Canada’s prostitution laws unconstitutional, court rules

[Guest JamesWilson]

Link to Toronto Star article

Canada’s prostitution laws unconstitutional, court rules

Toronto Star

Sept 28, 2010

Tracey Tyler - Legal Affairs Reporter

A Toronto judge has struck down Canada’s prostitution laws, effectively decriminalizing activities associated with the world’s oldest trade.

“These laws, individually and together, force prostitutes to choose between their liberty interest and their right to security of the person as protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” Justice Susan Himel of Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice said in Tuesday’s landmark decision.

The long-awaited judgment had been on reserve for nearly a year.

Himel said that while she has concluded the laws amount to a serious violation of the Charter, she has imposed a 30-day “stay” on her decision to give lawyers for the federal and provincial governments, as well as the women at the centre of the case, an opportunity to make fuller submissions on whether her decision to invalidate the laws should be placed on hold for an even longer period of time.

Rona Ambrose, minister for status of women, said the Conservative government is “very concerned” about the court decision and is considering an appeal.

Himel said she is not persuaded that striking down the provisions without enacting something in its place would pose a danger to the public, as the federal government argued.

“I am mindful of the fact that legislating in response to prostitution raises difficult, contentious and serious policy issues and that it is for Parliament to fashion corrective legislation,” wrote Himel.

“This is wonderful,” dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford told reporters at the University Ave. courthouse.

Bedford and prostitutes Valerie Scott and Amy Lebovitch had asked the court to strike down Criminal Code provisions dealing with prostitution, contending the laws violate their constitutional right to security of the person and freedom of expression.

They argued that restrictions on keeping a common bawdy house, communicating for the purposes of prostitution and living on the avails of the trade force sex workers onto the street and expose them to violence.

In an affidavit filed with the court, Bedford described scars she has from being hit on the head with a baseball bat by a customer many years ago when she worked as a street prostitute.

The women argued that if the law permitted sex workers to conduct their business indoors, they could employ safety measures such as the use of security guards and monitoring devices.

But when the case was argued in Toronto last fall, lawyers for Ontario’s attorney general suggested there are already measures that women on the streets can employ to ensure safer working conditions, including simply warning each other about customers with a propensity for violence.

Lawyers for the federal government maintained that prostitution is inherently dangerous no matter where it is practised.

The Criminal Code prohibitions, Canada argued, are meant to prevent the commercialization of the sex trade and protect women from exploitation.

In her ruling, Himel said the criminal prohibition on keeping a common bawdy house is overly broad because it has the potential to punish sex workers who do not create the kind of neighbourhood disruption the legislation was designed to prevent.

Most prostitutes in Canada are “independent operators” and the impact of their business, while working discreetly from home, could be different from a large brothel employing many prostitutes, the judge said.

Although prostitution itself is not illegal in Canada, almost everything associated with it is, a situation that was once described as “bizarre” by a judge of the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Supreme Court dismissed a slightly narrower challenge to the country’s prostitution laws in 1990.

At that time, the court ruled that restrictions on communicating for the purposes of prostitution was a justifiable limit on free expression because the law was meant to discourage the nuisances of street prostitution and related activities such as drug trafficking.

As part of their case, Bedford, Scott and Lebovitch pointed to a report from a Parliamentary committee that was released in 2006, several years after the Supreme Court had considered the constitutionality of the legislation.

The report concluded that restrictions on communicating had merely shifted prostitution from certain neighbourhoods into others.

[TampaYankee]

Canada looks better and better every year and it looked damn good in the first half of this decade. If it weren't for those winters...

I'm sure this will put the Conservative's panties in a bunch. I love it when they get a bee in their bustle. Down here too.

[alanalt]

Just to clarify, the ruling only strikes down the laws in Ontario. Only if the ruling withstands any appeals at a higher level, would it be applied in the rest of Canada. I'm not surprised the Toronto Star didn't mention that, because I'm not sure they recognize that there is a 'rest of Canada'...

