This prostitution law is about protecting votes, not women

It’s always fascinating when what looks like a political slam-dunk to one set of people ends up looking, to another set, like the clumsiest of blunders.

On Dec. 6, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act received royal assent. This event was noteworthy for two reasons: It meant that the prostitution laws overturned by the Supreme Court in the Bedford case had been replaced, and they’d been replaced on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

To Conservatives, this probably seemed like a pretty slick move. After all, they’ve been selling the new legislation as the best way to protect women who are abused and made vulnerable by prostitution. What could be a better symbol than making this bill into law on the very day Canadians have set aside to support an end to violence against women?

More Than 60 Organizations And Agencies Call For Repeal Of New Prostitution Law

TORONTO - More than 60 organizations and agencies from across the country are calling for the non-enforcement and repeal of new prostitution laws that came into force on Saturday.

The groups — which include the Canadian AIDS Society, John Howard Society, and Native Women's Resource Centre — want the new law repealed and the full decriminalization of sex work in Canada.

The sweeping new changes to the way prostitution is regulated in Canada follow a Supreme Court decision last year that found the old laws violated the rights of prostitutes.

Terri-Jean Bedford kicked out of prostitution bill hearing

Retired dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford was escorted by security out of a Senate committee meeting after refusing to heed the chair's warning that her allotted speaking time had run out — but not before threatening to make politicians "forget about Mike Duffy."

The woman who won a Supreme Court challenge to Canada's prostitution laws told committee members that the government's proposal to criminalize buyers of sex would "make Canada the laughingstock of the world."

Tories accused of rushing prostitution bill through Parliament

The Conservative government is being accused of rushing its prostitution bill through Parliament to ensure it is passed into law this fall.

The criticism from opponents of the bill comes as a Senate committee begins three days of hearings on Tuesday into the legislation, known as C-36.

Critics, some of whom will testify before the Senate committee, are complaining that the hearings are tilted in favour of witnesses who support the bill.

Escort: MacKay’s prostitution bill ‘will kill people’

OTTAWA – When Caroline Newcastle first posted a photo of herself on an escort website four years ago, she wore a green dress.

Then 23 years old and studying for an undergraduate degree in Quebec City, she was nervous. She had never traded sex for money, and the encounter wasn’t exactly what she was hoping for.

Caroline, who uses a pseudonym, was half naked within five minutes. The sex lasted the full hour she had negotiated. She felt it was too formal, too black and white. But it was work, she figured, and once she counted her money, she decided it wasn’t so bad.

Caroline’s second experience, a two-hour visit with a client, was better.

Prostitution Legislation Outlaws Purchase Of Sex, Targets Pimps: MacKay

OTTAWA - New legislation would criminalize the purchase of sexual services, crack down on those who benefit from prostitution and outlaw the sale of sex near schools and other places where children gather.

Justice Minister Peter MacKay says the "made-in-Canada" model targets johns and pimps while protecting the vulnerable.

The new prostitution-related offences are intended to reduce demand for sexual services, shield those who sell themselves from exploitation, and safeguard children and communities.

Evangelicals get head start lobbying on federal government’s prostitution laws

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada has a head start in lobbying on prostitution legislation as several interest groups jockey for position while the government prepares to table its bill.

The Conservative government has been consulting with Canadians and interest groups on prostitution legislation after the Supreme Court unanimously struck down Canada’s laws in December as unconstitutional.

Supreme Court prostitution ruling forces issue on Harper

Call it the world's oldest legislative headache.

A Conservative government that hoped to restore its fortunes in 2014 by talking about pipelines, international trade and victims of crime now will have to deal with the world's oldest profession.

The Supreme Court of Canada effectively gutted Canada's prostitution laws by finding this week that legislation against street soliciting, living on the avails and keeping a brothel was unconstitutional.

Legalizing Prostitution Challenge By Women's Coalition

VANCOUVER - A coalition of groups preparing to intervene in a Supreme Court of Canada hearing into the future of this country's prostitution laws is advocating for a "third way" that would ensure sex workers aren't turned into criminals while ensuring johns and pimps can still be prosecuted for buying and selling women and girls.

Harper government appeals Ontario prostitution ruling

The federal government has asked the Supreme Court of Canada to put the brakes on the decriminalization of a key prostitution law.

A 30-day stay on imposed by the Ontario Court of Appeal last month when it rewrote the pimping provision is due to be lifted later this week.

The provision was struck down last month by the provincial appeals court in a decision that also removed prohibitions on keeping a brothel.

In the federal application – which also asked the Supreme Court to hear a full appeal of the Ontario decision – federal lawyers raised the spectre of neighbourhoods being frequented by prostitutes and their bodyguards.

The expiration of the 30-day delay imparted a sense of urgency to the government’s request for leave to appeal the entire Ontario Court of Appeal ruling.

It stated that an imminent “regulatory void” will permit prostitutes, bodyguards, drivers and booking agents to openly go about their business.

“If the stay is not extended, the public interest, communities and neighbourhoods and the proper administration of justice will suffer irreparable harm,” the Department of Justice application said.

Landmark ruling legalizes Ontario brothels

Ontario’s highest court has legalized brothels in a sweeping decision that condemned current prostitution laws for adding to the hazards of a highly dangerous profession.

The Ontario Court of Appeal allowed the Crown just one victory, ruling that communicating for the purposes of prostitution will remain illegal.

The landmark decision is binding on Ontario courts and sets up a final showdown at the Supreme Court of Canada next fall or in early 2013.

