An advocate for Regina sex trade workers says the Harper government’s new prostitution law fails to address some key issues about the men who buy sex and for the women who sell it to them.
Margaret Poitras is the executive director of the All Nations Hope Network.
The organization is located in the heart of Regina’s inner city in an area regularly frequented by sex trade workers.
Poitras has seen a lot during her four decades in Regina’s toughest neighbourhood and she has worked with a lot of women who are involved in the sex trade – some by choice but most by circumstances.
She says the new federal law will accomplish little other than putting women involved in the sex trade at greater risk.
The proposed legislation targets johns and pimps while allowing sex trade workers to ply their trade.
Poitras says prostitution will always be a part of society and laws that try to control it will never work.
She would like to see sex trade work legalized and regulated.
“Yes, we should not be using the courts to further victimize,” she says. “Prostitution is going to happen no matter what, it has been going on for years and always will. We need to do more to help and protect the women.”
Penalties under the proposed new prostitution law are steep ranging from 10 years in jail for pimps to $4,000 dollars in fines for johns.
The new law also criminalizes print and online advertising of sexual services.