(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Communication for the purpose of prostitution, operating a bawdy house, and living off the avails of prostitution? No longer illegal in Canada.

Which is to say, prostitutes can now legally work indoors, screen clients, call the police, and pay their taxes.

Comments

[stormfeather.livejournal.com]

And yet in the Land of the Free.... *sigh*

[kadath.livejournal.com]

Calling the police being a good thing is predicated on the police not being useless, or actively hostile. It's not like they take rape reports by non-prostitutes seriously.

I have tl;dr about this, but it boils down to "our society's view of sex is fundamentally broken and rearranging the pieces doesn't fix it."

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

And yet, being able to call the cops because a dude has beaten the shit out of you or robbed you is still better than not.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

You have way, way more faith in the cops than I do.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I'm Canadian. I have better cops than you do.

(And also, reporting rape is very different than reporting a beating, or a theft. Or, really, getting arrested for asking about a client's history, or losing your house because you didn't want to work a streetcorner, or losing your house because you paid for it with prostitution money DESPITE prostitution being technically somewhat in theory legal. This may not fix the problem, but dammit the deck chairs on the Titanic are no longer impeding access to the lifeboats.)

[kadath.livejournal.com]

Shame about there not being enough lifeboats.

I don't object to making things better for the most vulnerable; in fact, I'm all in favor of it. I just seem to have spilled some of my general malaise re: society on your post.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Yup, not enough lifeboats, the lifeboats are launching with empty seats left, and the deck chairs are STILL in the way - but they're damn well not AS MUCH in the way as they were yesterday.

[jerril]

I think we'd all rather big victories.
But might as well keep encouraging the small victories while we work on the big ones...

[nubule.livejournal.com]

Bah, police in Winnipeg are brutal and I’ve heard similar stories from other Canadian cities. Starlight tours, much? The problem is institutional.

Not that I condemn anyone for calling them in this situation.

[maelorin]

in some places, police officers actually like their jobs - and other people.

[drcuriosity]

In some places they don't even shoot at people very often, if at all.

[maelorin]

some places don't even allow police to carry guns (most of the time).

where i am, our police carry firearms, but rarely use them.

[moiread]

No, but it's a start. And in this case, it's a really, really important start.

[vertigoranger.livejournal.com]

I like that the subtext of this thread is that American police culture breeds a force of paramilitary scumbags who view 'civilians' as the enemy, 'cause I totally agree with that.

[drcuriosity]

Congratulations, Canada. That's definitely a step towards a safer society.
If anyone's interested in how prostitution law reform has gone in New Zealand, there's a bunch of reports, rationales and other useful resources here:

http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy-and-consultation/legislation/prostitution-law-review-committee

If you're looking for a legislative approach to take, you could do a lot worse.

[jerril]

A conservative blowhard was on the radio today citing New Zealand as proof that this is just going to lead to pimps living in your attic eating your children. Or something. My eyes rolled so hard I'm surprised they didn't unscrew out of my head.

[drcuriosity]

Hah! The moral fibre of our society has completely and utterly failed to spiral down under decriminalisation. No mass hysteria, and no change in the level of cat-dog cohabitation. We do have someone opening a male brothel for women. Shock, horror.

[maelorin]

it's fun having kiwis as neighbours. even if you do beat us at rugby.

methinks some amerkins are still miffed that you guys don't let them park their supercarriers in your best kayaking spots.

[drcuriosity]

There's always the cricket. And you have your own kind of footy we don't play at all to keep yourselves entertained, too ;-)

And yes, that whole thing about not bringing their nukes when they play in our yard means a military alliance is Too Hard for the U.S. to cope with, so now the ANZUS treaty looks like more of an ANUS: even twenty years on, each thinks the other guy was an unreasonable arsehole. (Of course, we've been quietly sharing intel through UKUSA/Echelon and supporting the United States Antarctic Program the whole time, but hey...)

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

WHich is extremely sensible

[moiread]

I saw that bit of news yesterday and cheered aloud in my apartment.

[skiriki.livejournal.com]

Oh good, then Oral Roberts' congregation can work there openly, no more glory holes... er, glory spouts!

