By Peter Berton

MONTREAL – In a move that may precede changes in Canada’s prostitution laws, from now on Montreal police officers will treat sex workers as victims rather than criminals.

“Victims of sexual exploitation are vulnerable and have been victimized all their lives,” Montreal Police Detective-Sergeant Dominic Monchamp said. “We don’t want to be party to that victimization. We have decided to change our strategy and go after the people who use, manipulate and profit from the vulnerability of these girls.”

The shift in focus from prostitutes to their clients and pimps is in line with expected changes in the law of the land. Last year, Canada’s Supreme Court struck down a nationwide prohibition on sex work because, the court said, the law violated sex workers’ human rights.

Canada’s federal government immediately scrambled to replace the now-dead law with something that would pass judicial muster. The favored plan at the moment is based on the so-called Nordic Model, which is used by some northern European countries. The model criminalizes the behavior of johns and pimps but not that of hookers.

The Montreal Police’s new attitude is linked to the department’s just-announced three-year plan to fight sexual exploitation and human trafficking. The plan includes additional training for officers, psychological support for victimized sex workers and a 24-hour hotline and support center where those who are forced into sex work against their will can get help.

The change has been welcomed by the sex workers’ rights group Stella, but only to a point.

“It’s a step in the right direction to stop arresting women in the sex industry,” Stella outreach worker Robin Maynard told CTV News. “It’s good to see police with the idea of prioritizing their interventions on coercion and human trafficking rather than the sex industry.”

The Montreal Police remain unwilling to acknowledge that, for many prostitutes, un-coerced sex work is a profitable career choice they willingly adopted.

“Not all sex workers are victims,” Maynard told the Montreal Gazette newspaper. “Many work consensually in the industry.”

She also warned against adopting the Nordic Model, which would make clients criminals, and motivate them to hide their use of prostitutes.

“Sex workers are spushed into violent situations when the sex trade is forced underground,” Maynard warned.