Take the Power Back: Sex trade just got safer

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For a little over a year now, a volunteer-run support centre for sex workers, allies, and women in crisis has been active in London's Old East Village. Its name is SafeSpace, and it uses a model of empowerment to help sex workers operate with safety and dignity by offering harm reduction supplies such as STI educational resources, hygienic goods, food, clothing and information about available services in London.

Beyond simply providing resources for sex workers, SafeSpace has also focused on doing outreach to the community to de-stigmatize the issue, educating the public, and promoting the decriminalization of sex work.

Given its admirable efforts and principled position, it is no surprise that SafeSpace volunteers were among those who celebrated a recent ruling by an Ontario Superior Court judge that struck down laws meant to curtail the sex trade on constitutional grounds, in that they violated charter rights of freedom of expression and security of the person.

The ruling doesn't take effect for 30 days, and the federal minister of justice is considering appealing the ruling, which would allow those in the sex trade to communicate freely with customers on the street, conduct business in their homes or brothels, and hire bodyguards and accountants without risking criminal charges of "living off the avails of prostitution."

The criminalization of sex work creates a far more dangerous work environment, resulting in many sex workers being raped, robbed, assaulted and even murdered. It is a model that empowers pimps and sex traffickers rather than the workers, and it can lead to far more coercive working conditions.

Although this ruling comes too late for the hundreds of sex workers who've been murdered and gone missing across Canada, it is finally a step in the right direction.

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