Canadian Supreme Court grants standing in prostitution law case

In the recent decision Attorney General of Canada v. Downtown Eastside Sex Workers United Against Violence Society and Sheryl Kiselbach, the Canadian Supreme Court has held that rules on public-interest litigation must be interpreted liberally when deciding who can bring a constitutional challenge to the courts. In deciding that the group had standing to bring a challenge to British Columbian sex work laws, the court stated that, “the constitutionality of the prostitution provisions of the Criminal Code constitutes a serious justiciable issue and the respondents, given their work, have a strong engagement with the issue…(the circumstances) favour exercising discretion to grant public interest standing to the respondents to bring their claim. Granting standing will not only serve to enhance the principle of legality with respect to serious issues of direct concern to some of the most marginalized members of society, but it will also promote the economical use of scarce judicial resources”. The broader impact of the ruling is that it will now be easier for other interest groups also to take public interest litigation to the courts.

 

The group seeking leave to apply for constitutional review hopes to overturn the laws which criminalise adult prostitution. The case began in 2007 and due to the considerable delay in obtaining a decision from the court the challenge may now be superseded by a different case with similar arguments.