[Sexworkersandfriends..potluck..] next potluck dinner

[Andy Sorfleet]

This is probably the best analysis of the ruling in the press. Kirk
Makin is a great justice reporter. I'll send the best two other
stories for context as well, National Post, and Toronto Star.  Cheers,
Andy

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=





GLOBE AND MAIL
Monday, March 26, 2012

Kirk Makin, Justice Reporter



Landmark ruling legalizes brothels in Ontario

[photo caption]
Left to right sex worker advocate Terri-Jean Bedford raises her arms
in victory during a press conference in Toronto, Ont. Monday, March
26, 2012. Ontario,ÄöaÑa¥s top court has legalized brothels in a ruling
that came out today.
Kevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail

Ontario's highest court has legalized brothels in a sweeping decision
that condemned current prostitution laws for adding to the hazards of
a highly dangerous profession.

The Ontario Court of Appeal allowed the Crown just one victory, ruling
that communicating for the purposes of prostitution will remain
illegal.

The landmark decision is binding on Ontario courts and sets up a final
showdown at the Supreme Court of Canada next fall or in early 2013.

Ontario Attorney-General John Gerretsen said on Monday that he intends
to discuss appealing the decision with his federal counterparts. "Our
main concern is that people feel safe in their communities, feel safe
in their homes, and this kind of issue may very well need legislative
action," he said.

The five-judge appellate panel said unanimously that prostitutes may
set up brothels and hire staff to protect them. They said that it is
senseless to have a law that compels prostitutes to work in dangerous
isolation, given that prostitution itself is legal.

The judges also explicitly rejected a Crown argument that prostitutes
make an informed decision to enter a dangerous trade, saying that
prostitutes deserve as much protection as other citizens who work in
"dangerous, but legal, enterprises."

However, the court majority -- Mr. Justice David Doherty, Mr. Justice
Marc Rosenberg and Madam Justice Kathryn Feldman -- salvaged the
communication provision on the basis that it has kept neighbourhoods
free of organized crime, drugs, noise and unwanted solicitations.

They played down arguments from prostitution activists that those it
hurts most are marginalized street prostitutes who work in the shadows
and must assess potential clients hastily.

Mr. Justice James MacPherson and Madame Justice Eleanore Cronk took
sharp issue with the majority on the point, arguing that the
communication provision significantly worsens the plight of street
prostitutes.

"The violence faced by street prostitutes across Canada is, in a word,
overwhelming," they said. "One does not need to conjure up the face of
Robert Pickton to know that this is true."

The brothel ruling takes effect in a year. However, as of April 25,
prostitutes can engage bodyguards. The court remodelled the pimping
provision to target only those who live off the avails of prostitution
"in circumstances of exploitation."

The Sex Professionals of Canada immediately urged Ontario
municipalities to begin discussing licensing provisions that will
ensure health and safety of brothel workers and their clients.

Municipalities are expected to create a patchwork of regulation. Many,
such as Niagara Falls, already license body-rub parlours. About 40
workers are employed in the city's four licensed parlours. Toronto has
25 body-rub parlours and 482 licensed workers.

Eddie Francis, mayor of Windsor, Ont., said his planning staff are
looking at zoning issues that isolate brothels from schools and family
neighbourhoods without creating red-light districts.

Meanwhile, police forces are split on the logic and propriety of
continuing "sweeps" of body-rub parlours in search of prostitutes and
their clients.

"We stopped doing sweeps after the last decision and told our people
that if there were problems, there are other laws they could use to
deal with them," said Toronto Police Service spokesman Mark Pugash.
"We see little reason to change that."

However, York Regional Police Chief Eric Jolliffe said that his force
"continues to be bound by the laws that exist today and our obligation
is to uphold the law as it is now."

Prostitution activists hailed Monday's decision as a historic victory.

"Six out of six judges so far have concluded that the law does not
work and is hurting people," said York University law professor Alan
Young, the lawyer for the women who launched the constitutional
challenge.

Valerie Scott, one of the litigants, said that prostitutes have a
sense of belonging for the first time. "I feel like a debutante," she
said. "I feel like a citizen."

Ms. Scott said that brothels have always existed in the shadows.
"There is a brothel on every block in every city, and there always has
been," she said.

Nikki Thomas, executive director of SPOC, told reporters that
prostitutes will be normal citizens who file income taxes, purchase
investments and quietly go about their work. "We are not going to have
fire and brimstone and sex workers raining down from the sky," she
said.

The Court of Appeal noted on Monday that Parliament is not precluded
from enacting new prostitution laws provided they do not heighten the
danger to prostitutes.

With reports from Karen Howlett and Anna Mehler Paperny
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