NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION: CRIMINALIZATION COSTS SEX WORKER LIVES
TORONTO
Saturday, June 14th at 2 PM.
At the North-West corner of Sherbourne and Gerrard for a public demonstration followed by a BYOP picnic (water and some snacks will also be available).
Please bring red umbrellas!
* * *
Across the country, sex worker groups along with organizations and individuals that support human rights and women’s rights are gathering to denounce the conservative government’s proposed bill (C36) to
re-criminalize sex work.
The new law criminalizes selling sex in public, purchasing sexual services, advertising sexual services and benefitting from the sale of sexual services. Bill C-36 does not assist individuals in need of support or eliminate hazards of the sex industry. Rather, it will force sex workers into dangerous conditions by pushing them into isolated areas, limiting their ability to take life-saving measures such as screening clients, negotiating consent and safer sex practices, and working together in teams. Sex work is not inherently dangerous, however, the proposed law will expose sex workers to increased violence and exploitative conditions and will result in more sex worker deaths. It will create the most severe dangers and lead to incarceration for the most marginalized sex workers: women who work on the street and who are disproportionately Aboriginal, Black, and people of colour; trans; and living on or below the poverty line.
Bill C-36 reproduces the harms of the old criminalization regime and violates the spirit and substance of the supreme court judgment that struck down the previous laws.
Come join us and show your support!
TORONTO
Saturday, June 14th at 2 PM.
At the North-West corner of Sherbourne and Gerrard for a public demonstration followed by a picnic.
Maggie’s TO, COUNTERfit Women’s Harm Reduction Program, Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC) and Bad Date Coalition (BDC), Sistering, and the Feminist Coalition for the Decriminalization of Prostitution (a national coalition of 25 sexual assault/rape crisis centres, women’s shelters and other anti-violence agencies from across Canada).
