Momentum builds for prostitution law change

published on May 25, 2012 in OpenFile

With the Missing Women Inquiry creeping to a contentious close, a landmark Ontario Court of Appeal ruling in March, new guidelines for the Vancouver Police Department, and a study recently published by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS with UBC, it seems momentum is building for major changes to B.C. prostitution laws.

NDP MLA Shane Simpson hopes the status quo will give way to a more nuanced conversation about the often contradictory prostitution laws in Canada. If the Supreme Court of Canada upholds the ruling in Ontario, which allows sex workers to legally take their trade indoors and live off the avails, Simpson says it will open the door for new policy in other provinces. “There’s going to have to be a wider discussion on how we deal with this issue and where so that our communities are still comfortable and have their say,” he says. Simpson is a supporter of the decriminalization of prostitution. “I’m looking forward to the decision,” he adds, hedging that “we [BC] probably won’t act on this issue until then.”

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© Copyright BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
St. Paul's Hospital 608–1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6Z 1Y6
Tel: 604-806-8477 | Fax: 604-806-9044
General inquiries: info@bccfe.ca
Media inquiries: communications@bccfe.ca
(Please do not use any of these email addresses to send personal information or book an appointment. To book appointments or contact the H2H clinic, please call 604-416-1517 or fax: 604-564-4893. Do not send your or your client's personal information via email.)

Our work serves clients and communities across British Columbia on lands and waters cared for and nurtured by the many distinct First Nations across the province. The BC-CfE humbly and gratefully acknowledge the stewards of these lands, particularly the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) on whose unceded, traditional and ancestral territories our offices are located.