Watch above: A Saskatoon brothel operator has made some changes to conform to the country’s new prostitution laws. Joel Senick finds out how business may or may not be affected.
SASKATOON – New federal prostitution laws will have little effect on how the Saskatoon police approach sex workers on the street, according to the police chief. New legislation out of Ottawa came into effect at the start of December, replacing the old law that was struck down by Canada’s Supreme Court.
The new measures target purchasers of sexual services, rather than the sex workers themselves, which the Saskatoon police chief says has already been the focus of his force.
MORE: What Canada’s prostitution laws could look like in 2015
“We’ll still run the type of stings we’ve run in the past for street prostitution,” said Chief Clive Weighill.
“Women in the street that were being exploited, pushed onto the street … we’ve been trying to work with them, looking at them as more of a victim in this scenario, rather than someone breaking the law.”
However, now that the law focuses on prohibiting purchasing services, Weighill said he hopes that will better open the lines of communication between those who are working the street and the officers in place to protect them.
“Hopefully that will make our relationship a little bit closer so if they are having trouble with bad dates or somebody that’s maybe giving some problems to the workers, they’ll notify us about that, where maybe in the past they wouldn’t have,” said Weighill.
New legislation was drafted and passed after the Supreme Court of Canada concluded last December that the country’s previous laws endangered the health, safety and lives of sex workers.
The court gave the government one year to draft new legislation. Traditionally, prostitution itself isn’t illegal in Canada, however virtually all the actions surrounding it are.
Many supporters of the new legislation say sex workers are now better protected, since the focus is on purchasers, pimps, and those who exploit prostitutes. A background information document from the government says the new laws are in place “to reduce the incidence of prostitution, as well as to protect those who sell their own sexual services.”
However, not everyone agrees with the conservative government’s assessment. The law prohibits purchasers from communication in any place for the purpose of purchasing sexual services. Opponents say this may drive the business underground.
“If you don’t let people communicate in a public place, they’re going to communicate somewhere else and if that’s a dark back alley, where they’re not going to get caught, that’s more dangerous than if it happens on the street,” said Jessie Buydens, a Saskatoon lawyer who opposes the new legislation.
“The reasons that the laws were struck down by the Supreme Court, those issues aren’t addressed and are in fact are perpetuated in the new provisions under the criminal code,” she added.
“How do you legalize a product to be sold and then outlaw everybody that purchases it,” said Trish Fisher who also opposes the new law.
Fisher owns The Lion’s Den, a brothel in Saskatoon. The new legislation has affected her business; she made her studio a co-operation and her print ads were halted, as advertising the sale of sexual services is now prohibited.
“They’re afraid, without question,” said Fisher when asked about the feelings of industry workers she’s spoken to.
“I’ve had so many phone calls from workers saying, what do we do now, how are we going to do our business and what’s going to happen and how am I going to feed my kids.”
Fisher has actively campaigned against the new legislation and believes it will create “more dangerous conditions” for sex workers. To her, the safest way to police the businesses would be legalization with regulation.
“By having laws in place where sex workers can work legally, we’re going to have a better chance of rescuing those who are being exploited,” said Fisher.
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