Complaints over sex workers fall
City votes this week on proposal to dissolve prostitution task force
Calls to Calgary police about prostitution have steadily declined over the past four years as the city ponders ending its task force on the issue. The decline in calls could be caused by sex workers operating in private as well as increased used of exit services.
The city launched a committee to study prostitution last February after the Supreme Court struck down some Criminal Code prostitution offences. A year later — with a new federal bill enacted and local exit strategies bolstered — the city’s protective services committee will vote Wednesday on a proposal to dissolve its task force.
As part of the committee’s briefing note, Calgary police reported a steady decline in calls related to prostitution over the past four years, with 229 calls in 2014, down from 367 in 2011.
On a smaller scale, police also report fewer calls in January and February of this year — after Bill C- 36 took effect — with 18 calls over those two months compared with 22 in the same two months last year, and 32 in the first two months of 2011.
Police noted that 69 per cent of prostitution- related police calls occur in the Beltline and Forest Lawn areas.
The report suggests three causes for the decline: law enforcement; an increase in the use of exit programs; and activity moving indoors in response to recent legislation.
The federal Bill C- 36, enacted in December, criminalized the purchase of sex for the first time in Canada — previous offences surrounded profiting from sex work. The bill now makes it a criminal offence to buy sex — especially near schools and daycares — and to advertise another person’s sexual services, and threatens pimps with up to 14 years in jail.
Sex workers told the Herald last year the bill would make prostitution less visible and thus less safe because they’ll no longer be able to suss out a client in a public space. The federal government, however, said the new law shields “victims” of sex work from prosecution.
Meanwhile, two city- funded programs are set to launch this spring to help those effected by sex work.
The Servants Anonymous Society will roll out a Vitality Employment Program to provide former sex workers with training and educational opportunities while the roving Prostitution Outreach Program run by HIV Community Link’s Shift program will be expanded.
The protective services committee votes Wednesday on the proposal to dissolve the task force. If passed, that proposal then faces a final vote at council.