Supreme Court of Canada Strikes Down Prostitution Laws

[Müle]

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/top-co...overly-broad-anti-prostitution-laws-1.1601790

Canada's top court has struck down three key laws concerning prostitution in this country, declaring them unconstitutional, disproportionate and overly broad.

In a 9-0 ruling Friday, the Supreme Court said the laws prohibiting keeping a brothel, living on the avails of prostitution, and communicating in public for purposes of prostitution "do not pass Charter muster." It said they infringe on the rights of prostitutes by depriving them of security of the person.

In a written statement on behalf of the court, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin said that because prostitution itself is legal in Canada, the three provisions outlined in the ruling made it extremely difficult for prostitutes to safely engage in their work and prevented sex workers from taking steps to protect themselves.

The court's decision will be suspended for one year, meaning the laws will stand as they are until Parliament decides to either amend the laws or set the issue aside.

In her decision, McLachlin wrote that given that prostitution itself is legal, the three provisions made it too difficult for prostitutes to safely engage in sex work.

She wrote the laws "do not merely impose conditions on how prostitutes operate. They go a critical step further, by imposing dangerous conditions on prostitution; they prevent people engaged in a risky -- but legal -- activity from taking steps to protect themselves from the risks."

The law banning brothels forces prostitutes onto the streets, McLachlin wrote, and the resulting health and safety risks imposed upon street workers is "grossly disproportionate" to the law's objective of preventing public nuisance.

"Parliament has the power to regulate against nuisances, but not at the cost of the health, safety and lives of prostitutes," McLachlin ruled.

As for the laws banning living on the avails of prostitution prohibition, McLachlin wrote that the intention of that law was to target pimps and those who attempt to exploit sex workers. But she said the law punished everyone who works with prostitutes, including those who work to protect them, such as bodyguards, managers and office receptionists.

"In these ways, the law includes some conduct that bears no relation to its purpose of preventing the exploitation of prostitutes. The living on the avails provision is consequently overbroad," McLachlin wrote.

This is good, as a regulated industry is the best way to keep everyone safe. It really made no sense to have prostitution itself legal, but everything around it illegal.

But Harper and the Cons, with their typical Tough on "Crime" agenda will just make a new law which makes actually buying sex illegal, so more people will go to jail and the only people who will be willing to pay are the Robert Picktons of the country (since we all know, that like Alcohol and Marijuana, making it illegal wont actually make it go away).

 

[Omnis]

One does not just stop a beaver from chewing wood.

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

I bet Rob Ford is gonna make a joke about it and then the media will be all over it.

To be honest, I've never heard much about prostitution here in the GTA for all my years living here.

 

[cjmpe]

I've not heard much about it in the GTA eiter since the hotels near the Humber were all torn down. Niagara Falls was a huge hotbed of prostitution years ago when I lived there (all around the old hotels at the top of the hill within blocks of Lundy's lane).

To be sure the next year is going to be interesting as the Regressive Conservatives twist themselves in knots trying to show themselves to be tough on crime while attempting to ensure that whatever legislation they come up with doesn't prevent them from using hookers in Ottawa whenever they want to. (Sorry, is that too cynical?)

 

[Baron Blitz Red]

Sounds like the country may get "One Stop Shopping" someday (if they go as so far to legalise brothels). You might even be able to call it a big box store... 💡 Best of all worlds, really. The "Johns" will know where to go as will the drug dealers and the cops.

Cheers

 

[Zenith]

Who would've thought that women should have a right to do what they want with their own bodies?

 

[cjmpe]

Sounds like the country may get "One Stop Shopping" someday (if they go as so far to legalise brothels). You might even be able to call it a big box store... 💡 Best of all worlds, really. The "Johns" will know where to go as will the drug dealers and the cops.

Cheers

Good one there - took me a minute get your meaning......I honestly don't think the pols will go for brothels any time soon - they are still too puritanical, I mean look at our drinking age laws, enlightened compared to the US but nothing compared to Europe ...I suspect that in the end they will look for the easy way out - stop harassing the women and go after the johns with fines, ID on websites, etc to try and make it unattractive. In the end, the women might be worse off as they get hidden in out of the way places by their pimps and abused by the cops looking for "bribes" to look the other way.

 

[Imari]

Who would've thought that women should have a right to do what they want with their own bodies?

Who would have thought that it should be illegal to sell a service that you can legally give away for free? (And that basically every adult human on the planet does give away for free, repeatedly.)

 

[homeforsummer]

Who would have thought that it should be illegal to sell a service that you can legally give away for free? (And that basically every adult human on the planet does give away for free, repeatedly.)

It's never for "free"...

 

[G.T.Ace]

Who would have thought that it should be illegal to sell a service that you can legally give away for free? (And that basically every adult human on the planet does give away for free, repeatedly.)

I could also give away all of my stuff for free, but I rather sell it on eBay.

This is a good move, prostitution needs to be legalized, it makes everything much better to control.

 

[Müle]

Sounds like the country may get "One Stop Shopping" someday (if they go as so far to legalise brothels). You might even be able to call it a big box store... 💡 Best of all worlds, really. The "Johns" will know where to go as will the drug dealers and the cops.

Cheers

As long as Harper is in power, it won't happen.

