QUICK TAKEAWAY
Procuring Sexual Services: If you play a part in enticing or forcing someone to provide sexual services for money, drugs or other incentives, you can be charged under Section 286.3 of the Criminal Code. Concealing or harbouring a person who sells sexual services for payment, or exercising control over their movements, are also crimes. The maximum penalty is 14 years in prison.
Table of Contents:
What is Procuring?
If you entice or force someone to provide sexual servicesA sexual act that gratifies the person who receives it for considerationAny form of payment in exchange for sexual services (usually money, but it can also be drugs, alcohol, etc.), you can be charged under s.286.3 of the Criminal Code.
You can also face this charge if you hold, conceal or harbour a person who offers sexual services for payment or if you exercise control over their movements. The penalty is more severe if that person is under 18. Those who sell their sexual services cannot be prosecuted for this offence.
According to a Department of Justice (DoJ) document (Prostitution Criminal Law Reform: Bill C-36, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act), a person procures another for prostitutionThe purchase and the sale of sexual services, with only the purchase being illegal if they cause or induce that person to sell sexual services. This distinguishes procuring from the offence of materially benefiting from prostitution. The DoJ document explains that a "classic pimp" is likely to be guilty of both the procuring offence and the material benefit offence since they both induce another person to sell sexual services and receive money from the sale of those services. In contrast, a bouncer who works at a strip club where prostitution occurs may only receive money from selling sexual services. In such a case, the bouncer would only be guilty of the material benefit offence.
What is Needed to Convict
The Crown needs to prove beyond a reasonable doubtThe standard that must be exceeded to find someone guilty that you caused or induced someone else into selling sexual services. This could come down to a he said/she said situation, where the credibility of the other party will be examined. Your defence lawyer may also find that police violated your Charter rights to be protected from unreasonable searches in their investigation. If that is the case, any evidence obtained in that search has to be withdrawn.
Treated as an Indictable Offence
If you have been charged with procuring someone into prostitution the Crown will proceed as an indictable offenceIndictable offences are more-serious criminal offences and you will likely be imprisoned if convicted.
Penalties for Procuring Sexual Services
If you are found guilty of the indictable offence of recruiting, holding, concealing or harbouring a person who provides sexual services for money, or if you exercise control, direction or influence over that person's movements, you face a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison. If the person providing the sexual services is under 18, the maximum penalty remains the same, but a minimum penalty of five years of imprisonment is added.
November 17, 2022
Update: Bill C-5: Mandatory Minimum Penalties Repealed.
Glossary of Legal Terms
Consideration
Money, drugs, alcohol or any other form of payment in exchange for sexual services.
Indictable offence
Indictable offences are the most serious offences under the Criminal Code and they come with more serious punishments, up to a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Prostitution
A transaction that involves both the purchase and the sale of sexual services, with only the purchase being illegal. It is also illegal to live on the material benefits of someone else's sex work.
Reasonable doubt
The Supreme Court of Canada has said that reasonable doubt “falls much closer to absolute certainty than to proof on a balance of probabilities” and “that something less than absolute certainty is required, and that something more than probable guilt is required."
Sexual services
An act that is sexual in nature and whose purpose is to sexually gratify the person who receives it.
