Legislating morality a mug’s game
Re Ottawa unveils new law targeting buyers of
sex, June 5 Prostitution is legal in Canada. Full stop. The Supreme Court ruled that it is a job to be administered by government like other jobs, ensuring worker and workplace safety, health and fairness. But Justice Minister Peter MacKay has chosen to go in the opposite direction, increasing the criminal penalties surrounding the performance of this job.
Perhaps lost in the emotional rhetoric is a most disturbing issue ¯the flagrant disregard of a Supreme Court ruling by the federal government. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been pushing a law-and-order agenda for years, yet here is his government flouting a ruling from the highest court in our land.
Now we have a dual dilemma: how to allow prostitution to carry on in a fair and responsible fashion, and a government that feels it has the power and authority to ignore the rulings of our highest court. Mr. Harper and Mr. MacKay need to remind themselves that they are but part of our parliamentary democracy, not bosses of us all. David Kister, Toronto It is true that the government’s proposed new law governing prostitution will adversely affect female sex-trade workers. But the fact that it will even more severely affect their clients is a more fundamental problem.
Most of us are individuals who either have, or have access to, mainstream sexual outlets: a spouse, a close friend, or even a casual meetup at a bar. But there are those who don’t; men who, for any number of physical or psychological reasons, cannot form the social ties that we normally consider prerequisites to sex. So what are they to do? The desire for sexual activity is not just some whim. It’s not just something we want; it’s something we need.
For our government to smugly deny someone access to something so fundamental to our very being is unfair — even cruel. Any law that presumes to rewrite the laws of nature is doomed to fail. Ronald Weir, Thornhill Peter MacKay proposes to institute prohibition and censorship. It has not worked with marijuana. It did not work with alcohol. It did not work with gambling. It did not work with abortion. It didn’t even stop Sunday shopping. It only succeeds in driving the real issues underground.
God save us from politicians who want
Re
to legislate morality. They are illequipped. Be very worried, Canadians. Be very worried. Steve Morse, Cookstown The federal government believes it should be a crime for a prostitute to solicit for clients in public places where children may be present. Imagine the outcry if failing to provide the necessities of life to a child were a crime only if committed in public places. It sounds like children are being used as an excuse to beat up on prostitutes again. Patrick Cowan, Toronto So purchasing sex will be illegal. What about renting a room with the included furniture? Reminds me of a scene from the movie Soylent Green where the character played by Charlton Heston was talking with a piece of the “furniture.” Edward Chrzanowski, Brantford
Buying sex should be a crime, poll finds, June 3 So 56 per cent of those surveyed feel that buying, but not selling, sex should be a crime. The burning of witches at the stake in 16th century England might have garnered similar public support.
The vast majority of Canadians are able to satisfy their sexual needs through “normal” relationships, but for a variety of reasons there are those who cannot. The sale and purchase of sex has gone on for centuries throughout the world and the activity has presumably survived because there is a need.
In order to better protect the sellers, the transaction needs to be brought into the open where it can be properly managed. Criminalizing the act of either buying or selling (and surely it has to be both or neither) will only drive the activity underground and provide the real criminals with further opportunity for exploitation, just as the prohibition of alcohol did. Ian Tyler, Oshawa