGill Internal Social Sciences and Humanities Development Fund and the Foundation for Legal Research. Parts of this essay draw on a chapter in earlier work: Angela Campbell, Sister Wives, Surrogates and Sex Workers: Outlaws by Choice? (Farnham, UK: Ashgate 2013).

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  1. Faculty of Law, McGill University, 3644 Peel, Montreal, H3A 1W9, Canada

    Angela Campbell

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Correspondence to Angela Campbell.

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Campbell, A. Sex Work’s Governance: Stuff and Nuisance. Fem Leg Stud 23, 27–45 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-015-9279-3

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