Joint submission to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security on Bill S-210

In a joint submission to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, West Coast LEAF and the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity (CGSHE) are urging the committee to reject Bill S-210: An Act to restrict young persons’ online access to sexually explicit material.

Bill S-210 neglects to meaningfully consult with online sex workers who would be directly impacted by the proposed legislation, and who are experts in navigating sexually explicit materials in the online sphere. Considerations about sex workers’ occupational health and safety must be included in the Standing Committee’s deliberations about legislative and policy responses to online sexual material and young people’s healthy sexuality.

If the government is serious about supporting young people to navigate and develop a healthy relationship with their sexuality, we call on them to uphold young people’s right to access comprehensive sexual education instead of investing in an ill-conceived and harmful bill.

In our submission, we urge the Committee to:

• Meaningfully consult with sex workers in any deliberations about online sexually explicit content.
• Collaborate and learn from sex educators who work with young people to explore safe and appropriate approaches to improving young people’s digital literacy and understandings of healthy sexuality.
• Refrain from implementing further punitive restrictions to regulate online sex work environments.

This work builds on a past joint submission with CGSHE on Bill S-203: An Act to restrict young persons’ online access to sexually explicit material, and further demonstrates that punitive restrictions on sex work undermine occupational health and safety for sex workers.

Read the full submission (PDF, 238 kb).