Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Decriminalizing prostitution won’t make it safer, Crown argues

Up to 95 per cent of prostitutes are vulnerable women who would gladly leave their tawdry profession if they could, an Ontario prosecutor told a landmark prostitution appeal Tuesday.

“It is not a voluntary choice, but a highly constrained choice,” Crown counsel Christine Bartlett-Hughes told a five-judge Ontario Court of Appeal panel that will decide the fate of the prostitution laws.

“We recognize that there are certain individuals that choose this activity,” Ms. Bartlett-Hughes added. “But nevertheless, Parliament is entitled to legislate to protect those who are most vulnerable.”

Ms. Bartlett-Hughes conceded that the laws can make it more difficult for prostitutes to protect themselves from violent customers. However, she told the judges there is no proof that decriminalizing prostitution and moving prostitutes off the streets into brothels will make them substantially safer.

In fact, she said, it is far from clear that legalizing brothels will have any effect whatsoever on the number of street prostitutes in the country.

The federal and Ontario governments are appealing a decision by Ontario Superior Court Judge Susan Himel that struck down the prostitution law’s provisions prohibiting communicating and living off the avails, and another that makes it a crime to run a brothel.

The three prostitutes behind the challenge – Terri-Lynn Bedford, Valerie Scott and Amy Lebovitch – claim the provisions violate their constitutional right to security of the person by compelling them to work under unsafe conditions.

Full Article
Source: Globe & Mail 

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