Ottawa

Anglican clergy calls prostitution bill immoral

Anglican clergy says Bill C-36 violates sex workers’ human rights
Centre Block’s Peace Tower is shown through the gates of Parliament Hill as Finance Minister Jim Flaherty prepares to table the budget on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Many religious groups in Canada, especially Catholics and Evangelicals, have been enthusiastically supporting the government’s new prostitution bill, Bill C-36, which aims to eradicate the sex trade by criminalizing those who buy sex, not those who sell it. The House of Commons justice committee heard testimony this week in praise of the legislation from a handful of Christian groups, such as the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and Defend Dignity.

But dozens of Anglican clergy say the proposed law is immoral and endangers sex workers, and they are urging the government to withdraw it.

Rev. Bruce Bryant-Scott, rector at St. Matthias parish in Victoria, has submitted an open letter to the justice committee signed by 33 of his Anglican colleagues. “While we can debate the pros and cons of sex work in our Canadian society, and bring our religious beliefs to bear upon both sides … this proposed legislation does nothing to advance the welfare of sex workers,” it reads.

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Bryant-Scott is new to the cause for sex workers’ rights and felt compelled to write the letter after a member from PEERS Victoria, a sex workers support group, approached him for help. “It is not moral and ethical to pass laws that would drive these people underground, even if we disapprove of what they are doing,” he says. Even though the committee hearings end Thursday, he’s hoping to get more clergy on board.

One of the letter’s signatories includes the Rev. Mother Elizabeth Ann Eckert from the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine in Toronto. “I’m living the life of a celibate woman who’s taken vows to not have sex, so it’s funny to be commenting about it,” she says. “But I feel very much that these women and men who are involved in the sex trade need to have their voices heard around this more so than those of us involved in religion.” She says the Bible provides ample support for sex workers’ rights.

However, not all Christians, or even all Anglicans, share this interpretation of scripture. Bryant-Scott says it’s a perspective held by a significant number of people within the Anglican Church of Canada, but it’s not an official stance.

Rev. David Opheim, who runs a drop-in centre for women and transgender sex workers at the All Saints Church-Community Centre in Toronto, says that prostitution must be legalized in order to make the sex trade safer. “You don’t bring about change by over-regulating and over-legislating and not listening to people,” he says.

One of the main reasons for the differences of opinion among Christians is that they aren’t typically comfortable with unconventional types of sexual expression, Opheim says. “It’s one of the tragedies of the ways Christian theology has unfolded through the ages. We like to do it, but we don’t like to talk about it.”

“There’s a large number of people who follow a particular Christian doctrine who feel they must impose all of their dogma on everybody else. From my perspective and the friends of mine who have signed this letter, we don’t come from that place.”

Sex workers welcome the unexpected Anglican support. “I was extremely heartened to read their letter and very moved and very touched,” says Jean McDonald, executive director of Maggie’s: the Toronto Sex Workers’ Action Project, who testified against the bill at the committee on Tuesday.

McDonald says her group doesn’t typically communicate with religious groups to avoid unpleasant encounters. “Honestly, I don’t feel safe to do so because their perception of sex workers is so negative. They won’t listen to me,” she says. “They think that any sex worker in the industry is a victim, that we just need to see the light and become a repentant whore—they’re not so keen on the unrepentant whores.”

The justice committee will reconvene July 15 for a final clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-36.