I will be updating the Who’s Who in the Justice Committee testimony regarding Bill C-36, providing more details about the various organization and individuals and what they argued, as I make my way through the testimony (which is now available on-line through http://www.parl.gc.ca/CommitteeBusiness/CommitteeMeetings.aspx?Cmte=JUST&Stac=8423877&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=41&Ses=2 ). However, in the meantime I thought it worthwhile to give some background on prostitution law in Canada. This is based on chapter 11, of the second edition of mine and Linda White’s book Women, Politics, and Public Policy: The Political Struggles of Canadian Women and some more recent research. The most significant feature of Bill C-36 is that it makes one element of prostitution illegal by criminalizing the purchase of sex. Currently, it is not illegal to exchange sex for money, i.e., prostitution is not illegal. What is illegal are the actions and practices required to ...
This blog is a feminist commentary on issues regarding women and politics both in formal government, big-P, politics and informal grassroots, small-p, politics.