Law nerdery: Prostitution laws in Ontario struck down as unconstitutional! :O

[goldy_dollar]

Ontario Superior Court judge strikes down prostitution law!!

SO EXCITING!! The Judge's decision reflects what harm-reduction activists have been saying for years - that Canada's prostitution laws put women in danger, contrary to section 7 of the Charter, the right to life liberty and security of the person. It's only a lower-court decision, so the

Comments

[professor_spork]

Belle is pleased!

[goldy_dollar]

lol Belle. GET IT GIRL.

I like that Ontario quietly exists in Canada, all boring and wholesome and undemanding, and then every once in a while stands up and does something really progressive. Way to make me briefly proud of you, adopted province.

[deathisyourart]

I admit that I am a little concerned about how this will play out. When you take away a source of revenue for organized crime they tend to offer more harmful services to make up the difference.

I'll be paying attention to this and hoping for the best.

[goldy_dollar]

Hmm, I'm not sure I'm following? Putting aside a discussion on the pros/cons of having organized crime involved in prostitution (which while I'm sure is very much the case, I don't have much knowledge on), the laws that the judge struck down are those that surround prostitution. The act of prostitution itself has never been illegal in Canada - but it IS illegal to have bawdy houses and to communicate for the purposes of sex. Striking it down in Ontario should have a two-fold effect: 1). It should make the lives of prostitutes easier; 2). Allow them to go to the police and seek protection without being afraid that they will face retribution for conducting an illegal act. I'm not really seeing how much that would be connected to organized crime? But maybe I'm missing something.

[deathisyourart]

Ya...that is what happens when I don't explain myself. Sorry! I'm thrilled that sex workers will be able to use houses legally, and be able to go to the police, but I worry what that will mean for those sex workers who are in situations connected to organized crime.

What happens when they no longer need O.C.(organized crime) to protect them? How does O.C. insure that they keep their workers and that revenue stream? Also, when you lose your sex workers, what service do you replace that with? O.C.s tend to replace one service with something more extreme that wasn't offered before, for example: when alcohol stopped being illegal in the states after prohibition ended the O.C.s moved to heroin, cocaine, and a lot more guns. My concern is whether or not this ruling will come along with greater resources put towards investigating and stopping sexual slavery and human trafficking? I am waiting to see what happens around this ruling.

[mrv3000]

Yay? I don't know what the existing law says or how it harms prostitutes, and the article was getting into politics and vacuums and...I wandered off.

I probably have a whole tl;dr essay in me about prostitution, and how I'm not in favor of it due to creating male-dominated society sex objects (yes, I know, choice and all that), but people's safety trumps my objections to it. That's more important.

[goldy_dollar]

BUT MICHELLE, POLITICAL VACUUMS ARE EXCITING.

The tl;dr version is that while prostitution ITSELF isn't illegal in Canada, acts around it are - soliciting for sex being the big one. (Translation: If you are a high class escort like Billie Piper in SDoaCG, you are okay, but if you're one of the vulnerable ones on the street, you're probably conducting an illegal activity and therefore completely unable to seek police protection). Anyway, the largest serial killer in Canadian history was finally just put behind bars for life, and he had spent most of the 90s and early 2000s killing prostitutes on his farm in British Columbia. I think some estimates put his murder count at somewhere in the high 40s. D: There's some creepy quote where he told an undercover police officer he wanted to make it an "even 50" before he sloppy.

But if one good thing came out of the Pickton murders, there is certainly a strong argument to be made that prostitution laws in this country have put lives at stake.

I probably have a whole tl;dr essay in me

[mrv3000]

Okay, that's something that really did need to be legally corrected. (And CREEPY. I've never heard about this guy before.)

And it really is something that's here to stay. They don't call it the world's oldest profession for nothing. :D

[goldy_dollar]

He is SO CREEPY. Apparently they based an episode of Criminal Minds off him? Maybe Opal saw that episode. XD

[kazutakia]

I was SO HAPPY when I saw this on my twitter feed! I had a big :O on my face going through the whole article, AND as a miraculous bonus the top Agreed comments on the article on CBC were all in support of the ruling. :D :D :D

Maybe for once Canada can learn a little something from a European country that isn't France or Britain.

[jessicaqueen]

I have very little knowledge of Canadian prostitution laws, but I know that we have the same general problem in Australia where the laws ensure a lower abundance of safety in the industry. It's legal in Australia for prostitutes to work independently, but it's not legal to work with an escort agency/brothel with proper security measures (except licensed brothels, but they're economically unsustainable due to the many rules and fees surrounding them anyway). Just... WTF? How does it make any sense to encourage working girls to NOT use proper security? Independents are allowed to have one person working for them as a bodyguard without delving into illegality, apparently, but how could they all afford/arrange that separately? The point of an agency is group together these problems and take care of them on a group basis. The sense - it is lacking.