Was it right to strike down the prostitution laws of Canada?

Prostitution in Canada has never been illegal. What is illegal in Canada is (1) soliciting in a public place (such as a sidewalk) (2) operating a brothel (such as bringing the customers into their own homes) and (3) living off of the avails of prostitution. (such as pimps, boyfriends or husbands)

I don’t want to appear as an old fuddy duddy but there is a valid reason why these laws were written for Canadians. With respect to sidewalks etc, we don’t want prostitutes or their pimps stopping pedestrians on our sidewalks trying to sell their wares or the wares of their prostitutes. With respect to brothels in prostitute’s homes, we don’t want men coming into the apartment next to us all night long.

I remember one night years ago when I was staying at a motel in Ottawa and trying to sleep when the prostitute in the next room was wailing in glee and her bed was banging against the wall we shared. We certainly don’t want pimps living off the avails of their sex slaves.

Now all that may change. A Toronto Superior court judge struck down Canada’s prostitution laws on September 28th 2010 saying that the provisions meant to protect women and residential neighbourhoods are endangering sex workers’ lives.

If Justice Susan Himel’s decision stands, prostitutes will be able to communicate freely with customers on the street, conduct business in their homes or brothels and hire bodyguards and accountants without exposing them to the risk of criminal sanctions.

The Superior Court judge suspended her ruling from taking effect for 30 days to give the federal government time to consider how to address potential consequences, including the emergence of unlicensed brothels. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the federal government is very concerned and is seriously considering an appeal of the 131-page ruling.

Prostitutes Scott and Lebovitch argued those prohibitions prevented them from conducting their business in the safety of their homes or brothels and forced them into hasty street conversations with potential customers, with no time to weed out those who might be dangerous.

They and Amy Lebovitch who is a dominatrix took on the legal might of the federal and provincial governments; their battle having been waged on a shoestring legal aid budget and the volunteer services of expert witnesses and lawyers. Scott said the decision means sex workers no longer have to “worry about being raped, robbed or murdered.”

That is a very valid concern that women in the sex trade business have had to contend with for a very long time. Many prostitutes have been murdered by their customers. (tricks, johns) Once they get into a customer’s car, they are at the mercy of the customer.

Gary Leon Ridgway confessed to 48 killings in the Seattle area that were attributed to him. His cooperation after his arrest also lead to finding four sets of remains. His killings spanned from 1982 to 1998. Ridgway pleaded guilty to murdering 48 Green River Killer victims on November 5, 2003. Ridgway said that strangling young women was his career. Most of the women he murdered were prostitutes who got into his car.

At least 60 prostitutes were murdered in the UK between the years 1992 and 2002. Many more were missing. Yet the violence against these mainly young, drug-addicted women was often unreported.

For women who are prostitutes, rape is every bit as traumatic as it is for women who are not sex workers. It may even be more painful, as the abusive sex act reopens old wounds and buried memories of unbearable sexual abuse as children. In fact, prostitutes demonstrate many of the same characteristics as soldiers returning from the battlefield.

A 1991 study by the ‘Council for Prostitution Alternatives’, in Portland, Oregon, documented that 78 percent of 55 prostituted women reported being raped an average of 16 times annually by their pimps and 33 times a year by johns. Twelve rape complaints were made in the criminal justice system and yet, neither the pimps nor the johns were convicted.

While a somewhat similar legal challenge to the Criminal Code’s prostitution provisions was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1990, the stage was set for reconsidering the issues when sex workers began disappearing from Vancouver’s downtown east side and pig farmer Robert Pickton was charged with their murders. In 2002, when they began digging up bodies on his pig farm, it became obvious to every Canadian that it’s very dangerous for sex workers to be on the streets soliciting their sexual favours.

Robert William ‘Willie’ Pickton (born October 26, 1949) of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada is a former pig farmer and serial killer convicted of the second-degree murders of six women. He was also charged in the deaths of an additional twenty women, many of them prostitutes and drug users from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside however the crown didn’t proceed against him for those murders because he is already serving a life sentence in prison for killing the six women. He admitted that he killed 49 women altogether. He strung up some of the women by their heels in his barn, gutted them and dismembered them and then fed their bodies to his pigs.

