Canadian Occupational Safety

24 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com J ade is going into a client meet- ing alone. She does not have a lone worker monitoring device and knows very little about the client. These meet- ings often occur after hours and out of public view. Like many jobs, she is at risk for a variety of occupational health and safety issues, such as workplace violence, mental health problems and musculoskeletal disorders. But unlike other workers, Jade does not have health and safety legislation to protect her. In fact, there is currently legislati- on in place that is exposing her to even more safety risks. "It infringes on my right to safety and security… And the possibility of working with a network of people for both safety and camaraderie is near to impossible without breaking the criminal law," says Jade. "I am disconnected from all the supports I previously had and the layers of secu- rity are gone." Jade is a 50-year-old sex worker who has been operating as an escort north of Toronto for 16 years. In December 2014, the Conservative government put the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA) in place, which made it an offense under the Criminal Code to purchase sexual services, communicate for that purpose and receive material benefi t from sex work. "Many people may believe that Canada's new laws around sex work are having a big impact on buyers without bringing harm to the workers. But my experience has been the exact opposite since the laws were changed in 2014 and buying sex became a crime," Jade says in a report by the Canadian Alli- ance for Sex Work Law Reform. The act was the Conservative government's response to the pros- titution laws that were struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Canada (Attorney General) v. Bed- ford decision in December 2013. In a unanimous 9-0 decision, the highest court said the laws prohibiting bawdy houses, living off the avails of prosti- tution and communicating in public with clients infringed the rights of prostitutes by depriving them of secu- rity of the person. "The prohibitions all heighten the risk the applicants face in prostitution — itself a legal activity," Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote in the deci- sion. "They do not merely impose conditions on how prostitutes oper- ate. They go a step further by imposing dangerous conditions on prostitution; they prevent people engaged in a risky — but legal — activity from taking steps to protect themselves from the risks." The Supreme Court gave the govern- ment one year to come up with new laws, saying although the challenged provisions violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it does not mean Parliament is precluded from imposing limits on where and how prostitution may be conducted, as long as it does so in a way that does not infringe on the constitutional rights of prostitutes. And PCEPA, formerly Bill C-36, was born, but it brought with it many of the same issues that were struck down in Bedford. "My overall reaction to Bill C-36 was one of concern… because it appears as though the bill risks exacerbating as opposed to ameliorating the condi- tions that were identifi ed in Bedford as posing risks to sex trade workers," says Stephany Mandin, partner at Goldman Hine in Toronto. Two years later, many of the health and safety concerns that scholars, law- yers and industry experts had around the act have materialized. Arlene Pitts at York University in Toronto inter- viewed street-based sex workers who said the new law, at times, increases daily fears around safety, arrest, police harassment and discrimination. "Criminalization continues to force them to work in unsafe environments," says Pitts in her report, Remembering Bedford. "The current anti-sex work laws and regulations governing sex workers' lives, labour and bodies con- tinue to gravely impact sex workers." AMENDMENTS Prostitution is legal in Canada but PCEPA criminalizes several activities around it. For starters, the act amends the Criminal Code to make it an offence to purchase sexual services. However, the act does not actually defi ne "sexual services." This could include everything from services per- formed by street-level prostitutes, massage parlours attendants and escorts, to work done over web cam or telephone. The purchasing provision is driv- ing sex work further underground due to fear of arrest, and sex workers and their clients are seeking out more isolated and dangerous locations to engage in this work, says Mandin. The penalties include jail time, up to fi ve years in some cases (if the sex worker is over 18), and fi nes. The act outlines specifi c penalties for purchasing sexual services both from someone under the age of 18 and from an adult. In addition, making the purchase of these services illegal means sex workers have decreased ability to screen clients, increasing their risk of violence. "Now that purchasing sexual ser- vices is a crime in Canada, screening is more diffi cult than ever. I used to be able to get a new client's name and references easily. The new laws have created a climate of fear and clients are afraid of providing personal infor- mation," says Carmen, a sex worker in Vancouver who was interviewed as part of the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform report. PCEPA also amends the Criminal By Amanda Silliker

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