In the plush surroundings of the Ritz Carlton in downtown Toronto, Delight raised a cool, crisp glass of Sauvignon Blanc to her lips. It was not an act of celebration – more an attempt to drown her despair.



Delight had gathered with a group of fellow sex workers to mark the moment when, for the first time in Canadian history, buying sex became illegal.

In the aftermath of the measure’s passage, not a single voice talked about quitting the game. “It was like, ‘give yourself a day to be sad, then get up tomorrow and go work,’” says Delight.



Just 12 months earlier, the scene could not have been more different. On 20 December, Delight and her friends toasted the news that the supreme court of Canada had struck down three prostitution laws, saying they were unconstitutional and violated prostitutes’ rights to safety and security. The ruling came after a hard-fought legal battle launched when Terri-Jean Bedford, a dominatrix who works under the name of Madame de Sade, challenged the laws’ constitutionality.

Sex workers across the nation hailed a new dawn, believing their profession would be decriminalised. They hoped that any new law introduced would allow women to use their homes or rented spaces to sell sex and employ a maid or bodyguard while working, thus making what remains an undeniably dangerous profession a little safer.

Instead, this week, a controversial bill following the so-called Nordic model – which makes it illegal to buy sex, though not to sell it – became law. Introduced by Stephen Harper’s conservative government, Bill C36, or the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, appears to reintroduce measures similar to those struck down a year earlier.

The thinking behind it is clear: conservative MP Stella Ambler, on the Justice Committee considering the bill, has called it an “anti-prostitution law”, while the justice minister has said the government aims to limit the sex trade as much as possible.

The battle over prostitution has divided the nation. Before the ink was even dry on the statute, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne declared that she had asked the province’s attorney general to investigate the constitutional validity of the new law because of “grave concern” that the legislation would not protect sex workers.

“I am not an expert, and I am not a lawyer, but as premier of this province, I am concerned that this legislation (now the law of the land) will not make sex workers safer,” Wynne said on Sunday, a day after it was passed.

So how did Canada’s prostitution laws make a 180-degree turn in less than a year?

Initially, the supreme court scrapped prohibitions against having a regular place for sex where workers could screen clients by communicating with each other and others “living on the avails of prostitution”. But the court failed to offer guidance on setting new laws, leaving the matter up to parliament.

A year later, C36 has outlawed profiting from the “material benefits” of prostitution – meaning that a bodyguard or maid paid by a sex worker faces up to 10 years in prison – and has introduced a blanket communication ban surrounding sex work.



“We had so much hope,” said Delight, who asked not to be named because she fears she could now face prosecution. “Now we’re shattered and less safe. Women will die because of this new law.”

Jean McDonald, the executive director of Maggie’s, a grassroots sex worker support group in Toronto, said that when she heard the new law had passed, she broke down and cried. “It was much, much worse than we expected,” she said.

Sex workers worry that the new legislation will leave them more vulnerable to attack, with less time and opportunity to vet clients and less ability to share information about violent punters.



Another unintended consequence of the measure could see prostitutes pushed towards criminality. The government says it will target the johns who pay for sex, not those who sell it, but there is nothing in the law that specifically protects prostitutes against criminal charges, said Daniel Brown, a criminal defence lawyer in Toronto.

“We have party liability in Canada, which (means) anyone that aids or encourages a person to commit an offence is guilty of that same offence,” said Brown.



A woman holds a red umbrella – seen as a symbol of sex workers’ rights. Photograph: The Canadian Press/AP

Equality Now, which lobbied for the new law in Canada and is pushing for similar laws to be introduced in other countries, celebrated the law’s passage. But in a statement, the human rights group acknowledged that the law could be detrimental to sex workers. “While certain problematic provisions criminalizing the selling of sex remain, we hope these are addressed in the future as the law is reviewed,” it said.

Equality Now, alongside a coalition of conservative and religious groups who joined with feminist organisations, insists the law is necessary and will curtail an industry which it argues is fundamentally exploitative and dangerous. “Violence is prevalent in the commercial sex trade,” said Melina Lito, a spokesperson for the group. “We have to target the demand for sex in order to advance gender equality. This law is the right step toward protecting these women.”

But critics are already proposing to defy the law, part of which makes it illegal for third parties to publish sex adverts. Magazines or websites that do so could face charges, but Alice Klein, co-founder and editor of independent Toronto magazine NOW, has already said she won’t comply. Writing in the magazine, which dedicates more than 10% of its pages to sex ads, she said: “We are mindful of the fact that advertising benefits independent sex workers in particular, as it offers a much safer and more secure way to connect and do business with clients.”

The new law in Canada comes as a number of other countries reconsider their prostitution laws. In an unexpected move, Northern Ireland outlawed the buying of sex in October. A similar new law passed in France’s lower house only to be struck down in the Senate. Ireland is reviewing its laws, while a movement lobbying for the Nordic model is gathering pace in the UK.

Sweden was the first country to introduce a sex buyer law in 1999, followed by Norway and Iceland. Its impact has been difficult to measure, with research often carried out by campaigners on either side of the divide. According to 2010 research from the Swedish government, the law has halved street prostitution, while the proportion of men paying for sex declined from 12.7% in 1996 to 7.6% in 2008. The law also changed society’s opinion about buying sex: in 1996, 45% of women and 20% of men supported criminalising the buying of sex, but by 2008, the respective figures had grown to 79% and 60%.

But sex workers’ rights groups argue that the Nordic model has been a failed experiment and has increased the stigma against them. Critics point to a UN HIV Law Commission report [PDF] which states that “since its enactment in 1999, the law has not improved – indeed, it has worsened – the lives of sex workers”. The report says that while street work has halved, the sex trade remains at pre-law levels.

So what next for Canada? Sex worker groups, both in the country and beyond, will continue to push for the new law to be struck down in the supreme court - this time definitively, says Laura Lee, an escort with the International Union of Sex Workers. “This may have slowed the movement down, but in no way has it stopped it,” she says. “If anything, we are gaining momentum and growing stronger all the time. We are certainly not going away.”

But they may be in for a wait. In Ontario, Wynne has asked attorney general Madeleine Meilleur to advise her on the province’s options if the legislation proves to be on shaky constitutional ground.

“As I have said before, my priority in this debate is to ensure that our laws and institutions enhance the safety of those who are vulnerable – in this case, sex workers: a class of (mostly) women, who are disproportionately the victims of sexual and physical violence,” Wynne said this week. “So I believe that there is merit in considering whether the Conservative government’s new legislation meets that test.”

But because the bill is now law, opponents’ options are limited. If Meilleur believes the new rules are unconstitutional, she could refer the case to the Ontario Court of Appeal, said Brenda Cossman, a University of Toronto law professor.

“Then it gets tricky,” said Cossman. “Those court opinions are not binding in the province, and certainly not outside of Ontario.”

Critics may have to wait for a charge to be made so the law can be challenged on a constitutional basis – a process which could take years.

Delight believes the law has already had a violent impact. She speaks of a friend and fellow escort who was set to meet a man at a hotel near Toronto Pearson International Airport early on Tuesday morning. Three men barged into her room, where two of them sexually assaulted her before beating her and stealing her money and clothes.

“It’s a terrible time to be an escort in Canada,” Delight said. “A terrible time.”