Bill C-36 hearings told not to conflate prostitution and trafficking

MPs should distinguish between sex work and human trafficking as they consider bringing in a new prostitution law to replace the one struck down last year by the Supreme Court, an expert said Thursday.

MPs hear final witnesses as House committee's review set to wrap up

Kady O'Malley CBC News Posted: Jul 10, 2014 8:35 AM EDT | Last Updated: July 10, 2014

Sex work or human trafficking?

10 years ago

7:37

MP Joy Smith on the debate around proposed prostitution bill

After three days of often heart-wrenching testimony, the House justice committee is wrapping up the first phase of its work on the government's proposed prostitution law rewrite.

Many of the witnesses told horrifying tales of being trafficked and abused, while others spoke in favour of letting sex workers choose to sell their services.

Christa Big Canoe, legal advocacy director at Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto, summarized the divide following 20 hours of hearings.

"[What] we're hearing a lot from a lot of the witnesses is the interconnectedness, but what we're not hearing is the distinct differences between trafficking and sex work," she said.

Big Canoe suggested betterenforcing Canada's existing human traffickinglaws if MPs are worried about the problem.

'How is that going to change?'

Studies of human trafficking, she said, talk about how elusive the traffickers are.

"So the question I have to this committee is, how is that going to change by the provisions that you're now proposing, and what can be done to change that if it's not already occurring?"

The committee has heard from police officers that it's difficult to chargealleged human traffickers and that some law enforcement agencies use the threat of charges against prostitutes to extricate them and have them provide evidence against the traffickers.

Big Canoe pointed out that last year'sSupreme Court ruling known as Bedford dealt specifically with Canada's prostitution laws.

"Bedford was about sex work. It wasn't about trafficking. We have laws in Canada about trafficking that aren't actually being used well. Maybe addressing those laws would be of assistance," she said.

Testimony resumedat 1 p.m. ET.CBCnews.ca is carrying the committee hearing live.

On the witness list for the final round of hearings:

9:30-11:30 AM ET