Canada Supreme Court says restrictions on prostitution unconstitutional
The supreme court of Canada struck down all current restrictions on prostitution on Friday, including bans on brothels and on street solicitation, declaring that the provisions unconstitutionally violated prostitutes’ safety, according to details in a Guardian article.
Photo/Nodar Kherkheulidze via wikimedia commons
The vote was one-sided, 9-0, effective in one year.
Canadian parliament appears to be seeking a different way of “regulating sex trade” but notes that prostitution is technically legal in Canada.
Robert Leckey, a law professor at McGill University, said the court found that the law did nothing to increase safety, but suggested in its ruling that more finely tailored rules might pass constitutional scrutiny in the future.
“Some of the (current) provisions actually limit sex workers’ ability to protect themselves,” Leckey said.
The court found that Canada’s prostitution laws violated the guarantee to life, liberty and security of the person.
It is intended “to target pimps and the parasitic, exploitative conduct in which they engage,” the ruling said. “The law, however, punishes everyone who lives on the avails of prostitution without distinguishing between those who exploit prostitutes and those who could increase the safety and security of prostitutes, for example, legitimate drivers, managers, or bodyguards.”
