Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2011
Keywords
sex work, prostitution, municipal by-laws, Bedford, sex trade, section 7, gross disproportionality, sex workers, right to life, liberty and security of the person
Abstract
The recent Ontario trial decision in Bedford suggests three interrelated principles that municipal law makers should consider when formulating bylaws aimed at regulating sex work. These principles, if upheld on appeal, will inform the constitutionality of both current and prospective bylaws regulating sex work in Canadian cities. In Bedford, Justice Himel concluded that the constitutionality of laws regulating the sex trade must be determined in a legal context which recognizes the violence faced by sex workers. She confirmed that laws that indirectly make sex work more dangerous and harmful must be consistent with those principles that our legal system, through its courts, have deemed fundamental to a just society. She recognized that in a just society a government is not entitled to jeopardize the health and physical safety of sex workers for the sake of reducing public nuisance. In order to ensure the constitutional validity of proposed bylaws, municipal lawmakers will therefore need to consider the impact their bylaws have on the safety of sex workers.
Recommended Citation
Elaine Craig, "Sex Work By Law: Bedford's Impact on The Municipal regulation of Sex Work" (2011) 16 Rev Const Stud 205.
Included in
Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Common Law Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons
