The high court deemed all laws prohibiting brothels, soliciting clients in public, and living off the profits of prostitution to be unconstitutional and overly broad [no pun intended].
The 9-0 Supreme Court ruling is a victory for sex workers seeking safer working conditions. The court held that current laws violated the guarantee to life, liberty and security of the person. However, the ruling will not take effect immediately because it gives Parliament up to a year to respond with new legislation.
Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, writing on behalf of the court, said Canada's social landscape has changed since 1990, when the Supreme Court upheld a ban on street solicitation.
"These appeals and the cross-appeal are not about whether prostitution should be legal or not," she wrote. "They are about whether the laws Parliament has enacted on how prostitution may be carried out pass constitutional muster. I conclude that they do not."
Meanwhile
…
A woman went to her priest with a problem. "Father, I
have two female parrots, and they only know how to say: “Hi, we're prostitutes. Wanna
have some fun?”
"That's dreadful!" exclaimed the
priest. "But I think I can help. Bring your female parrots over
to my house, and I will put them in a cage with my two male parrots, whom I have
taught to praise the Lord. My parrots will teach your parrots the righteous path.”
The next day, the woman brought her female parrots to the
priest's house. His two male parrots were holding rosary beads and quietly
praying in their cage. The priest put her female parrots in the cage with his
male parrots. Sure enough, the birds said: "Hi, we're
prostitutes. Wanna have some fun?”
One
male parrot exclaimed to the other, "Ditch the
rosary beads! Our prayers have
been answered!"
WARNING: X-Rated content under the fold:
Weird and wacky sex laws in the U.S.
WASHINGTON: If you give a sex worker a ride to work, you lose your car;
UTAH: You cannot marry your first cousin until you reach 65 years of age;
TEXAS: You can’t own more than six dildos [only two in Arizona and none in Georgia];
NORTH CAROLINA: You cannot pretend to be married to share a hotel room;
ALASKA: Moose are banned from having sex on city streets [but Palinators are permitted];
PENNSYLVANIA: Oral and anal sex are illegal;
LOUISIANA: Necrophilia is legal;
IOWA: Kisses may not last for more than five minutes [a public service message from your local stopwatch police];
KANSAS: Illegal ‘sodomy’ includes oral sex, but anal penetration with a finger is allowed under specified circumstances [statutory suppositories OK, I suppose];
ALABAMA: Incestuous marriages are legal [which explains a lot about state politics];
NEW YORK: Adultery is illegal [but there is no prison large enough to accommodate the violators].
WARNING: X-Rated content under the fold:
Weird and wacky sex laws in the U.S.
WASHINGTON: If you give a sex worker a ride to work, you lose your car;
UTAH: You cannot marry your first cousin until you reach 65 years of age;
TEXAS: You can’t own more than six dildos [only two in Arizona and none in Georgia];
NORTH CAROLINA: You cannot pretend to be married to share a hotel room;
ALASKA: Moose are banned from having sex on city streets [but Palinators are permitted];
PENNSYLVANIA: Oral and anal sex are illegal;
LOUISIANA: Necrophilia is legal;
IOWA: Kisses may not last for more than five minutes [a public service message from your local stopwatch police];
KANSAS: Illegal ‘sodomy’ includes oral sex, but anal penetration with a finger is allowed under specified circumstances [statutory suppositories OK, I suppose];
ALABAMA: Incestuous marriages are legal [which explains a lot about state politics];
NEW YORK: Adultery is illegal [but there is no prison large enough to accommodate the violators].
Our neighbors to the north again demonstrate a level of commonsense and maturity that exceeds our own.
ReplyDeleteI guess the question that needs to be asked is: Why is prostitution illegal? All that does is give us pimps with drugs who enslave girls, Is it because of "morality"? And in a country that CLAIMS to have separation of church and state, who determined the "morality" in question?
ReplyDelete"in a country that CLAIMS to have separation of church and state, who determined the "morality" in question?"
ReplyDeleteYou have to ask? It may be apocryphal but Justice Brandeis supposedly stated "morality is not the government's business - it's God's business. God can handle it."
I agree
The report brought this to mind. Because it's the season to pop our corks.
ReplyDeleteAll I could think of is all those cigarettes. Sometimes I forget how awful everything used to smell when everyone smoked everywhere.
DeleteOh, and I believe watching animals have sex in Floriduh is illegal if you're doing it for prurient reasons or helping them in anyway unless it's in the interests of animal husbandry.
ReplyDeleteAfter all so many Florida husbands are animals.