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The government wants people's opinions - a fill in the blank survey

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here's my submission:

 

Consultation Questions

1. Do you think that purchasing sexual services from an adult should be a criminal offence? Should there be any exceptions? Please explain.

Comment: Purchasing sexual services from an adult should not be a criminal offence. Exceptions should apply if that adult is exploited, coerced, forced.

 

2. Do you think that selling sexual services by an adult should be a criminal offence? Should there be any exceptions? Please explain.

Comment: Selling sexual services as an adult should not be a criminal offence. Exceptions apply should the person purchasing be under 18, or if the seller is coerced, exploited or forced. I also strongly believe there should be regulations regarding loitering for the purpose of selling sexual services, or at the very least proximity limits in relation to schools, churches, community centers, etc.

 

3. If you support allowing the sale or purchase of sexual services, what limitations should there be, if any, on where or how this can be conducted? Please explain.

Comment: I strongly feel that having a safe place to work is a top priority. Advertising services should be tastefully done in an adult forum ie online adult forums, adult publications, etc. Health and safety of workers and clients should be priority, therefore certain minimum standards should be maintained. Sexual services are a personal service like many others. People NEED to feel intimacy, tenderness, touch. I don't think these personal services between consenting adults is something we should be criminalizing.

 

4. Do you think that it should be a criminal offence for a person to benefit economically from the prostitution of an adult? Should there be any exceptions? Please explain.

Comment: I can't think of another industry in the country who isn't legally permitted to hire support staff. The concept is bizarre. Why should a sex worker not be able to hire an accountant, financial planner, manicurist, photographer, website designer, driver, bodyguard, admin assistant...? Laws currently exist to criminalize trafficking, exploitation, forced and coerced sex work. Why do we need laws that apply to WILLING CONSENTING adult sex workers that make it illegal for them to ever hire help?

 

5. Are there any other comments you wish to offer to inform the Government's response to the Bedford decision?

Comment: Please stop referring to SEX WORKERS as WOMEN. There are a great many men and trans workers too. Please stop talking about CLIENTS as MEN. Women and Trans hire sex workers too, and clients are always referred to as JOHNS. lets not forget the JANE'S, JEAN'S, & JOAN'S :)

 

6. Are you are writing on behalf of an organization? If so, please identify the organization and your title or role:

Comment: I am writing on behalf of myself. I am a well established sex worker based in Ontario. I've been touring Canada for several years, and I've watched the Bedford case closely. I am mature, educated, single, and very much in charge of my life. I choose this work because I enjoy it, I am very good at it, and it offers me the freedom to stay single while still safely enjoying the company of a gentleman. My clients are your doctors, your lawyers, your university professor, maybe even your local Politician. They are not criminals, and neither am I. We all need some human touch, compassion, companionship. Please don't make us criminals for that.

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Interesting, I said something very similar in question #5, regarding the fact that not all sex workers are female. And for #4.

 

I felt that their language was problematic on question #4. it would be easy to allow them to manipulate the answer the way they put it, but the result would be that the replies will not allow for the sp willingness to pay their rent, their driver, and for advertising. None of that would be permitted if everyone agrees that no one should be able to profit from the 'prostitution of an adult.'

 

 

One of the things that abolitionists don't mention is that sps in the Nordic model, as in just in Sweden, cannot actually rent accomodations to work in, because under that law it is a criminal offense for anyone to collect rent from sex workers. The landlord is obliged to evict sex workers or they can be charged.

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Filled out my comments, hope they listen to us! Hope everyone here is doing it too!

I choose not to say on what behalf I was writing on as I did not want to seem biased, lol...I just did not want that to be an issue in their brains. Just a Canadian with an opinion!

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Guest Ou**or**n

I hope all CERBites take the time to fill this out. Also go into depth and give your reasons - not just yes or no answers. I felt it important to communicate how I felt making the purchase of sexual illegal would violate the same legal principals that caused the SCC to strike down the existing laws.

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...I felt making the purchase of sexual illegal would violate the same legal principals that caused the SCC to strike down the existing laws.

 

This is something that I'm still not clear on. So, the Conservatives want to implement the Nordic Model as it 'is a system which reflects Canada's values' (their words, not mine.) Under that particular system it would be legal to sell sexual services, yet illegal to buy. Further to this, the SCC has ruled that brothels will now be legal. So, imagine that 'Lexy's Brothel' opens up on Main Street (again, perfectly legal). Will LE will be arresting clients as they walk through the door? I honestly don't see how the Tories could possibly get a Nordic approach passed precisely due to pragmatic issues in implementing it. How could a court successfully prosecute someone for purchasing a legal good/service? As I mentioned in another thread, it's the same thing as being arrested for purchasing an apple in a grocery store. The only difference being that their are negative connotations associated with selling sex as it goes against the Conservatives moral ideology. The point being, it's a subjective construct which cannot be reasonably legislated. Thoughts, anyone?

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This is something that I'm still not clear on. So, the Conservatives want to implement the Nordic Model as it 'is a system which reflects Canada's values' (their words, not mine.) Under that particular system it would be legal to sell sexual services, yet illegal to buy. Further to this, the SCC has ruled that brothels will now be legal. So, imagine that 'Lexy's Brothel' opens up on Main Street (again, perfectly legal). Will LE will be arresting clients as they walk through the door? I honestly don't see how the Tories could possibly get a Nordic approach passed precisely due to pragmatic issues in implementing it. How could a court successfully prosecute someone for purchasing a legal good/service? As I mentioned in another thread, it's the same thing as being arrested for purchasing an apple in a grocery store. The only difference being that their are negative connotations associated with selling sex as it goes against the Conservatives moral ideology. The point being, it's a subjective construct which cannot be reasonably legislated. Thoughts, anyone?

 

 

In Sweden, a client was arrested after he left the sp's incall. I got the impression from the news article that she wasn't approached, but he was, he got charged, a $300 fine and an article in the newspaper since he was a public figure.

 

So no one could really be arrested going in to see an sp, but they could on the way out. I think also they rely on a confession too, otherwise someone could easily say they have to prove it lol.

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In Sweden, a client was arrested after he left the sp's incall. I got the impression from the news article that she wasn't approached, but he was, he got charged, a $300 fine and an article in the newspaper since he was a public figure.

 

So no one could really be arrested going in to see an sp, but they could on the way out. I think also they rely on a confession too, otherwise someone could easily say they have to prove it lol.

 

So how would this system conceivably work with outcalls here?

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So how would this system conceivably work with outcalls here?

 

I suppose to have evidence, you would either have to confess, or the way she advertised herself, stating things like $$ for BJ etc and they had the email with you agreeing to it...perhaps if you are paying for her time, or maybe she was cleaning your house? Reasonable doubt.

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Here are a couple good resources in regards to this government survey. They provide some background info, ideas and guidelines for folks to use to form their own unique responses to the survey. These helpful guidelines were prepared by sex workers and their allies from all across the country, and are designed to inspire you to create your own personal answers.

 

From Maggie's Toronto: http://maggiestoronto.ca/news?news_id=118

 

From POWER Ottawa: http://www.powerottawa.ca/CALLTOACTION.pdf

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