New paper explores issues of human dignity, liberty, and prostitution policy in Canada

(August 26, 2026) The Supreme Court of Canada recently deferred a decision on whether Canada’s Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA) violates the Charter right to liberty. While we await further related court rulings, a new paper from Cardus strengthens the ethical basis for Canada’s existing Nordic Model of prostitution laws, which focus on criminalizing buyers, decriminalizing sellers, and supporting those seeking to exit prostitution.

Is “Sex Work” Actually Work? Human Dignity, Liberty, and Prostitution Policy in Canada argues that policymakers should stop describing prostitution as “sex work” and instead use language that reflects the violation of human dignity inherent in prostitution.

“Prostitution is a violation of human dignity by treating a person merely as a means to another’s end – it is objectification,” says Renze Nauta, the report’s author and Cardus’ Program Director for Work and Economics. “Because prostitution undermines dignity, it cannot properly be called work. Nor is it compatible with economic liberty, properly understood, because it undermines the very basis for freedom itself.”

Using the correct terminology is crucial to the debate around prostitution, as this is not a career path to be considered alongside any other. Over two-thirds of participants in a federal program for those involved in prostitution report being coerced into prostitution.

Prostitution is inherently dangerous, exposing mainly women and girls to many serious risks. One study of sex workers in Vancouver showed that 49 percent of respondents stated that they had been diagnosed with a mental health issue such as depression or anxiety. That same study found that 40 percent of respondents reported injection drug use and 69 percent reported non-injection drug use. Another study of Vancouver women who used drugs found that 56 percent of respondents had engaged in prostitution.

In researching this paper, which is rooted in sex-realist feminist thinking, Nauta interviewed survivors of prostitution and feminist thinkers, including those both for and against decriminalization, and the paper incorporates their real experiences and perspectives. 

“’Sex work’ is one of the most prevalent misnomers currently out there in the common lexicon,” says Trisha Baptie of Formerly Exploited Voices Now Educating. “This paper succinctly puts to rest why sex cannot be “work” and the harms associated with trying to sanitize the verbiage around prostitution.” 

While those interviewed do not all agree on a single path forward, they concur on the need for more supports for women and to avoid criminalizing prostituted persons. Sex-realist feminism emphasizes the importance that we treat each other as persons rather than as products or as means to our own gratification.

MEDIA INQUIRIES:
Renze Nauta
media@cardus.ca

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Cardus is a non-partisan think tank dedicated to clarifying and strengthening, through research and dialogue, the ways in which society’s institutions can work together for the common good.