Wednesday October 13, 2010
BC Court Allows Challenge against Prostitution Laws
By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
VANCOUVER, October 13, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The BC Court of Appeal ruled on October 12 that a Vancouver based pro-prostitution lobby group will be allowed to challenge Canada’s prostitution laws in court.
Madam Justice Mary E. Saunders overturned a December, 2008 ruling by the BC Supreme Court and told representatives from the Downtown Eastside Sex Workers United Against Violence (SWUAV) lobby group that she was granting them legal standing to challenge the Criminal Code, despite the group not being actively involved in prostitution themselves.
The 2008 Supreme Court decision found that the plaintiffs, former prostitute Sheri Kiselbach and SWUAV, did not have legal standing because they were not impacted by current laws against keeping a common bawdy house, living on the avails of prostitution and communicating for the purpose of prostitution.
Kiselbach and SWUAV appealed the ruling in January, 2009.
Justice Saunders said in her decision “that the impugned provisions of the Criminal Code deprive sex workers, whose work itself is lawful, of the ability to conduct their work safely,” explaining that “the communication provisions push sex workers into isolated areas, working alone where assistance is not near at hand, that the bawdy house provisions deprive sex workers of the opportunity to work indoors in a safer setting, and that the procurement provisions limit the ability of sex workers to establish safer working environments.”
“In this case,” Justice Saunders wrote, “I respectfully conclude the judge (in the 2008 Supreme Court decision) failed to give sufficient weight to the breadth of the constitutional challenge and the comprehensive and systemic nature of the plaintiffs’ theory.”
Justice Saunders also mentioned the September 29 Ontario Superior Court ruling in the case of Bedford v. Canada, where Justice Susan Himel found that laws restricting prostitution were unconstitutional.
“The result in Bedford, of course, is not binding in British Columbia unless it becomes the subject of a decision from the Supreme Court of Canada. That there is a similar challenge ongoing in Ontario, led by two persons who plan to return to prostitution-related activities and one who is currently so engaged, is of interest to this case, but is not a matter that bears directly on the application here of the criteria for public interest standing,” Justice Saunders wrote.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson told the House of Commons on September 30 that the federal government will appeal Justice Himel’s ruling.
Though Justice Himel originally stayed her ruling, which is binding only in Ontario, for 30 days to allow the provincial and federal governments to consider the implications of the decision, she yesterday granted a four-month moratorium before the ruling comes into effect, with the provision that the Crown appeal of her decision is heard promptly.
Lawyer Alan Young, who represented the “sex-trade workers” in the Ontario case, told the media, “Leaving the status of the current law open to debate does not serve the public interest, and we will do whatever we can to expedite final resolution of the issue of whether the existing legal regime will be given a second life.”
“In my view, having the impugned law remain in force for a further two to three months is a small price to pay for having the appeal heard with such great dispatch,” Young said, adding, “If this timetable cannot be achieved, we will not consent to any further extensions of the stay and the federal Crown will then need to seek a court order at a contested hearing if it wishes to extend the stay.”
The full text of the BC Court of Appeal ruling is available here.
See previous LSN coverage:
Canadian Laws Restricting Prostitution ‘Unconstitutional’: Ontario Court
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10092905.html
Canadian Gvmt to Appeal Prostitution Ruling
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10093003.html
Pro-Family Groups Oppose Canadian Prostitution Ruling
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10093004.html