Canada (AG) v Bedford
| Canada (AG) v Bedford | |
|---|---|
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| Hearing: 13 June 2013 Judgment: 20 December 2013 |
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| Citations | 2013 SCC 72, [2013] 3 SCR 1101 |
| Docket No. | 34788 |
| Prior history | APPEALS and CROSS‑APPEAL from Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford 2012 ONCA 186 (26 March 2012), affirming in part Bedford v. Canada 2010 ONSC 4264 (28 September 2010). |
| Ruling | Appeals dismissed and cross‑appeal allowed. |
| Holding | |
| ss. 210, 212(1)(j) and 213(1)(c) of the Criminal Code do not pass Charter muster, as they infringe the s. 7 rights of prostitutes by depriving them of security of the person in a manner that is not in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice. | |
| Court Membership | |
| Chief Justice | Beverley McLachlin |
| Puisne Justices | Louis LeBel, Morris Fish, Rosalie Abella, Marshall Rothstein, Thomas Cromwell, Michael Moldaver, Andromache Karakatsanis, Richard Wagner |
| Reasons given | |
| Unanimous reasons by | McLachlin CJ |
Canada (AG) v Bedford 2013 SCC 72, [2013] 3 SCR 1101 is a ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada relating to Canada's laws relating to sex work. The applicants, Terri-Jean Bedford, Amy Lebovitch and Valerie Scott, argued that Canada's prostitution laws were unconstitutional. The Criminal Code includes a number of provisions, such as outlawing public communication for the purposes of prostitution, operating a bawdy house or living off of the avails of prostitution, even though prostitution itself is legal.
The applicants argued that the laws deprive sex workers of their right to security by forcing them to work secretly. In 2012, the Court of Appeal for Ontario ruled that some, but not all, of these prohibitions violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and were unconstitutional. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in a 9-0 decision on December 20, 2013 that all of these laws are unconstitutional; although, it delayed the striking down of the laws by one year to allow Parliament to update the laws in accordance with the ruling.
The term "sex work" is used interchangeably with "prostitution" in this article, in accordance with the World Health Organisation (WHO 2001; WHO 2005) and the United Nations (UN 2006; UNAIDS 2002).
While prostitution is legal in Canada, most activities related to prostitution are illegal. Prohibitions at the time the Bedford case was initiated included:
Many of these prohibitions were found constitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1990 in the Prostitution Reference. In 2007, court proceedings began in Ontario to re-challenge the constitutionality of these prohibitions, on the basis that it created significant harm to prostitutes and other sex workers.
The three applicants all work or worked in the sex trade and Amy Lebovitch and Valerie Scott are members of Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC), an organization which campaigns for the rights of sex workers and the full decriminalization of prostitution.
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