MONTREAL — Quebec's most prominent women's group is being split by a debate over whether to acknowledge prostitution as a freely chosen career.
Members of Quebec's main feminist federation adopted a motion Sunday night recognizing that women can choose to become sex workers and can consent to sexual activity in exchange for money.
Prostitution abolitionists, who believe all sex work is necessarily exploitative, are now questioning whether to remain in the group.
Federation president Gabrielle Bouchard says members had a range of views regarding sex work, but she says the large majority of the 150 representatives at the general assembly supported the motion.
A spokeswoman for a Montreal-based prostitution abolitionist group says that following Sunday's vote, it will ask members whether to remain in the federation.
Federation members were also supposed to vote on a motion supporting all Muslim public servants who wish to wear a hijab at work, but the vote was postponed because members wanted more information.
The federation's current position says public servants in positions of authority should be prohibited from wearing conspicuous religious symbols at work.