[dgg.livejournal.com]

Moreover, sex workers can set up guilds and associations, health standards, workers' compensation programs, as well as pay income tax. "We want to be good citizens and it's time, now we finally can,"

Oh so THAT is how the Companion Guilds in the Firefly universe got started...

[frith]

And it's about bloody time. Of course the ReFORM PARty of CANada (love that word, reForm!) vows to contest the ruling or whatever. Where's my NDP coalition government?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Your NDP coalition government is, rightly, on the trash heap of history along with all other counterproductive governments, like all other NDP governments.

The NDP's only success is fucking Saskatchewan, which is to say "something almost but not quite as big or as complicated as Quebec City". All other NDP governments ever have been complete, utter failures that have severely damaged their constituents, because the NDP platform transparently fails to even partially address REALITY.

NDP supporters are idiots. History shows this, absolutely.

[frith]

You have appeared to have mentioned and then completely forgotten that I was whining for a coalition featuring the NDP, not a NDP majority. Do you have something against Medicare, the Canada Pension Fund and old age security? Perhaps you think the Liberals are white as snow now and can take off the dunce cap?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Who said anything about the Liberals being good? The problem is that the NDP are *insane* and should not be allowed to make policy, ever, because the policy they make has always been counterproductive, and they promise more of the same.

I tend to vote Liberal not because I particularly like them, but because they're not policy-incompetent like the NDP and they're not socially incompetent like the CPC (non communist).

I make the sadly-not-a-joke observation every time there's an election that in Canada, you're still stuck with choosing between the Separatists, National Socialists, Incompetent Socialists, and the Liberals.

[frith]

Socialist policies have kept us from turning into the cesspit that is the US at the moment but our policy makers are lured by its siren's call of deregulation, divestment of crown corporations and the privatization of social services that ought to remain the responsibility of government. The CPC has done so well by pandering to the why-am-I-paying-for-them? mindset, as is the Bloc. I expect the Liberals to take a 'if you can't beat them, join them' approach and lean to the Right. I see the NDP as at least sea-anchor in a coalition government.

[snakey.livejournal.com]

Curious (as a newcomer to the country and its politics) as to why the NDP are insane? *is probably opening a can of worms* XD

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

The really short version: They're economically incompetent, to the point where everything they touch turns to shit. Like "failed grade-school math" levels of bad.

And they knew, in advance, that this was the expected outcome of their plan *and then did it anyway* because they really believed that the same things that fail in theory and fail on paper and have failed the last dozen times they were tries in the real world will TOTALLY not fail this time, they just need to be done MORE SINCERELY.

NDP governments cause economic crashes, hard. Faster than CPC(non-communist) governments. Harder than Republican governments, although the results of Bush America appear to be giving Rae's Ontario a run for it's money this time.

[cosmiccat.livejournal.com]

This is one of those weird issues where I find myself talking out of both sides of my mouth.

On the one side: Good. Cleaning up prostitution is good for public health, cuts down on crime, helps out women in bad situations - I am all for it. Let's OHSA the hell out of this industry.

On the other hand: I don't think people should buy sex, I think overall it's unhealthy. This is not the same as thinking people shouldn't be allowed to pay for sex, because my own prudishness is not a good basis for a law. It sort of mirrors how I feel about drinking and smoking; it's not good for folks, I honestly think they'd be happier without it, but I'm not going to put my opinion in anyone's face. In fact I think this is the most I've ever said about it beyond "Oh, no thanks, I don't like to drink."

Anyway the end result is I find myself sending a mixed message; "You may now buy all the whores you can afford, BUT DON'T DO IT."

Also this will be a Conservative fundraising bonanza.

Then again, I voted for Ed Broadbent once so clearly I am too stupid to hold opinions or operate complicated machinery AHURR DERP DERP.

[snakey.livejournal.com]

You don't "buy a whore". You pay for his or her services. Or do you think you buy your doctor or your food server?

[cosmiccat.livejournal.com]

True. Put it down to crass expression for comedic effect.