Essentially, national research initiatives focusing on sex work in Canada appeared only in the early 1980s. Before this there was a little survey research,53 a few historical studies, and some ethnography.54

In the early 1980s, two large studies were commissioned by the federal government, conducted respectively by the Badgley Committee (1984) and the Fraser Committee (1985). Both committees had very wide mandates. Among the issues assigned to the Badgley Committee were:

• To document the extent of child sexual abuse and recommend how young victims could be better protected, and

• To consider how juvenile prostitution could be prevented.55

  Among the issues assigned to the Fraser Committee was:

• To consider prostitution in Canada with particular reference to loitering and street soliciting for prostitution, the operation of bawdy-houses, living off the avails of prostitution, the exploitation of prostitutes and the law relating to these matters.56

These studies investigated prostitution as well as pornography in cities and provinces across Canada. They concluded with recommendations for Canadian social, political and legal reform.57

These two studies marked the beginning of a period of intense research on sex work in Canada. By 1985, when HIV antibody testing first became widely available, baseline data on sex workers and STDs had already been collected, whereas this was not true of many other populations at risk for HIV infection.

Footnotes

53. Like many of the studies included in this document, these studies noted the particular challenges of recruiting samples of sex workers: "A true random sample is impossible to obtain, because the populations from which to sample [are] undefined. Purveyors of clandestine trade may be difficult to locate, and their participation in a research interview poses problems of danger (from pimps and others) for both the prostitute and the interviewer." Badgley, C., Burrows, B. A. and Yaworski, C., "Street Kids and Adolescent Prostitution: A Challenge for Legal and Social Services," in Bala, N., Hornick, J. P. and Vogl, R., eds., Canadian Child Welfare Law: Children, Families and the State, Toronto, Thompson Educational Publishing Inc., 1991, p. 118. [back]

55. Badgley Committee (Committee on Sexual Offences against Children and Youth), Sexual Offences against Children, Ottawa, Department of Supply and Services, 1984, p. 5.

56. Fraser Committee (Special Committee on Pornography and Prostitution), Pornography and Prostitution in Canada, Ottawa, Department of Supply and Services, 1985, p. 5.

57. Although both the Badgley and the Fraser Committees were large, neither included a single sex worker as a participating member; see Lowman, J., "Prostitution in Canada," in Jackson, M. A., Griffiths, C. T. and Hatch, A., eds., Canadian Criminology: Perspectives on Crime and Criminality, Toronto, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991, p. 131, note 2.