Good News from Canada

[Patricia]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/story/2012/03/26/f-vp-henry-prostitution.html

[LaBelleThatcher]

I don't know, in one way it is good in the way that the emphasis in legislation has shifted so firmly from arbitrary morality to common sense and safety...

...but that fundamental refusal to acknowledge that, despite some degree of overlap, street and indoor sex work are *NOT* two fully interchangeable aspects of the same business, and most particularly not from the sex worker's point of view. Neither is automatically safer, better, cleaner or more comfortable except from a strictly individual perspective. Without that cleared up, the crisis and survival sex workers (with less to invest and commit, and less suited to doing so) will always be the "low hanging fruit" to be picked off by legislation.

I accept this is the 21st century and street work should, and can evolve into some form society finds more palatable, but it cannot do so successfully until legislation acknowledges the very different nature of the market and the needs that it fulfills and makes a real attempt to match them....

...and in a climate where the standing NGOs with not even let you answer the question:
"Are you comfortable with your job" for yourselves...

GOOD LUCK with that. :(

[Banjaxed]

I've only briefly flicked through the judgment but it seems to be a step in the right direction, from a jurisdiction with a very similar line on prostitution as that which is taken in this one. Canadian precedent does hold some sway here and it will be interesting to see how this develops.

Then again, the Swedish model became the preferred one without any debate in this country at all. Just a one-sided debate in the Seanad before people actually had a complete picture of the situation. What kills me is that very few, if any, active sex workers got any line into the debate.

[Jack in the Box]

A good day for Canada! I'm delighted. It just shows what can be achieved if sex workers and their supporters rise up and fight.