Sex workers are being harmed and exploited, not protected, under the current laws, a coalition of sex workers and sex worker-led groups will argue Monday at a landmark five-day Superior Court hearing — the first step in what they hope will lead to sex work being fully decriminalized in Canada.Instead, there is a “culture of fear” for clients who need to avoid detection by police and, as a result, sex workers are forced to operate in unsafe locations, with limited communication and with no ability to work together to improve their working conditions without risking being charged with third-party offences, the coalition argues in hundreds of pages of material filed with the court, with support from organizations including Amnesty International Canada, LEAF and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.“The government has failed in their responsibility to protect the health and safety of some of the most marginalized people,” said Jenn Clamen, national co-ordinator of the applicant Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform which represents 25 sex worker rights groups.“Sex workers want to report violence but they don’t want to be in contact with police because they could lose their livelihoods, sometimes they lose their housing, they lose their children, they could lose ‘straight’ jobs that they have.”Black, Indigenous and trans sex workers face an even higher risk of violence both from clients and police, Clamen added.Clamen says this lawsuit differs from previous constitutional challenges because it does not target just the third-party offences, but the key foundational provision: that purchasing sex is illegal."