TY, this is more than a partisan issue here. Both the federal (Conservative) and provincial (Liberal) governments were fighting against this case and I suspect any appeal will be a joint one...

Alan

[Guest JamesWilson]

Just to clarify, the ruling only strikes down the laws in Ontario. Only if the ruling withstands any appeals at a higher level, would it be applied in the rest of Canada. I'm not surprised the Toronto Star didn't mention that, because I'm not sure they recognize that there is a 'rest of Canada'...

Good point, Alan, since a lot of the guys on here head up to Montreal which is most definitley NOT in Ontario! ;-)

TY, this is more than a partisan issue here. Both the federal (Conservative) and provincial (Liberal) governments were fighting against this case and I suspect any appeal will be a joint one...

Given the political state of the union up here these days (shaky federal minority government and unpopular Ontario Liberal government with a provincial election coming up next year), you are probably right. I have a feeling, though, that the courts will win on this one, just as they did on same-sex marriage. And if Ontario clears the way for the full legalization of prostitution, then Quebec and the rest of the country will likely not be too far behind.

[BiBottomBoy]

If prostitution becomes completely legal in Canada does that mean the economy of Thailand is about to collapse?

[TotallyOz]

If prostitution becomes completely legal in Canada does that mean the economy of Thailand is about to collapse?

Prostitution is illegal in Thailand as well. Those bar boys and bar girls are not going off for sex. They are going off to have dinner and a movie.

[BiBottomBoy]

They are only going for a movie if your phone has video recording capabilities.

[TotallyOz]

They are only going for a movie if your phone has video recording capabilities.

My best movie date in Thailand was at a movie. I had my BF and about 20 other boys that I was taking out to a disco one night and we all went bowling and to the movie first. A new boy was with the group. I took the back 2 rows of the theater (seats in Thailand are reserved). The seats in the very back are double seats almost like love-seats. They also bring you a blanket to those seats so you are not cold. Well, I went to the back row and sat in the middle and the new boy sat next to me. I thought that was pretty sweet as I guess he didn't know that I really didn't expect any attention from him. He held my hand and cuddled with me. It was very sweet, almost romantic. Then, part of the way through the movie he put his head under the blanket and sucked me off. I was shocked as most Thais are very shy. Once done, he swallowed all the jizz and then sat back up. My long term BF saw this and smiled. I looked at the BF and said, "can I keep this one?" He said OK and the boy was with us for another 2 years.

[MsGuy]

Oz, you may use that quote from Brian Kenney as a tag line, but you sure know how to spin a 'sweet, almost romantic' story. And funny. This one is just delightful!

[RA1]

Canada looks better and better every year and it looked damn good in the first half of this decade. If it weren't for those winters...

I'm sure this will put the Conservative's panties in a bunch. I love it when they get a bee in their bustle. Down here too.

If it weren't for the winters Florida would look pretty bad. Too hot for much of the year, high humidity all year, fair amount of rainfall but still too much water use by the inhabitants (sink holes), hurricanes periodically, a corrosive atmosphere that will rot your teeth and every thing you own, sooner, rather than later and last, but not least, it is full of snow birds and others there to take advantage of everything to include YOU. Oh, yeah, I forgot "buggy" all year.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest zipperzone]

If it weren't for the winters Florida would look pretty bad. Too hot for much of the year, high humidity all year, fair amount of rainfall but still too much water use by the inhabitants (sink holes), hurricanes periodically, a corrosive atmosphere that will rot your teeth and every thing you own, sooner, rather than later and last, but not least, it is full of snow birds and others there to take advantage of everything to include YOU. Oh, yeah, I forgot "buggy" all year.

Best regards,

RA1

My biggest fear, living in Florida, would be to find a Crock or Alligator hungry & sunning in my backyard.

[BiBottomBoy]

Rednecks would be my biggest fear in Florida.