A Victory for the Vulnerable at the Supreme Court
Many of Acacia’s clients are involved in ministries which seek to protect the vulnerable. In today’s newsletter, we’re covering a topic of interest to our clients who are involved in anti-human trafficking and protection of vulnerable youth ministries. I will occasionally write on these topics to keep our clients informed of significant legal decisions with implications for Canadian Christians and all those who share a passion for this work.
Good news from the Supreme Court of Canada: For the second time in less than a year, Canada’s prostitution laws have been upheld. The Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, passed by the Harper government in 2014, mandates a minimum of six months’ imprisonment for obtaining (or communicating for the purpose of obtaining) “sexual services” from a person under 18 in exchange for money.
In 2018, Mario Denis was arrested, tried, and convicted for communicating with a minor for the purpose of obtaining sexual services from a minor after a police operation in Quebec. He appealed his six-month sentence, and the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld his sentence but declared the six-month mandatory minimum unconstitutional. The Crown appealed to the Supreme Court, and in a 7-2 decision, the Court upheld the mandatory minimum.
“There is no doubt that the sexual commodification of children is a veritable scourge in Canada, one that the state has every interest in suppressing and severely punishing,” wrote Justice Suzanne Côté and Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin for the majority in R v. Denis. “Indeed, any sexual offence committed against a child involves an intolerable interference with their personal autonomy and their bodily and psychological integrity.”
André Schutten, Litigation Counsel at THE Acacia Group, emphasized the importance of this ruling and of the 2014 legislation. “This law fundamentally shifted Canada’s approach to the issue of prostitution, seeing the commodification of sexual activity not merely as a nuisance to be suppressed, but as a form of exploitation that must be eradicated,” Schutten said. “The law shifts its attention from prostituted women and children and targets pimps and johns with the full force of Criminal Law.”
The justices concurred. “While it is undeniable that all sexual offences committed against children necessarily entail a risk of serious bodily and psychological harm, this risk is even more pronounced in the context of the commodification of sexual activity, where the worst forms of violence, coercion and abuse are commonplace,” they wrote in R v. Denis. “As recognized by the preamble to the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, S.C. 2014, c. 25, sexual commodification inherently constitutes a form of serious exploitation that causes significant societal harm and undermines human dignity and equality.”
Significantly, the justices highlighted and condemned Denis’s use of the phrase “sex worker” to describe “a child,” and stated that “terms like ‘sex worker’ ought not to be used in describing children who are victims of sexual commodification. These terms greatly trivialize the gravity of the crime and do nothing but obscure the true nature of the exploitative relationship that exists between the victims of this crime and the offenders who commit it.” The justices also rejected the use of terms like “sex work,” “sex trade,” “customer,” or “client” on the grounds that “such words blur the exploitative nature of the child sex industry.”
“I am heartened to see how the majority decision embraces the normative conclusions of Parliament,” Schutten said. “The court rightly rejects the terminology of ‘sex work’ for children, instead describing the exploitation as a horrible victimization of vulnerable children. The court’s decision also uses very strong language affirming Parliament’s desire to shift attitudes on this issue.”
There have been multiple constitutional challenges to Canada’s prostitution laws. In the summer of 2025, the Supreme Court of Canada held that key provisions of the law did not violate the Charter’s guarantee of life, liberty, and security of the person in a case called R. v. Kloubakov (the Acacia Group represented an intervener in that case).
In another comprehensive constitutional challenge of the law before the Ontario Superior Court in 2023, after conducting an exhaustive review of evidence and arguments, the trial judge found that the prostitution law was constitutionally sound. (The Acacia Group also represented an intervener in that case.) In this case, released last month, the Supreme Court also upheld the constitutionality of the criminal sentences imposed for those who sexually exploit children. The momentum is moving toward embracing the model that sees prostitution not as an empowering practice or a form of “work” but rather as what it truly is: a system that sexually exploits vulnerable people.
The justices emphasized the importance of considering the “disproportionate impact of this crime on highly vulnerable populations” in order to “properly understand both its harmfulness and wrongfulness,” concluding that: “[T]he offence of obtaining sexual services from a person under the age of 18 years for consideration is a veritable scourge with devastating consequences both for victims and for society more generally. The state therefore has every interest in severely punishing it.”
“Sometimes those of us who care deeply about justice can get a little discouraged by some of the decisions coming out of the courts,” Schutten said. “We might read in the news about decisions we strongly disagree with. But decisions like this one remind us not to abandon engagement with this very important institution in society: our courts. Justice matters, compassion for the vulnerable matters, and all of us have a responsibility to zealously pursue justice for all, especially the vulnerable. This decision should be seen in that light.”
The Acacia Group is also committed to the cause of justice, and it is at the heart of much of our work.
This newsletter is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. No solicitor-client relationship is created by reading or relying on this newsletter. The information contained herein is current as of the date of publication and may not reflect subsequent legal developments. Readers should consult qualified legal counsel about their specific circumstances.
Jonathon Van Maren is a strategic communications consultant with The Acacia Group, where he supports churches, charities, and faith-based organizations in navigating complex cultural and public issues with clarity and conviction. He is an experienced writer, speaker, and author with more than a decade of leadership in national advocacy, and his work has been widely published across leading North American and European outlets. Drawing on deep expertise in media engagement and crisis communications, he helps clients protect their mission, strengthen their public voice, and advance their work with integrity.