Prostitution to earn a living

 written by Beth Caver for Terrian Wallings' blog post on January 19, 2023

    Prostitution is one of the biggest taboos and problems in Canada and the way that Canada decided to solve it was to ban it. In 2014 the parliament of Canada made it illegal to purchase or advertise sex work. To a majority of Canadians, this was a good choice to prevent their reputation from being ruined and to help protect Canada's dignity and equality, but a poll was taken on July 16,2014 in Ottawa that showed 45.4% of Canadians think otherwise. When outlawing we need to consider who would be affected by the law and what will happen to them when the law comes into effect. We as a country have to think to ourselves, 'Was this the best solution?'

A survey that was taken back in 1980 showed that 70% of adult females and males started sex work way before they were 18. A big cause of this is their fleeing from home at an early age and they become unable to support themselves so they turn to prostitution, so the real problem that arises is the failure of help in a household. Another reason some people turn to prostitution is that they have very few options for other jobs or they're discriminated against by jobs because of appearance. A reason could also be that they have trouble getting approved for a work permit and they have no other choice but to work under the table.  Many workers also struggle with getting enough money if they were trying to support themselves and their kids. The question we have to ask is 'are minimum wages enough to support a single-income family?'

Due to the outlawing of prostitution, a lot is being done under the table which is dangerous because the workers aren't protected. Many workers are abused and or die because "pimps" know they can do it without consequences. This is the reason there were many protests, instead of taking measures to protect the workers and have them still be able to do what they want they ban it and raise the risk of workers being hurt. Since it's banned many also take advantage of that fact, this is also where a lot of drug dealing happens. In conclusion, we as Canadians have to find a safer solution and weigh the pros and cons of banning it when we can give them labor rights where they are ensuring safety and protection. What can we really do to help this cause? We need to speak out and not talk about prostitution like it's a taboo topic when we make a movement or speak up. The government follows.