Prostitution in Canada

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (December 2023)

Current laws passed by the Parliament of Canada in 2014 make it illegal to purchase or advertise sexual services and illegal to live on the material benefits from sex work. The law officially enacted criminal penalties for "Purchasing sexual services and communicating in any place for that purpose."^[1]

It is the first time in Canadian history that the exchange of sexual services for money is made illegal. The Canadian Department of Justice claims that the new legal framework "reflects a significant paradigm shift away from the treatment of prostitution as 'nuisance', as found by the Supreme Court of Canada in Bedford, toward treatment of prostitution as a form of sexual exploitation".^[2] Many sex workers' rights organizations, however, argue that the new law entrenches and maintains harm against sex workers since sex workers are still committing a crime, albeit there is an immunity from arrest for material benefits and advertising.

The new laws came in response to the Canada (AG) v Bedford ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada, which found to be unconstitutional the laws prohibiting brothels, public communication for the purpose of prostitution and living on the profits of prostitution. The ruling gave Parliament of Canada 12 months to rewrite the prostitution laws with a stay of effect so that the current laws remain in force.^[3] Amending legislation came into effect on December 6, 2014, which made the purchase of sexual services illegal.^[4]