Canada's Prostitution Laws Struck Down

[Devils'Advocate]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

Right. Because organizations like te Elizabeth Fry Society oppose this on religious grounds.

I didn't say that religion was the only grounds for disliking the ruling. I'm saying that the devoutly religious probably don't like the ruling.

[gargamel]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

There was a good CNN article on child prostitution in Cambodia recently.

This issue is very difficult to get right.

The article about the 3 women who sold their daughters was heartbreaking, but CNN lost some credibility with the article by Mira Sorvino on the topic. That article had gems along the lines of "the girl claimed to be 22, but she looked 14" (no evidence was given that the girl wasn't as old as she claimed), "I can only imagine what happens in these rooms" (then why are you writing about it on what is supposed to be a news site?), and "they got upset when they thought I was taking photos, so I knew something illegal was going on" (try to take a photo in a perfectly legal Canadian strip club and let me know how that goes for you).

Of course pro-sex work people will try to minimize the serious and tragic issues of sex trafficking and child prostitution, and anti-sex work types and s####y new agencies will try to make it sound like it accounts for the majority of sex work, so it's really hard to get a good sense of just how widespread these things are.

Either way, I agree with you that this is a hard issue to get right, but I think legalization is a step in the right direction as long as the resources that had been put into going after consenting adults are redirected to going after the real victims.

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

The Herald's editorial on the subject:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion...273/story.html

Interesting that they refer to the groups who work with prostitutes who oppose this decision. They also refer to an international study of more than 150 countries which states that those countries with legalized prostitution have higher volumes of human trafficking (aka sexual slavery).

The Herald couldn't have written a more paternalistic column if it had tried. I mean, look at this garbage...

Apparently, the justices are unaware that prostitutes do not dutifully trot off to their accountants to get their taxes done each year, nor do they operate out of offices with front-desk receptionists. Prostitutes inhabit an ugly, seamy underworld where the money they make goes mainly to their pimps and their drug suppliers, and where those same pimps and drug traffickers can now call themselves “legitimate drivers, managers or bodyguards,” and continue brutalizing, abusing and exploiting these women.

Overlooking for the moment the complete lack of support for this claim, don't they think laws criminalizing prostitution are a huge part of the reason that sex work is often pushed to underworld?

[flylock shox]

Originally Posted by gargamel

Overlooking for the moment the complete lack of support for this claim, don't they think laws criminalizing prostitution are a huge part of the reason that sex work is often pushed to underworld?

One of the interesting things about legalizing formerly criminal businesses is that it takes hundreds or thousands of criminals and, with the stroke of a pen, legitimizes them. Moonshiners and whiskeyrunners become entrepreneurs, pot growers become medical marijuana suppliers, and pimps (maybe) become brothel owners and bouncers. The underworld joins the mainstream, at least to an extent. It's more complicated in the case of sex work, but one hopes, over the long haul, the worst abusers are weeded out through regulation or the market - or are restricted to a much smaller, and more easily policed underworld.

Even if 10% of sex work remains off grid, at least that narrows the target for enforcement, as the most dangerous abusers - both pimps and johns - will now be swimming in a much smaller pool.

Or so one hopes.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

Let's not lose sight of the fact that prostitution was legal and was legal before Friday's SCC decision.

What was struck down are the laws that were meant to limit and curtail prostitution.

1. The property can't benefit, thus eliminating a bawdy-house or a prostitute setting up shop next door.

2. You can't benefit off another's prostitution, thus making pimping illegal.

3. You can't communicate in public, thus eliminating street walkers.

Unfortunately the unintended effects made prostitution very dangerous, so dangerous that it violated prostitutes section 7 security of person rights.


I'd have to finish reading the decision (read the first half while the wife was shopping) and then read the Prostitution Reference of 1990 in order to see what can and can't be done.

In all honesty, I have zero problem if prostitution was regulated to ensure safety and the health of both client and service provider. I see prostitution as an extension of strip clubs. The "fear" of our daughters rushing into this profession seems unfounded to me.

[killer_carlson]

Originally Posted by JimmytheT

Your assertion that legalizing this will make it so that parents, caregivers and teachers will open advocate it as a career choice is absurd.

I will use a parallel to demonstrate the fatuity of your assertion:

The pornographic industry: have you ever known a normal teacher, parent or caregiver who openly advocates for their children/pupils to enter the porn industry as a career? I don't see this as a destination that high school guidance counsellors are recommending at any time for example.

It isn't about legalization, it is about normalization.

But you make a valid point otherwise.

[jar_e]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Canada adopt portions of the Nordic model, essentially criminalizing the purchasing of sex, not the selling of it.

[GirlySports]

will there now be GST?

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

will there now be GST?

More importantly, what kind of deals are to be had in Black Friday and Boxing Day

[Bongo]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

More importantly, what kind of deals are to be had in Black Friday and Boxing Day

How will Cyber Monday work into all of this?

[Thor]

Originally Posted by jar_e

I wouldn't be surprised to see Canada adopt portions of the Nordic model, essentially criminalizing the purchasing of sex, not the selling of it.

Iceland does this and its kind of silly IMO. If its going to work anywhere, Iceland is the place, but again this still relegates prostitution to the underground, ruled by gangs/pimps, albeit in Iceland there are probably only a handful of prostitutes.

This still doesn't deal with the issue, legalize and control it, just as with drugs.

[TheGrimm]

What!? 3 Pages and no jokes about Fotze's mom yet? CP's slippin'.