For immediate release from The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada
September 29, 2010
ONTARIO SUPERIOR COURT RULING ON PROSTITUTION…
OTTAWA, ON – The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (the EFC) is deeply dissatisfied with yesterday’s Ontario Superior Court ruling on Canada’s existing prostitution laws. In her decision, Justice Susan Himel effectively struck down the Criminal Code provisions dealing with living off the avails of prostitution, keeping a common bawdy house, and communicating for the purposes of prostitution.
Don Hutchinson, vice-president and general legal counsel for the EFC, stated, “Justice Himel paid only enough attention to an earlier decision of the Supreme Court of Canada on these same Criminal Code provisions to suggest that times have changed so she could ignore the higher court’s ruling. Himel also ignored the fact that Parliament has had twenty years to consider changing the provisions that the Supreme Court found to be constitutional and opted not to do so. When Parliament and the Supreme Court of Canada are in agreement, it seems to me that only Parliament should be in a position to consider changing the law. We believe the decision is shortsighted, and disagree firmly with the judge’s conclusions.”
Julia Beazley, policy analyst for the EFC added, “We strongly disagree that the suspension of prostitution laws will lead to greater protection of prostituted women. The reality is that there is no such thing as safe prostitution.”
“Additionally, to state that human trafficking is incidental to prostitution in the very same month that an RCMP report on human trafficking in Canada clearly identifies the link between organized prostitution and human trafficking is at best naïve, and at worst irresponsible.”
It has been demonstrated in country after country where prostitution has been legalized that when legalization occurs, there are corresponding spikes in rates of human trafficking in order to meet the increased demand. Canada is already a destination country for traffickers, something most Canadians agree is unacceptable. This ruling throws wide open the doors for an unprecedented level of trafficking for sexual purposes.
Justice Himel placed a 30 day suspension on the ruling, giving the federal government time to appeal the decision.
Hutchinson concluded, “This is an opportunity for the Government of Canada to take strong action that will affirm the value and dignity of all Canadian women. It is a defining moment in which they can affirm that, as a nation, we will not condone the exploitation of some for the gratification of others.”
”We call on the federal government to appeal this ruling. We also call on the government to begin a careful study of our laws governing prostitution and determine the best way forward. Given that it could take from two to five years for the case to be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada, the government must act to legislate in what could potentially become a dangerous legal vacuum.”
In April 2010, the EFC released a report entitled Selling Ourselves: Prostitution in Canada, Where are we headed? [http://www.theefc.ca/prostitution]. The report compares the Swedish and the Dutch prostitution law models and examines the correlation between prostitution legislation and rates of human trafficking in these countries. The report also considers the Canadian legal framework and recommends policy proposals for the reformation and strengthening of Canada’s prostitution laws by the Government of Canada.
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We applaud the government for appealing this decision.