Canadian bishops’ anti-trafficking letter ‘a wakeup call’ for politicians

Anti-prostitution groups in B.C. are united in praise for a new pastoral letter from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops that strongly opposes arguments advanced by “sex-worker” activists who are seeking to decriminalize prostitution and persuade the public that prostitution is simply an employment choice.

The pastoral letter was released Nov. 22 as Canada’s anti-prostitution law faces strong legal and political challenges.

“Hopefully, this pastoral letter will be a wake-up call for politicians,” said Lynne Kent, spokesperson for the Vancouver Collective Against Sexual Exploitation. “The sex industry is a blight on the Canadian government’s goal of achieving women’s equality. Women will never be equal in a society that permits them to be bought and sold.”

VCASE is a non-partisan, secular group of individuals and organizations that is working to end all forms of sexual exploitation. At the top of its current agenda is an effort to defend Canada’s current anti-prostitution law, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act.

The law was enacted in 2014 by the Conservative government of the day and criminalizes the buying of sex, as well as activities such as pimping and the keeping of bawdy houses. It treats prostitutes themselves as victims.

In March of this year, the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform, which represents 25 groups that work with members of the so-called sex trade, launched an action in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice seeking to have the law overturned on the grounds it violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The federal New Democratic Party issued a statement immediately after the challenge was filed, saying it “stands in solidarity” with the alliance. Delegates to the Liberal Party of Canada’s 2018 convention not only passed a policy calling for “decriminalization of consensual sex work and sex trade” but also voted to make the policy one of its highest-priority ones.

The CCCB pastoral letter leaves no doubt about which side of the debate it supports. “Some people today want to treat prostitution as ‘work,’” the document states. “However, many of its victims have no meaningful choice in it. Prostitution is not consensual sexual activity.”

The letter declares that “the very nature of prostitution as a practice of exploitation precludes it from ever becoming lawful ‘work.’ And from the point of view of Catholic Social Teaching, any sexual act that is not a free gift of self falls short of God’s plan for the flourishing of the human person.”

Pointing to the harm caused by decriminalization of prostitution in New Zealand and Germany, the CCCB states, “Legalization/decriminalization is a failed experiment. It only serves to increase demand by promoting and normalizing the social acceptance of sexual exploitation.”

The pastoral letter seeks to end the demand for prostitution and explicitly supports the current legislation, saying “it is the way forward” because it recognizes that prostitution objectifies the human body and has “a disproportionately negative effect on women and children.” The document also notes that 97 per cent of human-trafficking victims are women and girl, and that Indigenous girls, Asian women, and immigrant women are over-represented among prostituted persons.

“Prostitution is violent and exploitative,” the pastoral letter states. “Stopping the demand for buying sex is the only way to prevent more crimes and the harm caused to the victims of prostitution […] Buying sex in Canada is and should remain a crime.”

The full pastoral letter, entitled “For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free: Pastoral Letter on Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation in Canada,” can be read at cccb.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/CCCB-Human-Trafficking-Pastoral-Letter-2021.pdf.

VCASE’s Kent said she was impressed with the pastoral letter’s depth of knowledge and awareness of the current situation in Canada. She also said it is important to note that a Nanos Research poll, conducted in 2020, found that Canadians are five times more likely to support than oppose the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act. “Safety for victims will never be achieved by decriminalizing the exploiters,” she said.

Sister Nancy Brown, spokesperson for the Archdiocese’s Anti-Human Trafficking Committee, characterized the pastoral letter as “a clear, relevant, and critical challenge to our government to keep, strengthen and enforce” the law. 

“The bishops’ 29-point message affirms the reality that prostitution is inherently harmful, not a free choice, nor work.”

Sister Brown added that she sees the pastoral letter as “an excellent tool to educate and raise awareness of the reality of human trafficking in our society today. Now it must be circulated, read, and acted upon by all parishioners.” (See adjacent column for more of Sr. Brown’s insight.)

Trish Baptie, founding member and Community Engagement Coordinator of EVE (formerly Exploited Voices now Educating) and herself a former prostituted person, had high praise for the pastoral letter. “I think this is an excellent document that hopefully gets in the hands of every Catholic in Canada and that the knowledge they now have propels them forward, perhaps even leaving their comfort zone, to contact their MP and let them know that they support PCEPA,” Baptie said.

Baptie, who addressed the Vancouver Police Board on the issue in November, said she hopes members of the public focus on “men’s role in this exploitation, that the demand for paid sex is the root of not only the exploitation but all the peripheral crimes and societal issues that go along with it.”

She challenged the public to educate men who buy sex on the negative effects of their actions; to educate their Member of Parliament about the issue; and to speak bravely about the subject when it arises in their everyday life.

Baptie concluded, “2022 will be a year when the fight will be on to keep [the anti-prostitution law] and we need all the voices we can get to encourage the federal government and the Official Opposition to keep this legislation. It can be seen as the backbone for creating a safer Canada for women, as well as a more equality-based country.”