Prostitution was NOT legalized.Here's the thing, ...prostitution wasn't illegal to begin with. You can't legalize something that wasn't illegal in the first place.
What the Supreme Court of Canada did was to strike down the existing prostitution laws.
The prostitution itself wasn't illegal., but the circumstances and the environments were.
The laws were such that it drove it underground and into an environment that was extremely unsafe for sex trade workers.
While you could prostitute, you couldn't do it in a brothel. At least in a brothel the women could expect some relative form of safety, instead, they were forced to ply their trade in back alleys, cars, meeting their customer wherever.
They've given MPs 1 year to draft new laws concerning prostitution. In the meantime, knowing this issue garnered a unanimous decision by the SC, law enforcement will most likely turn a blind eye to whatever they see taking place, knowing current legislation has been struck down.
A spokeswoman for a coalition of sex workers issued a statement saying that while many Members of Parliament (MPs) may be their clients, they have no idea about the sex worker industry, and are too stupid to craft legislation pertaining to their industry. If they want good laws, they have to have sex workers in on the process of crafting the legislation.
I have a tendency to agree with her. I am reminded of years of contract negotiations with the studios & independent producers being done by union council members who hadn't stepped foot on a film set in years and had no clue about the issues affecting film workers daily.
Even more recently, the giant and narrowly averted fucackta mess that the FTC almost created when they tried to write legislation regarding the network mktg industry. Just one cursory glance at some of those proposals clearly demonstrated they didn't have the first clue about how the industry worked, and the absolute ridiculousness of what they were proposing. Lawmakers can be notoriously clued out.
A few years ago, there was a class action suit against the Federal govt launched by... a bunch of pot smokers of all people! And they had a very valid point. They were fed up after the police raided a very low- profile, and discreet, but illegal hydroponic marijuana dispensary that only sold pot to those that had a legitimate medical marijuana card. When they shut that down, that was the straw that broke the camels back, and they filed a class action against the govt.
Their position was that the govt was forcing already sick people to risk their lives to get medicine. Since medical marijuana was legal, the government should produce it, standardize it, and control & regulate its distribution, just as it does with all other medications. And sick people should not have to be forced to turn to the streets, and buy their medicine from God knows who. You never know whats in it. It could be laced with all sorts of things. No kidney disease patient is forced to go to random stranger for dialysis, heart patients get their medicine from licensed pharmacists, why should they be forced to seek out a non- regulated, non-standardized form of their medicine from a stranger in a back alley, putting their safety at risk.
I believe this kind of thinking framed the structure for their decision.
The SC of Canada, recognized the existing laws surrounding prostitution was channeling / funnelling sex trade workers into situations & environments that was putting them at far greater risk than they needed to be in. So they struck down these laws.
I heard the guy who runs the Bunny Ranch in Vegas put some champagne on ice when he heard the decision.
Apparently he has some big plans for Toronto
