Prostitution Appeal Opens in Ontario

The Ontario Court of Appeal could uphold a ruling from last year that decriminalized three major prostitution laws.

Three of Canada's key prostitution laws could be dealt a critical blow if Ontario's top court upholds a ruling that found them unconstitutional. In a hearing that gets underway today, the Ontario Court of Appeal is reviewing a lower court ruling from last year that found the crimes of keeping a common bawdy house, living off the avails of prostitution, and communicating for the purposes of prostitution forced prostitutes into danger by working the streets. Terri-Jean Bedford, the dominatrix who filed the constitutional challenge, has argued that the laws in their current form mean prostitutes routinely face threats of violence from strangers in the streets because they cannot legally work from the safety of home. Regardless of how the appeal court rules, the matter will most likely end up before the Supreme Court of Canada.