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Supreme Court deserves praise for hooker ruling

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The ghosts of the murdered women of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside have made their mark on the highest court in the land.

In a ground-breaking, unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of Canada has struck down three prostitution laws as unconstitutional because they prevent sex workers from defending themselves against violence.

Violence like that wielded by serial killer Robert Pickton, who preyed on street prostitutes who had nowhere safe to ply their trade.

“Parliament has the power to regulate against nuisances, but not at the cost of the health, safety and lives of prostitutes,” wrote Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin.

But legal brothels will not be set up on Canadian street corners any time soon. The high court has stayed its decision for a year, leaving the status quo in place while Parliament has the opportunity to draft better legislation.

“We are reviewing the decision,” said Justice Minister Peter MacKay, “and are exploring all possible options to ensure the criminal law continues to address the significant harms that flow from prostitution to communities, those engaged in prostitution, and vulnerable persons.”

While many may agree prostitution is morally reprehensible, degrading and dehumanizing, the world’s oldest profession is not a crime in Canada. What was a crime was virtually every activity surrounding the trade — from working inside to screening a john, to hiring a bodyguard for protection.

“By imposing dangerous conditions on prostitution, they prevent people engaged in a risky — but legal — activity from taking steps to protect themselves from the risks,” the court ruled.

That will now change. Struck down are the prohibitions against keeping a common bawdy house or brothel, living on the avails of prostitution and communicating in public for the purposes of prostitution. After the year moratorium, sex workers will be legally allowed to hire bodyguards or drivers, work in brothels and talk to clients to see whether they pose any danger — without fear of being arrested.

They no longer must choose between liberty and death.

And despite what some critics may say, this is not a win for pimps or a tragedy for vulnerable women and children. The laws against human trafficking and exploitation remain on the books.

The Supreme Court’s decision was a hard-fought victory for York University law professor Alan Young, who represented retired dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford, Vancouver sex worker Amy Lebovitch and former Toronto prostitute Valerie Scott.

Their legal battle was sparked, he said, by his watching the horrific TV coverage of police digging up women’s body parts on Pickton’s pig farm outside Vancouver in 2002. He later learned these sex workers had tried to come indoors to a safe place named Grandma’s House — but Vancouver Police shut it down.

“That little anecdote,” said Young, “was the essence of our case.”

Pickton was convicted of six murders in 2007 and the Crown decided not to hold a second trial on another 20 murder counts.

“A law that prevents street prostitutes from resorting to a safe haven such as Grandma’s House while a suspected serial killer prowls the streets, is a law that has lost sight of its purpose,” wrote the chief justice.

It is now in Parliament’s hands. “I always said this is one small step in the 1,000-mile journey,” Young warned.

One option for the federal government is to follow what Ottawa did years ago after the court’s abortion decision: Close its eyes and simply not respond. That would leave the issue to the municipalities to draft bylaws to regulate the sex trade.

More likely, the Harper government will draft a new law.

As the Supreme Court advised, Parliament is not prevented “from imposing limits on where and how prostitution may be conducted, as long as it does so in a way that does not infringe the constitutional rights of prostitutes.”

How does a Conservative government deal with such a quandry? It could decide to ban the sale of sex altogether — forcing this inevitable profession back into the shadows.

And those women on the Downtown Eastside would have died for naught.

Read Mandel Wednesday through Saturday.

 

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