Save Your Daughters; Teach Your Sons

"The evidence in the record about the violence faced by street prostitutes across Canada is, in a word, overwhelming. One does not need to conjure up the face of Robert Pickton to know that this is true." Judge of the Ontario Court of Appeal

So, there it is, carried forward yet again. Another decision, this time by the Ontario Court of Appeal that has struck down some of the country's anti-prostitution laws. On the basis that those laws have the effect of placing unconstitutional restrictions on the ability of prostitutes to adequate protection. And if any group of people need protection it is women who are vulnerable to violence, most especially those in the profession of selling sex.

"Prostitution is a controversial topic, one that provokes heated and heartfelt debate about morality, equality, personal autonomy and public safety. It is not the court's role to engage in that debate. Our role is to decide whether or not the challenged laws accord with the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land." Three majority justices of the 5-judge panel

It's an odd thing, newspaper editorials wax eloquently sanctimonious in their stated solicitude about prostitutes. Starting off their declarations with the reminder that the profession is always viewed as an assault on decency, and that the very act of renting out space temporarily in someone's body, strikes most people as indelicate, rudely disgusting. And, they say, what parent could foresee this as a profession for their daughters?

Daughters? What about parental attitudes toward the possibility that their sons would become exploiters of women's bodies? Women would have nothing to sell if it were not for the fact that men hunger for what they sell. Men's desire have created the profession. While the societal taboo and dread of young women selling sex has never abated, what about the responsibility of parents to inculcate in their sons a distaste for exploiting women?

The simple fact is, and has always been, men from all walks of life, from the building trades to lawyers and judges, tend to gravitate toward buying sex from women in the profession. That profession is there solely because there is an undeniable demand for it. If the most famous heart surgeon in Canada was capable of seeking out a street prostitute, someone whose medical profession should have taught him better, what recourse is there for women?

And because so many poor and marginalized women, many of them addicted to drugs and alcohol are mired in the profession, and society prefers not to 'notice' their presence, because it is so abhorrent to decent, law-abiding people, we just don't care what happens to them. Because society turns a blind eye to their need to be protected, the violent psychopaths among those who seek them out feel justified in doing anything they wish to them.

There are unsolved murders of prostitutes in every city, where police simply run against dead ends, unable to solve the mystery of who it was who had such profound contempt and searing detestation for these women that they slaughter them. There erupt from time to time, serial murderers who feel justified in exacting their hatred against general society against these defenceless women.

It is long past time for the governments of this country to fully understand that all its citizens are due and entitled to full protection under the law. And women who walk the streets are as entitled to protection as are any of us. The simple fact is their profession is one that draws the attention of vicious psychopaths. Our concern for the well-being of these women is hard to discern when police too persecute them following the letter of an uncaring law.

For inspiration, the Canadian government should look toward Sweden, Norway and Iceland, where it is illegal to buy sex, but not against the law to sell it. The criminality is placed on the customers, not on the sex workers.