VANCOUVER - A retired prostitute and a group representing sex workers in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside say a B.C. Appeal Court ruling that enables them to challenge Canada's anti-prostitution laws could one day lead to decriminalizing an unsafe job.
Sheryl Kiselbach said she quit working the streets nine years ago after 30 years because she felt something would happen to her around the time women in the poor neighbourhood were disappearing off the streets.
Kiselbach, 59, suggested that if sex work wasn't a crime, many of the women who were lured from the area by convicted murderer Robert Pickton may have called police instead of fearing authorities.
A lower court had ruled that Kiselbach and the Downtown Eastisde Sex Workers United Against Violence Society didn't have standing to challenge Canada's prostitution laws because only active sex workers could be named in the action.
But the Appeal Court ruled in a decision released Tuesday that Kiselbach and the group have a public interest right to challenge the laws.
The case was launched in 2007 and the B.C. Appeal Court decision comes just weeks after the Ontario Superior Court struck down the three laws that criminalize most sex work.
Kiselbach said she envisions prostitutes working in some type of home so they can get off the streets, where they are prey for violent men.
"I would just like people to be able to work indoors together without fear of the law instead of having car dates. Car dates are extremely dangerous," she told a news conference, saying sex workers must have control over how they meet clients.
Defence lawyer Katrina Pacey said Monday's ruling concludes that Kiselbach and the sex workers' group should be entitled to challenge the constititutional aspects of the law because they are marginalized and have difficulty accessing the court system.
She said the British Columbia case is broader than the one in Ontario.
"Both of these cases are about bringing systemic issues before the court and arguing that the sections of the Criminal Code that relate to adult prostitution do nothing to help sex workers or to help Canadians, frankly," Pacey said.
"These sections do everything to harm them -- forcing sex workers into dangerous locations, forcing them to have no control over the conditions of their work and working conditions where violence and exploitation can happen."
The three laws make it illegal for prostitutes to communicate in a public place for the purposes of prostitution and don't allow sex workers to do their jobs indoors or to work collaboratively.