Justice Himel found Criminal Code prohibitions against keeping a common bawdy house, living on the avails of prostitution and communicating for the purposes of the trade violated the women’s Charter rights to freedom of expression and security of the person.

She is correct but do we want prostitutes having sex with their customers in their homes where the prostitute’s children are living? I can just see it now. “Alright children. You go and watch TV while mommy entertains this gentleman in her bedroom.”

I remember years ago when I was working as a private investigator and going into the home of a prostitute who was a witness at a trial. As soon as I entered the living room, a five-year-old boy approached me and asked, “Are you my daddy?”

The idea of pimps doing nothing but controlling a string of prostitutes and living off the avails of their sexual acts with customers I find disgusting. Equally disgusting is a boyfriend or husband who is too lazy to go out and work and instead, chooses to live off the sexual income of his girlfriend or wife.

I have some concerns about prostitutes being able to communicate freely with customers on the street. Already we have beggars walking along side of cars that are stopped at intersections and asking for money. Do we want prostitutes offering their bodies to male drivers when the driver’s unseen children are in the back seats? Do we want prostitutes propositioning men on the sidewalks of residential neighbourhoods while children are playing on those streets?

Rather than having made prostitution itself illegal, the federal government had attempted to curtail the trade by criminalizing related activities. Federal lawyers maintained that prostitution is inherently risky whether it is practised indoors or outdoors and that decriminalizing it would be out of sync with the moral values of most Canadians.

I find that last statement a bit prudish. It was the late Pierre Trudeau, (when he was prime minister of Canada) who said in Parliament that ‘the state has no business in the bedrooms of its citizens.’ He was then referring to gays and lesbians have sex but in fact it could be applicable to prostitutes having sex with their customers.

I see no reason why prostitution is out of sync with our morals. However, I am against prostitution being done in homes if children live in the home and/or if tricks are going in and out of the home constantly day and night. Further, the neighbours have a right to be concerned. For example, would you really want to buy a home right next to a brothel in which tricks are going into your neighbour’s house day and night at all hours? How would you feel is no one wanted to buy your home because it is next door to a brothel?

While the prohibition against living on the avails of prostitution is meant to target pimps and stop the exploitation of women, it currently prevents prostitutes from legally hiring bodyguards and drivers. I think that women should be able to hire someone to watch over them so that they aren’t raped or murdered by their customers.

Yet the Criminal Code prohibitions against keeping a common bawdy house deprive them of the safety benefits of working in familiar surroundings with security systems.I would be remiss however if I didn’t mention that simply because a prostitute prefers to have sex with her customers in her home, that doesn’t necessarily mean that she would be safe. Years ago, a real sick sex fiend went with the prostitute to her home in Toronto and despite the fact that her family was downstairs, the customer murdered her and cut off her breasts and then walked out of the house without the family suspecting that something was very wrong upstairs in the victim’s bedroom.

Justice Himel’s decision could open the door to a new election issue, as Toronto and other municipalities consider whether to follow the leads of New Zealand, Germany, the Netherlands and parts of Australia and Nevada and introduce municipally based licensing of prostitution.

I believe that sex workers want to work with municipalities and be responsible business owners and neighbours if for no other reason than to work in their trade without fear of being raped or murdered. Further, I don’t think the citizens have to worry about a brothel opening up next door to them.

