Prostitution

Professor Young is a bright guy and if he thinks there's a shot at striking down the prostitution laws there may be. But ... I don't see it.

There has to be a breach of a Charter right -- and economic rights have generally been excluded from the Charter.

So if the right to, say, sell cigarettes is not protected, how can the right to sell sex be?

And that's the key -- the concerns about violence all come about because of the crime tariff associated with any illegal activity. Al Capone only had to use violence because selling whiskey was illegal -- the LCBO/SAQ etc etc enforces contracts in court, not with hired goons.

Now, all that does not mean that the current prostitution laws make good policy sense -- they don't -- for many reasons, not the least of which is that prostitution is legal but so much that goes with it isn't. And the fact that massage parlours are (mainly) fronts for prostitution and yet are totally ignored by police (at least in major centres) speaks volumes.

I suppose the truth is that major reform of the prostitution laws is politically impossible so the court challenge makes some sense -- but this really should be a parliamentary matter.

Court challenge takes on sex work prohibitions

Carefully prepared legal challenge aims to show existing laws make risky work more dangerous

Kirk Makin
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail


As police across the country search for scores of missing and murdered women, three prostitutes are launching a carefully prepared challenge that could force changes in how Canada polices the world's oldest profession.

Lawyers for women intend to prove, in a case that opens Tuesday, that prostitution is also the world's most dangerous profession and that ill-conceived and repressive laws exacerbate the perils.

"The laws target women and don't allow women to protect themselves," said one of the litigants, Terri-Jean Bedford, who has worked as a Toronto street prostitute and a brothel madam. "Nothing can be worse than the laws we have now. I found that working indoors is much safer than working outdoors, especially after midnight, when the freaks come out."

The law flies in the face of social reality, said Lauren Casey, a former prostitute in Victoria, B.C. "When consenting adults are doing what consulting adults like to do – and there is no harm to it – then we should reduce the harm that is associated with a very dangerous form of work," she said in an interview.

While sporadic attempts have been made over the years to chip away at aspects of prostitution law, the challenge is the first in two decades to aim for a broad sweep of its provisions. The women want the courts to strike down prohibitions against living off the avails of prostitution, communicating with potential clients and setting up brothels.

To succeed, the applicants must show that the laws amount to a "grossly disproportionate" infringement of the Charter right to life, liberty and security of the person.

With the Charter challenge almost certain to reach the Supreme Court of Canada, both sides have had a strong incentive to assemble a vast body of evidence, including dozens of witnesses.

"As it currently stands, the law is arbitrary and irrational," said Alan Young, a law professor at York University's Osgoode Hall law school, who is spearheading the Charter challenge
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