This report is the product of a two-year project on criminal law, prostitution and the health and safety of sex workers in Canada. We conducted a literature review; interviewed key informants (including through a collaboration with the Native Friendship Centre of Montréal); and held a two-day consultation in February 2004 attended by sex workers, former sex workers, members of sex worker organizations, public health and social science researchers, and other community-based organizations.
In this report the Legal Network discusses the three foundations that should guide the review and reform of the prostitution-related provisions of the Criminal Code:
- evidence from credible research and from sex workers themselves;
- Canada’s obligations under international human rights law; and
- the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.