Wasted Opportunity
Well damn, there certainly are times when one would like to offer one's government a collective kick in the arse. "Canada's New Government" should shed its silly title, but that's a trifling complaint. Canada's new Conservative-led government should have recognized the fairness and utility of re-writing federal criminal laws which punish prostitutes and give little recognition to the place of their customers in the order of things.
Prostitution is said to be the oldest profession in the world, but I'd question that, and say it rates a tie with politics. Prostitutes don't really play politics, but so often politicians prostitute values and ethics to the expedient, in the name of politics. Prostitutes ply their trade for many reasons, in large part in some areas of the world through the need to sustain themselves, to haul themselves from endemic poverty.
Politicians ply their trade through a wish sometimes to do public duty, that often becomes subverted to the ego, to the need of some people to dominate, to rule, to obtain power. The prostitute is powerless, she earns her livelihood by providing a service the rest of society, the genteel among us, abhors and denigrates. The politician gains power and through it renders others powerless.
In this particular instance the Government of Canada had the opportunity to change legislation in favour of shifting the burden of punishment off the shoulders of prostitutes and over to the responsibility - at the very least shared responsibility - of their clients, men who prey on women, men who use women as commodities. Sex between consenting adults yes: a trade, body for cash.
Trafficking in human sex slaves, channelling women who have no one to protect them, often illegal immigrants, under-aged, and vulnerable into strip clubs and body rub parlours, into bogus "adult" entertainment brothels are part of the industry. Sociopaths who prey on street walkers, on young boys and girls, homeless and turning tricks to survive.
It's past time to modernize Canada's prostitution laws and take them out of the criminal arena. It's past time to offer protection under the law to women who choose for whatever reason to ply their trade, rather than drive them underground and from place to place, increasing their vulnerability to danger. Time to legalize brothels, to tax proceeds and provide health care and security.
It's time to see prostitution as yet another failure in human relationships, a failure in providing support and the necessities of human endurance, emotion and security to a sad demographic in our society.
Prostitution is said to be the oldest profession in the world, but I'd question that, and say it rates a tie with politics. Prostitutes don't really play politics, but so often politicians prostitute values and ethics to the expedient, in the name of politics. Prostitutes ply their trade for many reasons, in large part in some areas of the world through the need to sustain themselves, to haul themselves from endemic poverty.
Politicians ply their trade through a wish sometimes to do public duty, that often becomes subverted to the ego, to the need of some people to dominate, to rule, to obtain power. The prostitute is powerless, she earns her livelihood by providing a service the rest of society, the genteel among us, abhors and denigrates. The politician gains power and through it renders others powerless.
In this particular instance the Government of Canada had the opportunity to change legislation in favour of shifting the burden of punishment off the shoulders of prostitutes and over to the responsibility - at the very least shared responsibility - of their clients, men who prey on women, men who use women as commodities. Sex between consenting adults yes: a trade, body for cash.
Trafficking in human sex slaves, channelling women who have no one to protect them, often illegal immigrants, under-aged, and vulnerable into strip clubs and body rub parlours, into bogus "adult" entertainment brothels are part of the industry. Sociopaths who prey on street walkers, on young boys and girls, homeless and turning tricks to survive.
It's past time to modernize Canada's prostitution laws and take them out of the criminal arena. It's past time to offer protection under the law to women who choose for whatever reason to ply their trade, rather than drive them underground and from place to place, increasing their vulnerability to danger. Time to legalize brothels, to tax proceeds and provide health care and security.
It's time to see prostitution as yet another failure in human relationships, a failure in providing support and the necessities of human endurance, emotion and security to a sad demographic in our society.
Labels: Government of Canada, Society
posted by Pieface | 6:49 PM
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