Sean Mallen // Vancouver Sun // October 8, 2010
TORONTO — Federal prostitution laws that were struck down by an Ontario judge last week will be extended another month.
When Justice Susan Himel handed down her decision Sept. 28, she also delayed her order from taking effect for 30 days. Now, the grace period is going to be extended an extra 30 days.
Alan Young, the lawyer who argued the case for the winning side, said Friday in a taping of Global News’s Focus Ontario program that he’s agreed to a Crown request for a longer grace period.
“Simply because they look like they’re panicking and in disarray and I feel somewhat sorry for them and I imagine if you’ve had a bad law for 30 years, another 30 days isn’t going to make a huge difference,” Young told Global News.
“After that, I put the gloves back on for the fight.”
Young said the Crown will likely go to the Court of Appeal to try to get another stay.
“But they don’t have good evidence for it, because they’re going to say the sky is going to fall if they don’t have the law. They tried that in the hearing itself and the judge didn’t buy it.”
The order will be officially signed on Tuesday. It gives the federal government until the end of November to decide upon its next step.
Last week, Himel ruled in favour of three sex-trade workers who argued that laws prohibiting them from communicating for the purpose of prostitution, running a bawdy house and living off the avails of prostitution put their lives at risk.
The 131-page ruling, which took a year to complete, decriminalizes activities associated with the world’s oldest profession.
The court decision strikes down laws against brothels, soliciting and pimping. While it applies only in Ontario, the ruling could have a nationwide impact if it survives appeals.
Former sex-trade workers from across Ontario and British Columbia protested in front of the Ontario Superior Court after the decision was made.
They said the ruling makes prostitutes “most vulnerable to be standing targets,” that only pimps would benefit from the situation and that suggesting these laws will protect prostitutes is “misleading.”
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, described prostitution as “a problem that harms individuals and communities,” and promised the federal government will appeal the court ruling.