Sex Workers Call for Local Change on Global Rights Day
Media Release, March 3, 2009

Stepping Stone, an organization that provides outreach and supportive programs to sex workers in the Halifax Region, is urging law enforcement and the courts to review the current arrest and release procedures that impede sex workers’ health and safety within the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM). The Canadian Criminal Code gives police the power to release anyone arrested for solicitation on conditions that prevent them from accessing entire sections of the Halifax region. Sex workers and their allies refer to to these conditions as being placed on boundaries.

Rene Ross with Stepping Stone says “These conditional releases prevent sex workers from accessing essential services such as transition services, health care and housing.” Not only does this keep sex workers from accessing some services, “it further isolates sex workers and forces them to work in unsafe areas and under riskier circumstances.” Ross argues, “Striking down the practice of issuing boundaries is an essential step to reducing violence against one of the most marginalized populations in our community; these are mothers, sisters and daughters who do not have access to the same charter rights and freedoms as do other Canadians.”

Stepping Stone runs a court and legal support program for sex workers and statistics for 2008 show that of the 28 sex workers who were arrested on solicitation charges, there were 75 instances where release conditions and court orders were breached, due to the unrealistic nature of ordering a person not to be in a certain part of the HRM. Breaching a court order can result in incarceration and a criminal record, both of which impede a sex worker’s ability to transition out of sex work and, ultimately, costs the taxpayer through incarcerations and court costs. In 2004, national statistics show there were 6 493 prostitution related charges, to incarcerate one person in a provincial jail for one year costs $50,005. In 2004, it cost Canadian Taxpayers $324 682 465 just to incarcerate sex workers.

Stepping Stone agrees with the use of release conditions for individuals charged with serious crimes, but not for prostitution. “We question whether or not the police have the authority under the Criminal Code to ban individuals from the communities they live in, and we will continue to work with legal researchers to determine our options moving forward,” says Ross, and further, “this practice is a violation of basic human rights according to the Canadian Charter of Human Rights as well other international rights codes.”

This release comes on International Sex Workers Rights Day, which was created on March 3 2001 in India to demonstrate the resilience of sex workers and to show their determination to improve their basic human rights.
Stepping Stone is the only organization of its kind east of Montreal and is committed to the health and safety of former and current sex workers in the Halifax area. It offers a range of supportive programs including street outreach, crisis counseling, peer support, harm reduction workshops, court support and the in house visits of health practitioners. They work with approximately 112 former and current sex workers on average per month.