Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of New Federal Prostitution Bill

The Library of Parliament recently published a legislative summary of Bill C-36, introduced in response to the Supreme Court of Canada's Bedford ruling of December 2013 that struck down sections of the Criminal Code relating to prostitution.

The Court ruled that sections 210 (keeping a common bawdy-house), 212(1)(j) (living on the avails of prostitution) and 213(1)(c) (communicating for the purpose of engaging in prostitution) imposed dangerous working conditions on sex workers, thus violating section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees the right to life, liberty and security of the person.

The Court suspended the declaration of invalidity for one year to give Parliament sufficient time to respond. Bill C-36 is the government's response.

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill on the LEGISinfo website. LEGISinfo also includes links to background material and to parliamentary debates and committee reports on the proposed legislation. The bill returned to the House of Commons for debate earlier this week.