This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. It sets a high penalty for an offender who pays for sexual services β up to five years in jail, or 10 years in the case of prostitutes under age He said the aim is not to arrest physicians or cab drivers who might interact with prostitutes.
However, when asked about drivers or bodyguards hired by prostitutes for personal security reasons, MacKay said the test for a court would be the existence of an exploitative relationship. But prostitutes and their legal advocates were aghast, saying the bill is actually worse than what existed before the high court struck down communications and brothel laws.
However, the text of the bill appears to provide an exemption or immunity from liability for those who advertise or derive material benefit from the provision of their own sexual services. We all do things to make ends meet when it comes to finances, and limiting where and how we can work does nothing to help us as sex workers. Limiting the circumstances under which we can work, how we can communicate about our work, how we can attract clients. I have no idea how a public place is going to be defined.
Is the Internet considered a public place? Valerie Scott, a sex worker who was one of the original three prostitutes behind the Bedford challenge to the Canadian laws and got back into the trade after the Supreme Court ruling, said the bill would further drive prostitution into dark corners to practice their trade.
Will they have as much protection? Will they have time to review the person that could be the client? MacKay tabled the bill Wednesday, nearly six months after the Supreme Court of Canada struck down as unconstitutional three other criminal laws first brought in by the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney.