Ontario Attorney-General John Gerretsen said on Monday that he intends to discuss appealing the decision with his federal counterparts. “Our main concern is that people feel safe in their communities, feel safe in their homes, and this kind of issue may very well need legislative action,” he said.

The five-judge appellate panel said unanimously that prostitutes may set up brothels and hire staff to protect them. They said that it is senseless to have a law that compels prostitutes to work in dangerous isolation, given that prostitution itself is legal.

The Case for Decriminalizing Prostitution

The sex workers challenging Canada's sex laws say it's about safety – and freedom.

By now, you have probably heard that there is a case in the courts challenging Canada’s current prostitution laws. Valerie Scott, Terri-Jean Bedford, and I are the three plaintiffs, and there are many other current and former sex workers and academics who have given their voices and expertise to this case.

Although the exchange of sex for money is legal in Canada, there are provisions within the Criminal Code that make it impossible to work in this business legally and safely.

First, we are challenging Section 210 of the Criminal Code, which is also known as the bawdyhouse law. This law prevents us from working in the safety of our own home, or in a familiar location, either by ourselves or as a collective. A bawdyhouse is any place used for prostitution. This law thus applies to a sex worker seeing a few clients from her home, which is how much of sex work is conducted in this country, and to a place that two or three sex workers use as their work place. Under this law, such actions are considered an enterprise crime. Upon being charged, the government seizes all of your assets. The police can, and do, show up with moving vans and take everything the sex worker owns, including freezing any bank accounts. Everyone should feel safe in their homes and their places of work, but the bawdyhouse law puts our safety and lives in jeopardy. Because working this way is completely illegal, we are afraid that if we were to call the police to report a bad client we would be investigated and charged. This has happened all too often. Bad clients know this, and use it to their advantage.

Second, we are challenging Section 212(j), which forbids anyone from living “wholly or in part on the avails of prostitution,” including someone who “lives with or is habitually in the company of a prostitute.” This is the only section of the Procuring Law that we are challenging. Far from protecting us, it criminalizes all of our everyday and healthy relationships. It is illegal for us to have a roommate or any other kind of relationship, including a spouse. If we are working at a location away from our homes, this even prevents us from having vital support staff such as receptionists and drivers, and from implementing other security measures.

The third law that we are challenging is Section 213(1)(c), also known as the Communicating Law, which prevents my colleagues who work on the street from interacting with potential clients. The “communicating for the purpose of prostitution” law came into effect on Dec. 20, 1985. It forbids anyone who is in a public place, or in a place open to public view, from “stop[ping] or attempt[ing] to stop any person or in any manner communicat[ing] or attempt[ing] to communicate with any person.”

This law creates an environment in which my street-based colleagues are working out of the public eye, in industrial areas. They are unable to assess and negotiate with a client out in the open for fear of being seen by the police and charged. Those who seek to hurt us know this, and seek out my colleagues on the street, committing horrific crimes.

Full Article
Source: The Mark 

Decriminalizing prostitution won’t make it safer, Crown argues

Up to 95 per cent of prostitutes are vulnerable women who would gladly leave their tawdry profession if they could, an Ontario prosecutor told a landmark prostitution appeal Tuesday.

“It is not a voluntary choice, but a highly constrained choice,” Crown counsel Christine Bartlett-Hughes told a five-judge Ontario Court of Appeal panel that will decide the fate of the prostitution laws.

“We recognize that there are certain individuals that choose this activity,” Ms. Bartlett-Hughes added. “But nevertheless, Parliament is entitled to legislate to protect those who are most vulnerable.”

Ms. Bartlett-Hughes conceded that the laws can make it more difficult for prostitutes to protect themselves from violent customers. However, she told the judges there is no proof that decriminalizing prostitution and moving prostitutes off the streets into brothels will make them substantially safer.

In fact, she said, it is far from clear that legalizing brothels will have any effect whatsoever on the number of street prostitutes in the country.

The federal and Ontario governments are appealing a decision by Ontario Superior Court Judge Susan Himel that struck down the prostitution law’s provisions prohibiting communicating and living off the avails, and another that makes it a crime to run a brothel.

The three prostitutes behind the challenge – Terri-Lynn Bedford, Valerie Scott and Amy Lebovitch – claim the provisions violate their constitutional right to security of the person by compelling them to work under unsafe conditions.

Full Article
Source: Globe & Mail 

Prostitution laws go back before the courts

Federal and Ontario governments appeal ruling that struck down existing laws

     

The federal and Ontario governments’ appeal of an Ontario Superior Court decision last fall which struck down several key prostitution laws, began on Monday. Last year, Ontario Justice Susan Himel overturned three anti-prostitution laws that were ruled to endanger sex workers—keeping a common bawdy house, communicating for the purposes of prostitution, and living on the avails of the trade. Alan Young, a York University law professor who represent sex trade workers, argues that making communication for the purposes of prostitution illegal prevents sex workers from being able to “screen” their potential clients or take necessary safety precautions. Terri-Jean Bedford, an outspoken advocate for the legalization of prostitution and a practicing dominatrix, and two other sex workers, Valerie Scott and Amy Lebovitch, are the three litigants who have maintained that the existing laws expose them to violence on the streets. The Crown is appealing Judge Himel’s ruling on the basis that prostitution is a degrading criminal pursuit that should not be encouraged under relaxed laws, which themselves do little to protect sex workers from violence. Young says he expects that regardless of the outcome of the appeal, the case will most likely be argued at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Origin
Source: Macleans