Canadian Court ruled a number of laws related to sex-work where unconstitutional today.
An Ontario Court judge has ruled that three parts of Canada’s prostitution laws violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Justice Thomas McKay ruled that the laws, which prohibit procuring, advertising and materially benefiting from someone else’s sexual services, are unconstitutional.
That means the charges against London, Ont., couple Tiffany Harvey and Hamad Anwar are stayed.
They ran Fantasy World Escorts until it was shut down by police in 2015.
In his ruling, McKay said the law against advertising violates the Charter right to freedom of expression, and the laws against procuring and materially benefiting violate the Charter guarantee of “security of the person.”
Peddling it doesn’t make you free. But if you aren’t allowed to, you’re not as free as you could be.
Consider, if one can sell one’s access to the courts (i.e. a binding arbitration clause) and that is considered “freedom”, shouldn’t selling a genital to genital massage also be considered “freedom”. (Note that being required to either of those isn’t freedom.)
There’s a degree of nuance that deals as much with gender as it does with class. I find that the people most supportive of this are upper middle class and hopelessly misled into believing that this resembles some milestone for the continued liberation of women, without considering that this is a dangerous activity that the vast majority of people that engage in it would not do so if there were other economic opportunities.
I can also see this as a way to enable women that are in the position where they feel they have to do this can report on abuse that has happened to them without fearing retribution based on their job. Commodification has already happened so this seems like a non starter even though i agree women shouldnt be placed in the condition where they feel like they have to do sex work.
