METRAC's Community Justice Program presents this forum on the Criminalization of Women with Specific Emphasis on Women involved in the Sex-Trade
Justice Not Jails:
Threats of Anti-Prostitution Provisions and The Cycle of Criminalization
November 30th, 2009, 12:30-2:00 pm
Bennett Lecture Hall, University of Toronto Law School
(light lunch and refreshments will be served)
Featuring:
Alan N. Young, Criminal Lawyer & Professor
Currently before the Supreme Court of Canada arguing against provisions that criminalize sex trade workers.
Sergeant Wendy Leaver, Toronto Police Service
Investigates sexual assault cases against sex workers.
Robyn Bourgeois, CAVE Founder
Marcia McFarlane, Survivor of Criminalization
Donna Bascom, Survivor of Criminalization
Gail Teabo, Survivor of Criminalization
Moderated by: Zahra Dhanani, Legal Director of METRAC
This event is co-hosted by METRAC and Community Partners, including the University of Toronto’s Women and the Law group, the Criminal Law Students Association, and Pro Bono Students Canada.
Description:
Criminalized Women experience violations of their legal rights, but often do not have access to legal information or support. METRAC’s Legal Director Zahra Dhanani, states, “Women who are being criminalized and imprisoned, in particular young, poor, aboriginal, and racialized women, are the fastest growing population worldwide.” In Canada, there has been a 200% increase in the number of women in prison over the past decade.[1]
In 2007, the Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children (METRAC) undertook a project to address this gap by creating legal information materials for Criminalized Women and service providers who work with women who are criminalized and provincially imprisoned. [2] METRAC is inviting the public to engage in a discussion on the legislative and procedural changes that are needed in the Canadian Justice System, to solve systemic problems that further marginalize these women, and violate their rights.
Among the increasing group of women who are being criminalized are women who experience or have experienced violence, and women involved in the sex-trade profession. Alan Young, Osgoode Hall Law School Professor is a lawyer who is representing Terri-Jean Bedford, a famous Canadian dominatrix, and other current or former sex-trade workers. Mr. Young is currently arguing that legislation prohibiting sex-trade workers from engaging in safe work indoors, communicating for the purposes of prostitution, and living on the avails of the profession violates these women’s rights under Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
METRAC is committed to ending the cycle of criminalization that infringes on the rights of women and violates their safety. As Mr. Young suggests, anti-prostitution legislation pushes sex-trade workers outdoors and “exposes them to the horrors of predatory killers.”
The criminalization of sex-trade workers contributes to a vicious cycle of discrimination and gender-based violence, violation of women’s rights, and institutionalization of uninformed and inaccessible laws pertaining to the sex-trade profession. Join us on November 30th for this discussion.
For more information on the criminalization of women, please visit our website www.owjn.org.
[1] Pate, K. (2000). Women in Corrections: the Context the Challenges. (paper presented at Women in Corrections: Staff and Clients Conference with the Department for Correctional Services SA) Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies.
