Melora Koepke

All Sex Workers want for Christmas is a Charter Challenge, etc

Why is the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Émilie Laliberté’s Christmas wish list? Our cover model is a sex worker and spokeswoman for Stella, Montreal’s community organization by and for sex workers. There is still a long way to go before sex workers in Canada are offered equal protection under the law, and Stella works to affect that change all year long. They have several special actions in the month of December that are open to everyone interested in seeing equal rights for working women and an end to violence against sex workers.

This has been a banner year for Canadian sex workers’ rights: Two Charter challenges in the provincial courts of Ontario and British Columbia are calling into question the constitutional validity of prostitution laws that they claim threaten the safety and lives of street workers, escorts, masseuses and anyone working in the sex industry. Though prostitution is technically legal in Canada, there are several laws – nicknamed the communicating, transporting, bawdy house and pimping laws – that they say make it impossible for sex workers to ensure conditions of safety in their work. Read article