Constitutionally Challenging Prostitution Policy and Laws in Canada: Option and Considerations for Adopting a New Policy and Legal Framework

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2013-09
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Abstract
In October 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada announced it will hear the case, Bedford v. Canada, challenging the constitutionality of the country’s main laws controlling prostitution. It remains to be seen whether the courts will uphold Canada’s prostitution provisions under the Criminal Code or deem them unconstitutional due to violations of Charter rights. If the Supreme Court strikes down the provisions, both Canada's policy and legal approach towards the controversial sex industry will be invalidated, leaving a legislative gap regarding prostitution. In response, lawmakers must resolve this policy and legal vacuum by adopting a new framework to address sex work. This report addresses the potential policy and legal gap regarding prostitution that may develop, presenting and evaluating alternative options available for implementation, and discussing potential issues associated with the implementation of each approach in the Canadian context. The design of the report is aimed at offering a comprehensive and comparable overview of a number of policy and legal models on prostitution enacted in other jurisdictions and to help Canadian legislatures consider options for prostitution policy and law based both on the successes and failures of each approach in other jurisdictions, and relevant considerations specific to the Canadian context, such as issues of jurisdiction and constitutionality. It is concluded that there is no perfect policy and legal model for adoption in Canada, with each approach suffering from setbacks when implemented in other jurisdictions and requiring a number of considerations for implementation in Canadian jurisdictions. Given the inconclusiveness of what alternate policy and legal model is ideal for Canada, a number of "nextstep" recommendations are made to guide and structure the debate over and process for selecting a model to meet Canada's need to address the potential policy and legal gap on prostitution.
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Singh, Jaspreet. (2013). Constitutionally Challenging Prostitution Policy and Laws in Canada: Option and Considerations for Adopting a New Policy and Legal Framework ( Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.