Quick Guide to Responsible Reporting Resources

Beginner/introductory content—3 min. read

This resource is a combination of a backgrounder and an analysis and provides a summary explanation of Canada’s Criminal Code offences related to human trafficking. It also explains how these anti-trafficking laws conflate sex work with human trafficking.

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Gaining a summary understanding of Canada’s anti-trafficking offences in the Criminal Code and how they impact sex work(ers).

This resource introduces readers to the concept of anti-trafficking harm, why anti-trafficking has become such a sensationalized and popular topic in media and political discourse, and what this means for sex workers (especially im/migrant sex workers) when human trafficking and sex work are conflated and treated as the same thing. 

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested. 

Helpful for: An introduction to the complex topic of anti-trafficking, the ways anti-trafficking initiatives conflate human trafficking with sex work and how this harms sex workers.

This resource provides the reader with examples of common ‘red flags’ in anti-trafficking campaigns and explains how these indicators are flawed, ineffective and harmful to im/migrant women in sex work. 

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested. 

Helpful for: A nuanced look at im/migrant and sex worker stereotypes, how they are utilized by anti-trafficking campaigns to further their narrative and the types of harm this can cause to marginalized groups.

This resource was developed by two subject matter experts—Dr. Tamara O’Doherty and Dr. Hayli Millar. They lay out and explain some of the key questions that journalists should be asking and exploring with their sources before writing anything on human trafficking.

Target audience: Journalists. 

Helpful for: Exposure to common sources of mis/disinformation in anti-trafficking agendas and statistics and useful information for more critical engagement with sources on this subject.

This resource lists a number of important milestones in sex work law in Canada.

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested. 

Helpful for: Getting an overview of the legal chronology of sex work law and policy in Canada, including things such as the Supreme Court decision on Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford, the amendments to the IRPR that resulted in sex work prohibition for temporary residents and the implementation of PCEPA.

In a table format, this resource lays out the four possible legal frameworks for sex work—full criminalization, partial decriminalization, legalization, and full decriminalization—while showing how each model would impact metrics like level of societal stigma, risk of violence, access to basic rights, etc.

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Gaining an overview of how Canada’s current laws affect sex work(ers) and what sex work might look like under other possible models.

A brief introduction to the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA). This resource lists and describes the provisions that impact sex work in Canada, such as the purchasing, advertising, material benefit, procuring and communicating offences. 

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Gaining basic knowledge of what PCEPA is and how it relates to the criminalization of sex work in Canada.

This resource is a follow up to the PCEPA Backgrounder and goes into more depth about how the provisions in PCEPA impact sex work in Canada. 

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Gaining a summary understanding of how PCEPA harms sex workers.

This resource introduces the amendments made to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR) in 2013 that prohibit temporary residents from working in the sex industry. 

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Understanding the provisions specific to im/migrants that make working in the sex industry illegal for this population.

As a follow up to the IRPR Sex Work Prohibition Backgrounder, this resource goes into more detail about how the sex work prohibition criminalizes im/migrant sex workers beyond the criminalization already present in Canada’s Criminal Code.

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Understanding how the IRPR sex work prohibition unfairly puts im/migrant sex workers at risk of detention and deportation for an activity that is legal for Canadians and permanent residents.

The third installment in the IRPR series, this resource details how the sex work prohibition is unconstitutional as it violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Understanding how the IRPR’s sex work prohibition for temporary residents violates Charter sections 7 (life, liberty and security of the person) and 15 (equality).

This resource introduces the Bedford v. Canada legal case that successfully challenged the constitutionality of Canada’s previous prostitution laws. It explains the origins of the case, how it progressed through the court system and the ultimate decision by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2013. 

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Familiarization with the constitutional problems inherent in Canada’s laws on sex work, as well as the history of sex workers coming together to challenge them and fight for their rights. 

This resource introduces the 2021 constitutional challenge launched by the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform (CASWLR) against Canada’s sex work laws. This challenge was dismissed by the Ontario Superior Court in late 2023, contributing to the ongoing harms of this legislation. 

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Familiarization with the constitutional problems inherent in Canada’s laws on sex work and efforts to remedy them. 

This resource provides an in-depth look at CASWLR’s arguments against Canada’s sex work laws. 

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Familiarization with the constitutional problems inherent in Canada’s laws on sex work and efforts to remedy them. 

This resource explains the realities of interviewing sex workers—especially im/migrant sex workers—and why this might not be feasible for a journalist. 

Target audience: Journalists. 

Helpful for: Understanding how im/migrant sex workers are at risk of criminalization, deportation, and potential violence through media exposure and how this complicates including their voices in journalistic reporting on sex work(ers).

This resource explains the importance of language when reporting on sex work(ers) and how outdated terms can perpetuate stereotypes, dehumanize people, and contribute to the harmful conflation of sex work with human trafficking.

Target audience: Journalists.

Helpful for: Understanding why language matters, as well as getting familiar with specific terms, phrases, and narratives that need to be changed.

This resource discusses the ethics of writing headlines about sex work(ers).

Target audience: Journalists.

Helpful for: Understanding how poorly worded headlines can impact the sex work community  and contribute to misinformation, stereotypes, dehumanization, stigma and the conflation of sex work with human trafficking. 

This resource discusses the ethics of writing for social media about sex work(ers).  

Target audience: Journalists.

Helpful for: Understanding the impact that social media copy, hashtags and imagery can have when shared on social media platforms and what to consider to make your posts more ethical.

This resource discusses the ethics of sharing sex workers’ stories and syndicating news articles across different markets.  

Target audience: Journalists. 

Helpful for: Gaining an understanding of the importance of responsible sharing/syndication and how it impacts sex workers.

This resource tackles the issue of ethical use of images in sex work reporting. This resource was developed in collaboration with the women SWAN serves and gives some examples of images that should not be used, as well as an explanation for why it isn’t so simple to replace bad images with good alternatives. 

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Understanding the complexity of the sex work narrative and how this translates to use of imagery in reporting. 

This resource was developed from a focus group of im/migrant women working in the indoor sex industry in Vancouver. In the women’s exact words, this resource explains some of the problems with current journalistic representation of sex work(ers) and suggestions for improvement. 

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Hearing first-hand the negative impacts of irresponsible journalism and how it personally impacts a group of women engaged in sex work.

This glossary lists and defines terms commonly used or seen by SWAN in the course of our work with im/migrant sex workers in the community. 

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Exposure to terminology related to sex work and the sex work community.

This resource gives some common examples of outdated and harmful terms used to describe sex work and sex workers, as well as context and recommendations for alternatives.

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Understanding the impact of language and why certain terms contribute to stigma, bias, conflation, and bad policies around sex work. 

This resource provides an introduction to some of the ways data and statistics can be misleading—either intentionally or unintentionally— with examples. Readers are encouraged to consider the ramifications for marginalized or otherwise vulnerable groups.

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Those without a statistsics background to understand how data and statistics can be fallible and why it is so important to use critical thinking before accepting statistics at face value.

This resource introduces readers to the realities of men and masc people engaged in sex work, including dispelling some of the myths and common assumptions about the population, and highlighting some of their unique struggles.

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Those wanting to learn more about the diversity of the sex work community.

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Understanding that sensational reporting and clickbait cause a moral panic that distracts from evidence-based anti-trafficking work and harms sex workers at the same time. 

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Understanding how sex workers’ lived experiences are often missed or dismissed in reporting, and how this creates a biased narrative. 

Target audience: Journalists or anyone interested.

Helpful for: Understanding how ‘heroes’ can centre themselves, despite good intentions, ‘rescuing’ sex workers that don’t need it while overlooking actual trafficking victims.