Deciphering the decision

Q: Does the decision apply across Canada?
A: The ruling, which was made by an Ontario Superior Court judge, is binding only in Ontario although it might later apply to everywhere in Canada.
Q: When does it take effect?
A: After 30 days, unless the federal government can persuade a court to suspend the ruling for a longer period.
Q: What does the ruling allow sex workers to do that they previously couldn’t?
A: They can work indoors without fear of being charged with operating a common bawdy house. They can also engage in conversations with customers on the street, as long as they are not impeding traffic or harassing pedestrians. And they can hire accountants, drivers and bodyguards without exposing them to the possibility of being charged with living on the avails of prostitution.
Q: Does this mean a brothel can open up in residential neighbourhoods?
A: It’s possible, although unlikely. Other laws will probably come into play here. There are other ways for prostitution to be regulated outside of the Criminal Code, including municipal zoning. A residential area could be zoned to prohibit any kind of commercial enterprise, including sex work, for instance.
Q: Will we see more men and women working the streets?
A: Maybe, although prostitutes are likely to stick to their usual areas. Sex workers go where their clients are. They aren’t likely to work a corner in the suburbs, for example, because people seeking street-level prostitutes tend to go to the city.
Q: Will prostitutes be safer now?
A: Most sex workers believe so, but some experts fear that if demand for prostitutes surges, there could be an increase in human trafficking.
Q: Is this really what the Canadian public wants?
A: An Angus Reid poll conducted when this case first went to trial in 2009 suggested that half of Canadians would decriminalize prostitution, so long as it was between adults and consensual. Some say the court is just catching up to public sentiment.

Others say Canadians might be loathe to accept reforms that come down in a Toronto courtroom.

There are many reasons why young girls find themselves exploited by prostitution and pimps. It can be a personal tragedy, drug addiction, or the lure of money, lots of money.

Some people view prostitution as an expression of sexuality, or use it to escape from unhappy and sexless relationships. Society seems to believe men have uncontrollable sexual urges that need to be fulfilled.

Young prostitutes are thrown into a world of degradation, violence and disease. Many turn to drugs as a way to mask feelings in order to perform the acts demanded. Participation often leaves them physically and mentally damaged.

As I see it, here’s how prostitution should be governed.

Brothels

It should still be against the law for prostitutes to conduct their trade in their own homes for the reasons I previously stated. There should be brothels in non-residential areas where prostitutes and their customers may do business together.
Such brothels should be managed by a licenced madam.

Soliciting

Soliciting customers should be restricted to the areas where the brothels are located only. Soliciting should also be permitted by placing ads in newspapers and on the Internet.

Living off the avails of prostitution

Sex trafficking and pimping should still be outlawed. If a sex worker carries a cell phone with her at all times, she should be able to get enough business from her ads, the Internet and repeat business without the aforementioned scumbags acting for them and stealing their money.

Health examinations

Prostitutes should be examined at least once a month and if they have venereal disease or AIDS, they should be required to stop what they are doing until they are cured. If they are not cured, then they should get into another business. Keep in mind that just because a prostitute is deemed healthy one day doesn’t mean that she isn’t carrying a venereal disease the next day. This is the risk that customers must face and who are apparently prepared to take. Hopefully in the future, there will be pills they can take that will prevent the diseases from taking hold in their bodies.

Licencing

Prostitutes, madams operating the brothels, drivers and body guards should all be licenced.

Accounting of their income

Prostitutes should pay taxes just like everyone else.

IN CONCLUSION

Prostitution has been around since the beginng of Mankind. Whether some people think that it is immoral is immaterial. Since it can never be stamped out, then at least there should be some control over it. If controlled, the sex workers and their customers are protected from sexual abuse, sex trafficking, assaults and disease.

I have never condemned women because they choose to sell thei bodies for sexual favours. They may have reasons that may (in their minds) be quite justified for doing so. For example, they are unemployed or unemployable. They are trying to raise money for college or university tuition. They can’t make ends meet and is at risk at being evicted from their homes.

I don’t think people should judge prostitutes harshly unless they have been in their shoes. It is all very fine for some prude to condemn a prostitute while the prude lives in a half-million dollar home, has a university degree and a well-paying job. But unless they have lived the desperate lives of those women who are far less fortunate than they are, it would be better all around if they kept their prudish opinions to themselves. They certainly are not qualified to judge those less fortunate than themselves.

However, I think every parent should try to dissuade his or her children from entering into the life of a sex worker. It is not a good life and even if in the future there is less risk to sex workers, there has to be a better way to make a living. And being a sex worker is certainly not a sure way of finding a suitable mate to marry and have children especially if she got AIDS while working as a prostitute.