A group of lawyers is launching a constitutional challenge of the country’s prostitution law, seeking to decriminalise the practice to make it safer.
TORONTO: As grisly details emerge in a sensational case involving the serial killing of Canadian prostitutes, a group of lawyers is launching a constitutional challenge of the country’s prostitution law, seeking to decriminalise the practice to make it safer.
“We call it the world’s oldest profession for a reason.
It’s time to get out of the world of political denial and take care of these people,” said Toronto law professor Alan Young, who leads the challenge.
Under the convoluted Canadian law, buying or selling sex is legal, but it is illegal to communicate about it beforehand, live off its avails, or run a private bawdy house.
The group of lawyers and law students — representing three current and former prostitutes — will argue in Ontario Court, likely in August, that these three provisions are unconstitutional in a way that they endanger the lives of sex trade workers.
If you can’t talk with a prospective client before entering the vehicle, “how do you expect someone on the street to screen a client to know whether it’s Robert Pickton or not?” Young said in an interview.
He is referring to the trial of Robert “Willie” Pickton, who has been charged with killing 26 of more than 60 prostitutes who disappeared from the streets of Vancouver, British Columbia, from the early 1990s until 2001.
It is the worst serial killing case in Canadian history and includes allegations that Pickton, a pig farmer, butchered his victims.
Young, who has launched similar challenges to Canada’s marijuana laws, said the Pickton trial ensures “maximum political mileage.” It is unclear how the government will respond to the challenge.
If the challenge is successful in striking down portions of the law, it would decriminalise the practice until new legislation is introduced.
That could bring Canadian law more in line with countries such as Australia, Germany and the Netherlands, where the business and act of prostitution are legal. ]
The United States has a patchwork of laws dealing with prostitution that differs among states, but the practice is generally illegal.
Between 1991 and 2005, there were 116 killings of prostitutes in Canada. Forty-three occurred in the last four years.
“There is an escalating murder rate,” Young said. “The problem is people have no personnel to work with.” —Reuters
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