Out of the Shadows: Why Canada Must Decriminalize Adult, Consensual Sex Work

It is the view of FIRST and Pivot Legal Society that the criminal laws prohibiting prostitution directly undermine the health, safety, and dignity of sex workers. Criminalization perpetuates stigma against sex workers and exposes them to negative social attitudes and harmful stereotypes. These laws force sex workers into the shadows.

For the most vulnerable sex workers – survival, street-based workers – criminal laws fail to address the underlying conditions that affect their lives.

Rather than criminalizing individuals, social supports are essential to address the conditions of poverty, homelessness, drug or alcohol dependence, mental health or disability, and oppression experienced by many survival sex workers, particularly Aboriginal and First Nations people. We call for social support, not individual punishment. The voices and concerns of sex workers can no longer be relegated to the shadows.