Court tosses laws designed to ban prostitution

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This article was published 29/09/2010 (5807 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — A sex-trade worker who challenged Canada’s prostitution laws hailed Tuesday as “emancipation day” after provisions that effectively criminalize prostitution were struck down as unconstitutional by an Ontario court.

Laws against keeping a common bawdy house, communicating for the purposes of prostitution and living on the avails of the trade “are not in accord with the principles of fundamental justice,” the Ontario Superior Court ruled.

They put sex-trade workers in danger, the court said.

“You can’t imagine how happy I am today because I’ve been abused by the justice system for a very, very, very long time,” dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford said at a news conference while clasping her leather riding crop.

“This is poetic justice.”

Prostitution was not illegal in Canada, but the court struck down three provisions that criminalized most aspects of prostitution.

“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 wrote.

Bedford was elated, noting “it’s like an emancipation day for sex-trade workers.”

But that’s not how a University of Manitoba law professor sees it. “We’re so far away from any type of emancipation for sex-trade workers,” Karen Busby said.

“But is it a step in the right direction to offer some small modicum of protection? Yes.”

The judgment is subject to a 30-day stay during which the law remains in place, and Bedford’s lawyer said the federal government can seek an extension of that stay period.

The law-and-order Conservatives in Ottawa immediately signalled they are “seriously considering” an appeal.

“We will fight to ensure that the criminal law continues to address the significant harms that flow from prostitution to both communities and the prostitutes themselves, along with other vulnerable persons,” Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said in a statement.

The government had argued that striking down the provisions without enacting something else in their place would “pose a danger to the public.”

While the ruling strikes down those key Criminal Code offences — which deal with adult prostitution — it does not affect provisions dealing with people under 18.

Bedford — who has been fighting the issue in the courts since her “Bondage Bungalow” north of Toronto was raided by police in 1994 — argued the provisions forced sex-trade workers from the safety of their homes to face violence on the streets.

But a Winnipeg woman who works with sex-trade workers, said the court decision could endanger many of the women she tries to help.

Dianna Bussey, the Salvation Army’s prostitution-diversion program coordinator in Winnipeg, said she’s concerned that if the court decision stands it will increase the dangers faced by sex-trade workers because many of them work on the street — under the watchful eye of police.

“I’m concerned that suddenly that could be abruptly done… the police here really do try to watch out for the women. When you take that away, where is the safety?”

— The Canadian Press, with files from Kevin Rollason