Canada (AG) v Bedford
| Canada (AG) v Bedford | |
|---|---|
| Hearing: 13 June 2013 Judgment: 20 December 2013 | |
| 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] 3 SCR 1101, 2013 SCC 72, is a decision of the Supreme Court of Canada on the Canadian law of sex work. The applicants, Terri-Jean Bedford, Amy Lebovitch and Valerie Scott, argued that Canada's prostitution laws were unconstitutional. The Criminal Code included 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 was 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.
Parliament responded to Bedford by enacting the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act in 2014, which criminalized the commercial exchange of sex for the first time in Canadian history. The new law — based on the Nordic model — immunizes sex workers from prosecution and arrest for selling their own services, but targets the purchase of sex, as well as third parties who benefit from it.
The term "sex work" is used interchangeably with "prostitution" in this article, in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO 2001; WHO 2005) and the United Nations (UN 2006; UNAIDS 2002).