Ontario Appeal Court nixes brothel ban; gives government one year to rewrite law

[evewithanapple]

A ban on brothels puts prostitutes at risk and is therefore unconstitutional, Ontario's top court ruled Monday.

However, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the ban on soliciting as a reasonable way to protect communities.

It also "read in" wording to the criminalization of living on the avails of prostitution to make it clear that exploitation of

Comments

[morningapproach]

I was listening to CBC in my car on the way home from work just now and heard this, and I gave a little cheer.

[katrinar]

i decided to look at the comments on the Globe & Mail site for teh lulz...holy hell. the most common comment was people saying that it doesn't give women equal rights.

i don't understand that. men assume that 100% of sex workers are abused women. every sex worker i've ever met WANTED to have her job, but it was the male police officer, male john etc who victimized her. if anything, this is creating a more egalitarian society.

[icanseenow]

every sex worker i've ever met WANTED to have her job
That's nice, but doesn't negate the fact that the vast majority of sex workers do their work not because of empowerment or because they like the job, etc. I am just talking statistics now.

I am against the criminalisation of sex work, but I'm equally pissed off by the whitewashing from feminists. Not saying you are doing this, it's just that one line I hear a lot and it's mere anecdotal evidence.
If I go by my knowledge of what sex workers feel and think like I'd have to conclude they do not exist, and for motivation (because I'm the only one I know who has openly said I was considering to be a sex worker) I'd have to conclude from what I personally feel about that work.
I didn't mean to ramble, the whole point was: anecdotal evidence in these cases is hardly persuasive. Besides, I'm not sure the sex workers who hate their jobs are going to be the ones talking with people about it in most cases.

[katrinar]

oh absolutely.

my argument (if you can call it that, since i'm not arguing ha ha), is more directed towards people who think that decriminalizing sex work is BAD (aka the people commenting on the G&M website.

i do think, regardless, that this is a step in the right direction towards better protection of sex workers. but just a step.

[lacunaz]

It's too bad that "communication with the intent of prostitution" is still illegal, which I don't fully get. Does that law only apply if they are outside? For street prostitution?

Also lol, Tim Hudak, the Leader of the Opposition in Ontario, is super pressed about this decision and is planning to ~appeal~. I really doubt that he's going to come up with anything that will dazzle the judges into submission, but okay.

[katrinar]

hudak is an idiot.

[lacunaz]

His plan appears to just be to go running to the federal MPs and point at the problem until they step in and fiiiiiiiiiiix iiiiiiiiiiit.

[katrinar]

sounds about right.