Ontario Appeal Court nixes brothel ban...

[coffeeFreak]

Interesting...

Ontario Appeal Court nixes brothel ban; gives government one year to rewrite law
By Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press | The Canadian Press – 34 minutes ago

TORONTO - A ban on brothels puts prostitutes at risk and is therefore unconstitutional, Ontario's top court ruled Monday in a decision hailed by sex-trade workers as pivotal in making their lives safer.

"The new spring has come for sex workers, a new era has been ushered in," lawyer Alan Young, the lawyer who launched the challenge, said Monday.

"There was always this feeling they were second-class citizens who didn't have rights and simply should just be quiet about their plight."

Valerie Scott, one of three women involved in the case, said "I feel almost like we're debutantes at a ball."

"It's pivotally important for women to work together, two or three or four women working together," Scott said.

"When you have people around, generally, you don't see as much violence.

"If everyone had to work alone and isolated, no matter what occupation you're in.. there would be a lot more violence in the world."

The ruling came in an appeal by the federal and Ontario governments of a lower court ruling that found three provisions dealing with prostitution were unconstitutional in that they contributed to the dangers faced by prostitutes.

However, the Ontario Court of Appeal — in its decision Monday — upheld the ban on soliciting as a reasonable way to protect communities.

It also "read in" wording to the criminalization of living on the avails of prostitution to make it clear that exploitation of prostitutes should be illegal.

"Prostitution is a controversial topic, one that provokes heated and heartfelt debate about morality, equality, personal autonomy and safety," the court wrote in a split decision stretching to 132 pages.

"It is not the court's role to engage in that debate. Our role is to decide whether or not the challenged laws accord with the constitution."

The five-panel judge only agreed fully with the lower court in finding that the law against brothels was too broad because "it captures conduct that is unlikely to lead to the problems Parliament seeks to curtail."

The court also found the impact is "grossly disproportionate" to the law's intent because "the safest way to sell sex is for a prostitute to work indoors in a location under her control."

At the same time, it suspended its declaration for 12 months to give Parliament an opportunity to draft a new law if it so chooses.

At the same time, the court said the effective ban on street prostitution makes sense because harm to the community is real.
"While street prostitution poses real and grave dangers to the prostitutes themselves, it also has a profound impact on the members of the surrounding community," the justices wrote.

As such, the court found, the ban on communicating publicly for the purposes of prostitution is reasonable.

In addition, by allowing prostitutes to move indoors given the decriminalization of brothels, any harm caused by the ban on solicitation would be mitigated, the court said.

In a dissenting opinion on that score, two justices said they agreed with the trial judge's finding that the danger posed to street prostitutes by the ban on communicating should override the goal of combating social nuisance.

"The world in which street prostitutes actually operate is a world of dark streets and barren, isolated, silent places," the dissenters wrote.

"It is a dangerous world, with always the risk of violence and even death."

When it comes to living on the avails of prostitution, the court said the law could be reworded to specifically exclude the exploitation of prostitutes.

"This offence aims to protect vulnerable persons from being coerced, pressured or emotionally manipulated into prostitution," the court said.

The objective is to prevent "pimps from exploiting prostitutes and from profiting from the prostitution of others" but it also captures others such as a prostitute's bodyguards, accountant or receptionist.

"It captures conduct that is no way exploitative," the justices wrote.

However, the justices "read" words of limitation into the law so that it bars living on the avails "in circumstances of exploitation."

"This aligns the language of the provision with the vital legislative goal that animates it and cures the constitutional defect," they said.

"It introduces the requirement that the accused has unfairly taken advantage of the prostitute in his dealings with her."
They stayed that part of the ruling for 30 days.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/life-death-appeal-court-decision-canadas-sex-trade-080010162.html

[oneh2obabe]

Now watch the government drag their heels rewriting the law.

[mrj222]

:smt023 Now watch the government drag their heels rewriting the law.

or us it in an attempt to use political posturing to cover up yet another scandal...

[Ken7]

:smt023 Now watch the government drag their heels rewriting the law.

You might be suprised how many escorts could produce MP details on charge cards in Ottawa. Not sure why it took this long.

[oneh2obabe]

Exactly. Government needs time to remove names (and issue CC's for John Smith).

[SassySasquatch]

Gee - I'm going down to TO this weekend, I wonder...?

[grammafreddy]

You might be suprised how many escorts could produce MP details on charge cards in Ottawa. Not sure why it took this long.

I used to manage a motel in town here years ago. I could name names, too. It would raise a few eyebrows - double guaranteed.

[oneh2obabe]

Gee - I'm going down to TO this weekend, I wonder...?

Jarvis & Queen or the Entertainment District.

[SassySasquatch]

Now that's funny, I surely chuckled while the wife giving me a surly look! Honest Hun - just going to Greek Town. (don't be thinking anything either sicko's)

[D suzuki]

lil humpty dumpty going on there gramma?

[oneh2obabe]

Now that's funny, I surely chuckled while the wife giving me a surly look! Honest Hun - just going to Greek Town. (don't be thinking anything either sicko's)

Taste of the Danforth?

Couldn't resist, sorry.

[SassySasquatch]

Depends on what that means. Actually I believe that it occurs in July (Taste of the Danforth) Yummy! I have a friend whose wife has operated a Greek bakery on the Danforth for the last 30+ years and she makes great Baklava!

[oneh2obabe]

Just that you might enjoy that festival, nothing more. This year it's August 10-12th.

So people here know what we're talking about ...

Taste of the Danforth is a yearly festival held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in the Greektown area along Danforth Avenue for a period of three days in August. Started in 1994, it celebrates Greek food and culture every second weekend in August. Past attendance numbers have reached as high as one million people over the three day event. Approximately 2 kilometres of Danforth Avenue is closed from Broadview Avenue to past Jones Avenue for the festival.
http://www.tasteofthedanforth.com/taste ... nforth.php

O/T ... the Court suspended its declaration for 12 months to give Parliament an opportunity to draft a new law if it so chooses. Now we'll see how fast they move and allow safe houses for the working girls/ladies/women.

[SassySasquatch]

That friend came up unexpectedly this afternoon and had with him some Greek 'Koulourakia'. I haven't tried them yet (the kids have being enjoying them) but later its cookies and milk for me!

[oneh2obabe]

^^^With or without the sesame seeds?