Sexual Regulation and the Law: A Canadian Perspective





Price: $39.95

Page Count: 354

Publication Date: November 2019

ISBN: 978-1-77258-210-9

Does Canada need any more collections about legal regulation of sex and sexuality? Volumes exist dealing with sex work and pornographies. Certainly, volumes abound dealing with emerging sexualities in Canada and new sexual freedoms.  This book seeks to do more than tell a story of broad generalities about the law. It forges the links between the history of law and modern iterations of judgments pertaining to that law. Hence the uncomfortable line between Victorian morality (often) and modern regulation, is thematically explored through the book. More modern iterations of sexual regulation in Canada are being deployed and, in this book, the authors explore the interplay between emerging digital technologies and legal regulation. Newer laws in Canada have been drafted to recognize that sexual expression can be a means of violence inherently, and thus an exploration of modern sexual digital expression and its emerging jurisprudence represent a new frontier in the regulation of sex and sexuality in Canada. We explore how legal regulation has responded to these new crimes.

This collection is founded upon the editors’ joint experiences in teaching in law and society programs in Canada. The authors have witnessed cobbled together curriculums which rely upon a potpourri of sources from law, criminology, criminal justice and law and society disciplines. There exists a growing interest from university students and legal scholars alike for a reader in the context of law reform and legal change in respect of sexual politics and movements in Canada, especially in the context of more modern iterations of crime and sexual politics. Furthermore, while this collection is intended to be educational in the main, it will foster broader discussions in the context of legal regulation of sex and sexuality in Canadian jurisprudence.”

This innovative and thought-provoking book provides rigorous academic scholarship that creatively combines law and legal studies. It offers doctrinal discussion of law that intersects with theoretical explorations of how judges read issues of sex and critical inquiry into whether the jurisprudence appropriately reads sex and sexuality in its contemporary contexts. The text uniquely broadens consideration how the work of the judiciary is exercised within and through law. It critically explores how law is engaged in creative exposition of judicial rhetoric and reasoning, rendering diverse sexual identities and practices more observable and governable within society.

- Dr. Rebecca Jaremko Bromwich, Carleton University Department of Law and Legal Studies

This ambitious and timely volume sheds light on the developments across a whole range of gender and sexuality-related topics within criminal law. The authors' trans-substantive approach allows them to provide insights unavailable through individual treatment of particular problems. They make an important contribution to an under-theorized area of Canadian criminal law.

- Erin Sheley
Associate Professor
University of Oklahoma College of Law

"This collection of essays is a superb example of law and society scholarship at its finest."

- Nicole C. O'Byrne, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Faculty of Law,
University of New Brunswick and President of the Canadian Law and Society Association

