Bedford Tag

03 Feb 2014 Group Says Human Trafficking Investigations Invade Sex Workers Privacy

The Ottawa Citizen recently reported that a group that advocates for sex workers in Ottawa complained that investigations into human trafficking are an invasion of privacy of sex workers (read the Ottawa Citizen article here). On January 22 and 23, twenty-six police service agencies across Canada interviewed more than 330 women in 30 communities to determine the presence of human trafficking and to ensure that those who were not there willingly had the freedom to get out of a dangerous situation. A group that advocates for some sex workers in...

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20 Dec 2013 Breaking News: Supreme Court declares prostitution laws unconstitutional

The Supreme Court of Canada has just declared that the prostitution laws in Canada are unconstitutional. A saving grace in the ruling however is that they have suspended their declaration of invalidity by one year, meaning that the current law remains valid until December of next year, giving our federal government time to rewrite the law. ARPA's legal counsel was able to comment on the decision with CTV news this morning. Check out this link to watch the 6 minute interview (video appears on the right side of the page)....

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13 Jun 2013 Prostitution appeal heard at the Supreme Court

A Supreme Court of Canada Commentary by ARPA's Legal Counsel, André Schutten – (13 June 2013) - As we predicted in our 2011 fall tour, the Bedford prostitution case did go to the Supreme Court of Canada. Today, the Court conducted a lengthy hearing in this appeal. I had the privilege of watching the hearing which left me with a number of different thoughts. Note that Supreme Court hearings can be misleading - predictions on the outcome are difficult to make. The final decision won't be rendered for quite some time, but here follow some of my thoughts and impressions from the oral hearing:
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