Give him credit for ignoring the Religious Right in his caucus, and not opening the abortion debate, but his hand is pretty much forced here. I'm not sure how many Libertarian leaning members of the Conservative Party there are, but there are also Liberals, and I'm assuming NPD members as well who oppose it (this case originated in Ontario, where the provincial government has been Liberal for 10 years).

 

[Johnnypenso]

Prostitution has been semi-legal here for more than a decade already. You've been able to get an Escort License in many towns and cities for a long time. Massage Parlours have been legal going on 15+ years. Just like gay marriage, all this stuff has been going on for a long time and many people don't care or even know about it. Only when something like this Supreme Court decision makes headlines do people start talking about it as if it's somehow a brand new topic but it's actually been there all along. Anything the Conservatives or any other political party does is just lipservice, catering to their base, it doesn't change anything that happens on the ground to any great degree, everyone will just carry on as usual.

 

[Sanji Himura]

Maybe I don't understand Canadian politics (or maybe don't care for it since Mr. Ford deftly ruined it's reputation) but Ms. McLachlin needs to look in the mirror sometimes, and not just the one tucked away in her compact. Health is precisely reason why prostitution should be illegal there, like it is in most of the US. If there is a brothel open, most of the money that the prostitutes would have earned would actually go to the people who provide the room and board. If they are on the streets, then they are basically homeless, and homeless people can provide unsuspecting people with disease. Money isn't the most germ ridden item in the world for nothing you know.

 

[Imari]

It's never for "free"...

Did you miss the smiley? If it's snarky social commentary I agree, you always end up "paying" somehow.

But in the context of the thread, no, you don't always pay. I could go up to random girl, say "wanna have sex", and go do it. No financial transaction, and if you're not burdened by the moral issues surrounding sex that western society finds so charming no other costs either.

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

The issue here is that both Liberals (Ontario at least) and the Tories are both absolutely terrible. But we don't have anyone better to vote for.

 

[Sanji Himura]

The issue here is that both Liberals (Ontario at least) and the Tories are both absolutely terrible. But we don't have anyone better to vote for.

Take a page from the American Tea Party, actually go out and field your own candidates, even if they are write ins. There is nothing in the law that says you can't be your own candidate. All you have to do is file the necessary paperwork and pay the fees and you should be pretty much set.

As my father recently said of my party(I'm a Republican in a family of Democrats) "The Republicans are the right wing of the Democrat party." The point of that is the US has become a two tier system with the ruling class (let's face it, they are not our representatives for the last 120 years), leading our countries to destruction and everyone else as serfs. There is no middle class to keep everyone in check. The serfs can't become wealthy without paying kickbacks in the form of Taxes (just simply refuse to pay your property tax, and see how fast you land yourself in jail), and even then they can't go into government to fight unjust laws and programs like PRISM, which gives the NSA unfettered access to our phone records without paying untold sums of money to king makers like Karl Rove and Mitch McConnell who accept your money, then insult you to the Sunday talk shows because they don't believe in the fourth and fifth amendments on an old Constitution that limits government. That is the reason why Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul, though popular, isn't getting anything done in the Senate.

It is time for Canada to do the same.

 

[Johnnypenso]

Maybe I don't understand Canadian politics (or maybe don't care for it since Mr. Ford deftly ruined it's reputation) but Ms. McLachlin needs to look in the mirror sometimes, and not just the one tucked away in her compact. Health is precisely reason why prostitution should be illegal there, like it is in most of the US. If there is a brothel open, most of the money that the prostitutes would have earned would actually go to the people who provide the room and board. If they are on the streets, then they are basically homeless, and homeless people can provide unsuspecting people with disease. Money isn't the most germ ridden item in the world for nothing you know.

I agree..you don't understand Canadian politics if you think one Mayor with a drug issue has ruined the reputation of Canadian politics. Ford did a bang up job reigning in decades of Liberal overspending in the city of Toronto and saved taxpayers upwards of $1Billion in the process. He remains popular and I would not be surprised to see him re-elected for one good reason. He's doing a good job of looking after our tax dollars. Many Canadians and Torontonians in this case, are able to look past personal issues and see what kind of job someone is capable of doing.

 

[Müle]

Take a page from the American Tea Party, actually go out and field your own candidates, even if they are write ins. There is nothing in the law that says you can't be your own candidate. All you have to do is file the necessary paperwork and pay the fees and you should be pretty much set.

As my father recently said of my party(I'm a Republican in a family of Democrats) "The Republicans are the right wing of the Democrat party." The point of that is the US has become a two tier system with the ruling class (let's face it, they are not our representatives for the last 120 years), leading our countries to destruction and everyone else as serfs. There is no middle class to keep everyone in check. The serfs can't become wealthy without paying kickbacks in the form of Taxes (just simply refuse to pay your property tax, and see how fast you land yourself in jail), and even then they can't go into government to fight unjust laws and programs like PRISM, which gives the NSA unfettered access to our phone records without paying untold sums of money to king makers like Karl Rove and Mitch McConnell who accept your money, then insult you to the Sunday talk shows because they don't believe in the fourth and fifth amendments on an old Constitution that limits government. That is the reason why Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul, though popular, isn't getting anything done in the Senate.

It is time for Canada to do the same.

How is any of that relevant to Canada?