MONTREAL -- The recent killing of a year-old woman in Quebec has focused renewed attention on Canada's prostitution laws, which critics say are applied irregularly across the country and only make sex work more dangerous. People connected to the industry say the Jan. Sold to the public in as a way of protecting women in the sex trade, Bill C has pushed women who sell sexual services into becoming "invisible," Sandra Wesley, an advocate for women in the sex industry, said. Eustachio Gallese, a year-old convict out on day parole, has been charged with second-degree murder in Levesque's death.
He was imprisoned for murdering his wife in and had been convicted of assaulting a previous partner, but as part of his day parole, a "risk-management strategy" was developed to allow Gallese to meet women to respond to his "sexual needs. Wesley argues that Levesque, who was a sex worker, was placed in danger by the stricter laws governing prostitution.
Before , Wesley explained, a man could pay a woman to have sex in a private hotel room and no one was committing a crime.
But under Bill C, purchasing sex or benefiting from the selling of sex is illegal. Sex workers cannot advertise sexual services, and potential clients cannot communicate with a prostitute in any way, or in any place, for the purposes of buying sex. Although the law protects the sex worker from criminal liability, clients or the employer, such as a massage parlour, face arrest and prosecution.
Wesley said a woman in a hotel room with a client doesn't want to bring attention to herself, out of fear hotel staff will call police. Instead of screaming or running out of the room to the front desk, sex workers have learned to attempt to take care of hostile situations on their own. Before, prostitutes could lean on a car window and negotiate services and a price with a client.
