Canadian Court Finally Grants Human Rights to Sex Professionals
March 27, 2012
MARK L. writes:
Coming soon, to a neighborhood near moi — legalized brothels!
I only recently found out that prostitution is considered legal according to Canada’s constitution. However, the practice was somewhat curtailed by laws making it illegal to solicit for sexual services for money and to operate brothels. This was all contradictory, and of course these practices went on, but the message was (at least somewhat) clear: “While we as a society do not want to swell our jails with prostitutes, we do not condone prostitution as an activity.”
The ruling described in the above article now overthrows a number of these curtailments, particularly with regard to operating brothels, which can now be essentially run as businesses, right out in the open.
Oh, wait. Maybe not that much out in the open. Even Canadians are still allowed to use that portion of their brain which quibbles on some of the finer points about rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. And some have expressed concern that having brothels in their neighborhood might just not be such a good thing (y’know, property values and all). As a result, local politicians here in Toronto are talking about creating “red light districts” (more like “green light districts”), modeled along the lines of what we see in places like Amsterdam. One pol even suggested having a zone on the man-made “Centre Island” — where I sometimes take my kids to the petting zoo.
I’m so glad that “sex trade workers” are now finally regarded as human beings, since evidently they weren’t before. I’m also pleased beyond measure that the smiling dominatrix (see article) who carries around a whip now represents a valid career option to be considered by those whose, er, skill sets lie in areas not heretofore deemed legally marketable.
Laura writes:
You’re going to have all those boring stories in the press about outbreaks of sexual disease and about how the government isn’t doing enough about it. Then there will have to be a special government office that serves the health needs of prostitutes. Perhaps the Ministry of Safe Sex Transactions.