Chapter 1: Let’s Talk about Sex- Time to Tap Taboo?
The Juridification of Legal Decisions: Strange Currencies and ‘Stranger’ Things
The Chapters
Works Cited
Chapter 2: Indecency and Obscenity Law: From Hicklin to the Post-Labaye Era – A (Tall) Tale of Risk?
Introduction
The Hicklin era (1868-1962)
The Community Standards era (1962-1992)
The Butler era (1992-2005)
The Labaye era (2005-present)
Exploring Labaye’s Area of Expertise: Indecency and Obscenity Contexts
Labaye’s Effect Beyond Indecency and Obscenity Contexts?
Discussion
Conclusion
Works Cited
Chapter 3: Sex Work in Canada: Beginnings, Bedford, and Beyond
Introduction
Making Sense of Sex Work
Early Historical and Legislative Developments of Sex Work in Canada: Vagrancy and Solicitation Law
Presenting Positions on Sex Work: Criminalization, Legalization/Decriminalization, and the Nordic Model
Prostitution Reference: Challenging the Criminal Code’s Prostitution Provisions
Bedford: The Road to Striking Down the Criminal Code’s Prostitution Provisions
The Trial Decision
The Appellate Decision—Majority
The Appellate Dissent—Minority
The Supreme Court Decision and the Aftermath
The Passing of Bill C-36: A Victory for Stereotypes, a Defeat for Sex Workers
Section 286. 1(1): A prohibition against the purchase of sexual services.
Section 286.2: Prohibitions on receiving ‘financial or other material benefit’ for sex work and Section 286.3: Prohibitions on procuring sexual services through recruiting, harbouring, concealing or holding a person for the purposes of sex work.
Section 286.4: Prohibition against advertising of sexual services.
The Pressures for and Resistance to Legalization/Decriminalization: The Trouble with the Trudeau Government
Conclusion
Works Cited
Chapter 4: Intimate Images and the Law
Introduction
Framing the Issue of NCDII
Scope of the problem
Harms
The Emergence of Section 162.1
Multiple Legal Responses
Table 4.0: Type of Charge Related to Intimate Image Non-consensual Distribution 2014-2018
The Code and Intimate Images
Case Examples of 162.1
Sentencing and 162.1
Voyeurism Cases
Other Criminal Code Provisions
Privacy Legislation
Non-Consensual Image Legislation
Common Law Torts
Discussion and Concluding Remarks: Providing a Critical, Gendered Lens
Works Cited
Chapter 5: Technologies of Regulating Sexual Offences Against Youth
Introduction
Child Luring: A Brief History of Legislative Governance
Child Luring: Authoritative Cases
Challenging Proactive Investigations and Legislative Assumptions Under s. 271.1
Entrapment
Harm
Constitutional Issues
Policing Kink
Child Pornography: A History of Legislative Government
Child Pornography: Authoritative Cases
Child Pornography and Harm ‘All Dolled Up’
Conclusion
Works Cited
Chapter 6: Rethinking Bestial Regulation
Introduction
Understanding Bestiality and its Occurrence
Laws Against Bestiality and Sodomy: Historical Perspectives
Conceptual link between bestiality and same-sex relationships
Development of anti-bestiality laws in Canada
Anti-bestiality laws in the 20th century: shifting parameters
A Deeper Dive into Canadian Law and Reported Cases
Critical Perspectives on Canadian Bestiality Law
Gender and racism
Animal husbandry/modern farming
Conclusion
Works Cited
Chapter 7: Our Pronouns are Protected, But Not Our Bodies: How Gender-Based Protections Fail Criminalized Trans People
Introduction
Contextualizing the Trans Rights Movement: The History of Trans Activism
Trans Rights in the Law
The Senate Debates and the Issue of Pronouns
Misgendering and the Law
The Criminal Code
The Human Rights Act
Reflecting on the Pronoun Debate
The Limits of the Law
Hate Crime Protections
Gender-Based Protections
Trans Sex Workers
Trans Prisoners
Conclusion
Works Cited
Chapter 8 Considering Judicial Behaviour and Language in Sexual Assault Trials
Introduction
The Law of Sexual Assault – A Brief Overview
The Legacy of R v Ewanchuk
Commentary After Ewanchuk
The Persistence of Myth and Stereotype in Sexual Assault Cases
R v Rhodes – Sex in the Air
R v Wagar – The Perfect Storm
R v Al-Rawi – A Drunk Can Consent
Is There a Path Forward?
Works Cited

Richard Jochelson is a faculty member at the Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba and holds his PhD in law from Osgoode Hall. He has published peer-reviewed articles dealing with obscenity, indecency, and police powers. He is a member of the Bar of Manitoba and has co-authored/co-edited several books.

James Gacek is a doctoral candidate at Edinburgh Law School. He continues to publish in areas of incarceration, genocidal carcerality, critical issues in media, justice, and security studies, the exploitation of human-animal relations, and the broader politics of judicial reasoning.   

Richard Jochelson is a faculty member at the Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba and holds his PhD in law from Osgoode Hall. He has published peer-reviewed articles dealing with obscenity, indecency, and police powers. He is a member of the Bar of Manitoba and has co-authored/co-edited several books.

James Gacek is a doctoral candidate at Edinburgh Law School. He continues to publish in areas of incarceration, genocidal carcerality, critical issues in media, justice, and security studies, the exploitation of human-animal relations, and the broader politics of judicial reasoning. 

Lauren Menzie is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta. She has published work in socio-legal theory, discourse-surrounding consent, and the legal regulation of marginalized sexual practices.

Leon Laidlaw is a PhD student in Sociology at Carleton University, where he is conducting his dissertation research on the topic of transgender prisoners. His research interests fall within the scope of Trans* studies, gender and trans theory, sex work, critical and feminist criminology, and intersectionality. 

David Ireland  is an Assistant Professor at Robson Hall, University of Manitoba. He practiced criminal law as both Crown and defence counsel before joining the faculty in 2016. His graduate thesis focused on plea-bargaining process in Manitoba. 

Taryn Hepburn is a PhD candidate at Carleton University in the Department of Law and Legal Studies. Her current research interests are youth criminal law and policing, theories of governance, carceral practices involving youth, intersectional concerns related to youth and criminality, and archival/genealogical methodologies.

Alicia Dueck -Read is a law student at the University of Manitoba. Previously, she completed her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in History from the University of Winnipeg and her Masters of Arts in Peace, Development, Security, and International Conflict Transformation from the University of Innsbruck, Austria.

Brayden McDonald is JD candidate who is entering into his final year of study at Robson Hall. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Studies in 2016 from the University of Manitoba. Brayden has done legal research in the field of international nuclear disarmament.