ONTARIO, March 29, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A number of former prostitutes have vehemently denounced a decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal that determined that provisions in the law that had prohibited brothels are “unconstitutional.”
“In my opinion, this just gives the government a license to be a pimp, because now they can charge taxes to these women,” said Tania Fiolleau, a former prostitute and overseer of brothels who once employed hundreds of women.
Fiolleau told Brian Lilly on SunNews that if the ruling is not overturned it will only encourage more women to become unwittingly enslaved to prostitution simply because brothels are now legal.
Fiolleau argued that all the ruling really accomplishes is to give pimps a new title with a new kind of license.
“What it does is now it says ‘You know what? You’re not a pimp anymore, you are now a valid entrepreneur and we’re going to change your title from being a pimp to an entrepreneur/bodyguard/driver.’”
Ex-prostitutes from Montreal agreed with Fiolleau and slammed the argument that legalized brothels would help prostitutes protect themselves from exploitation and abuse when selling sex for profit.
“It’s hypocritical – it’s merely legitimizing pimps into businessmen,” said Marie (not her real name) to the National Post. “Legalizing bordellos is simply telling men it’s OK to go there.”
“When I heard [the ruling] my first thought was, ‘Those hypocrites, they are saying ‘put [prostitutes] somewhere where we can’t see them’ but are still admitting that prostitution is dangerous.”
Fiolleau told LifeSiteNews that prostitution is a physical and psychological destroyer of women. “As the years go on they develop drug habits. Every single time that you sleep with a John, it chips away at your soul. Eventually you are the walking dead and then you try to take your life. I see it over and over and over again.”
Another former prostitute named Julie told the National Post that prostitution does not suddenly become more safe if it is legally performed inside a brothel. “There’s no more security in doing this inside a bordello,” she said.
Marie agreed. “The violence against women is not on the street, it’s between four walls,” she said. “There are escort services, massage parlours, all operating now with organized crime and street gangs. Bordellos will be the same.”
Fiolleau pointed out that a majority of under-the-table brothels are already run by criminal organizations and that the ruling will only encourage these organizations — such as Hell’s Angels — to become more established in the business of selling woman’s flesh for profit.
Fiolleau flatly disagreed with the argument that the health department would be able to make the legalized brothels safer and cleaner for the women through regulations.
“It does not keep the women safe just because they’re getting tested for STDs. It keeps the Johns safe. The Johns are not the ones getting tested for STDs. What happens when a John goes and passes on an STD to these girls is that they get fired from working in the brothel because they are no longer clean and they end up on the street anyhow.”
The country’s leading champions for the dignity of women and the strengthening of marriages and families are demanding that the ruling be immediately appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada so that Parliament may have the ultimate say in social policies regarding prostitution.
For Fiolleau, who has seen all the horror that the trade in women’s bodies can produce, the answer is simple: make prostitution illegal.
“As a forward moving nation, we should make prostitution illegal, but we should not make the laws as tough for women caught prostituting as we should for the pimps, Johns and recruiters, since many of them did not choose this lifestyle nor can escape it,” wrote Fiolleau in a position paper on her website SaveTheWoman.ca.
“Where there is a demand, there will always be a supply. We need to have stiffer laws for the Johns, recruiters and the pimps in order to reduce the demand for the prostitutes.”
To contact the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
The Honourable Robert Douglas Nicholson
284 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H8
E-mail: [email protected]
Ph: (613) 957-4222