Supreme Court agrees to hear prostitution case

Christian and family groups welcome the news

The Supreme Court of Canada building. Sxc.hu

Deborah Gyapong reports that the Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to review the Ontario Court of Appeal's decision to uphold a lower court's ruling to strike down some of Canada's prostitution laws:

The Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL) welcomed the news.

“With our partners REAL Women of Canada and Christian Legal Fellowship, we have been intervenors in this case from its beginning in Ontario Superior Court,” said CCRL executive director Joanne McGarry. “Our position was and remains that while the law is not perfect, any liberalization of it would not improve prostitutes’ safety, and would make it easier to lure and exploit vulnerable girls and women”

“Evidence from other jurisdictions suggests that when legalization occurs, the illegal side of the business continues to flourish,” she said in a statement.

Real Women of Canada national vice president Gwendolyn Landolt says she and the other two groups expect to file their intention to intervene by next April.

Prostitution is not illegal in Canada, but activities surrounding it are: soliciting for the purposes of prostitution; running a brothel or bawdy house; and living off the avails of prostitution or pimping. The lower court decision struck down these laws as unconstitutional because they violated the Section 7 Charter rights of security of the person. The Ontario Court of Appeal did not strike down the law against soliciting, but struck down the other two.

Read the full story at The B.C. Catholic website.