THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is soliciting public opinion about the sale and purchase of sex by adults.
Although its online consultation is hardly over, Ottawa is seen to favour the so-called Nordic model used in Sweden, Norway, and Iceland.
Vancouver lawyers Elin Sigurdson and Georgialee Lang agree that the Conservative government looks keen on going after buyers of sex and pimps, not the prostitutes.
This follows last year’s Supreme Court of Canada decision that invalidated criminal prohibitions against communicating in public for the purpose of prostitution, living off the avails, and brothels.
Sigurdson and Lang represented opposing sides in that case. They’re likely to be in the same position again if the government embraces the Nordic approach.
“Our clients think that the policy of criminalizing clients or johns is going to create exactly the same harms that existed under the laws that were struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada,” Sigurdson told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview.
Read more at Vancouver’s Straight.com…
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