On November 12 and 13, the Supreme Court of Canada heard from attorneys general and advocacy organizations in the case of Kloubakov and Hicham Moustaine v. His Majesty the King. These two men were convicted in 2021 of trafficking in human beings, in particular women who were moved around the country to offer sexual services to men in exchange for money.
Yet the purchase of sexual services has been illegal in Canada since 2014 when the country passed the Protecting Communities and Victims of Exploitation Act (C-36) aimed at discouraging prostitution.
Since its passage, this progressive legislation has been the subject of debate and legal challenges from pimps and “sex worker” rights groups. They believe that its provisions on pimping, material benefits and advertising of sexual services violate their rights to freedom of prostitution and personal security while trading with clients. Prostitution is incompatible with the international standards for decent work defined by the International Labour Organization.
We consider prostitution to be a system of violence established by men for men, which reduces people to the status of commodities. It prevents them from achieving equality. Women and children are not sexual objects, but human beings. Prostitution violates the right to dignity, equality and freedom, which are fundamental rights defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To remedy these violations, it is important to continue criminalizing the demand for prostitution by clients, as provided for in Bill C-36, and as has been done in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Northern Ireland, France and Israel.
We call on the Supreme Court of Canada to render a decision confirming the abolitionist and egalitarian approach adopted by Bill C-36 in 2014. We also hope it will take into account international law, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, to which Canada is a signatory.
This long-awaited decision by the Supreme Court of Canada is important because it will enable the federal and provincial governments to provide greater financial support for projects to help women and children leave prostitution for good, and to organize awareness campaigns aimed at buyers of sexual services and rehabilitate them.
