TORONTO — Plying the world’s oldest profession just became safer thanks to a landmark ruling by the Ontario Superior Court.
In the stunning 131-page decision, Justice Susan Himel struck down as unconstitutional three prostitution-related charges — communicating for the purposes of prostitution, operating a common bawdy house and living off the avails — because they prevent sex workers from moving indoors and protecting themselves.
“I have found that the law as it stands is currently contributing to danger faced by prostitutes,” Himel wrote after spending a year sifting through 25,000 pages of evidence.
“By increasing the risk of harm to street prostitutes, the communicating law is simply too high a price to pay for the alleviation of social nuisance.”
With her riding crop in hand, the leather-clad dominatrix who led the court challenge jumped for joy.
“It’s like emancipation day for sex trade workers,” an ecstatic Terri Jean Bedford proclaimed at a news conference Tuesday. “I’ve been abused by the justice system for a very, very, very long time so it is poetic justice.”
But before you worry that 10-storey brothels will be opening on every corner and hookers will descend en masse into your neighbourhood, relax. The judge gave apoplectic government authorities 30 days before her decision comes into effect.
And that will give them plenty of time to file for a stay of execution to keep the status quo until they can fight the ruling — no doubt all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada — with a final decision estimated to be from two to five years away.
In the meantime, Osgoode law professor Alan Young and his students were celebrating a victory won on a “shoe string budget” against a dozen well-paid government lawyers.
“I’m overjoyed,” he told reporters. “The Charter still has teeth.”
The legal argument he made last fall was about safety, not morality, Young said, and he believes the shadow of Robert Pickton helped their case.
The serial killer was able to kill 26 prostitutes from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside because they were easy prey on the street, the lawyer said. When worried sex workers tried to bring their clients to a safe house instead, the police swooped in and shut it down.
“The streets are killing fields,” Young said. “I think the judge understood our argument better because she saw the net result.”
While prostitution has always been legal, most of the activities involved in plying the trade were not. And as criminals, prostitutes had nowhere to turn for help.
“This decision means sex trade workers can now pick up the phone and call the police and report a bad client,” said Valerie Scott, one of the three prostitutes who challenged the Criminal Code provisions. “We no longer have to be afraid.”
Scott foresees a time when sex workers will pay into workers’ compensation and file their taxes. “We want to work with municipalities, we want to be good citizens,” she insisted.
“I would like to tell residents and business owners, don’t be afraid. We are not aliens,” she added with a smile. “No lightning bolts will now hit the sidewalks and frogs will not be all over. It’ll be alright.”
For Bedford — who’s served time in prison on prostitution charges and was convicted in 1998 for operating Thornhill’s Bondage Bungalow — the judge’s decision made the 50-year-old cry.
In her 14 years as a street prostitute, Bedford told the court she was “raped and gang raped too many times to talk about” and beaten on the head with a baseball bat.
“But the worst thing to happen to me was not having anyone to report what I was going through,” she said of her time on the stroll. “It was a hard time. Everything’s bad about it.”
So she has fought a long legal battle to ensure prostitutes can legally work inside. And this decision has brought that day one step closer.
So what was she going to do to celebrate?
With a sly smile, the dominatrix whipped out her riding crop. “I’m going to spank some ass,” she laughed. “Legally.”