Many former prostitutes, and those who counsel them, really hope dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford does not get her way at the Supreme Court of Canada.
The court will begin hearing the federal government鈥檚 appeal of two lower-court rulings on Wednesday that struck down sections of Canada鈥檚 anti-prostitution laws.
Bedford, along with two other prostitutes, Amy Lebovitch and Valerie Scott, have seen considerable success so far in 91原创 courts.
On Sept. 28, 2010, Ontario Superior Court Justice Susan Himel struck down three sections of Canada鈥檚 prostitution laws because they exposed sex-trade workers to unreasonable risk.
Himel ruled that communicating for the purposes of prostitution, living on the avails of prostitution and keeping a common bawdy house force sex-trade workers from the safety of their homes and onto the streets, where they are more vulnerable to violence.
Himel鈥檚 ruling was upheld by the Ontario Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court is the end of the line in terms of ensuring that these Criminal Code provisions are not discarded, thus legalizing brothels and pimping.
Natasha Falle, who calls herself a sex-trade survivor, says 鈥渨omen like me don鈥檛 think the way to protect women is behind legislated doors.鈥�
Speaking in Calgary recently, Falle said more women will be enslaved by human traffickers if those laws are deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Falle is the founder of Sextrade 101, a public-awareness organization, and an instructor of police fundamentals at Humber College in Toronto.
The daughter of a former Calgary police officer who, ironically, worked in the vice department, and a mother who worked in a bridal salon, Falle says she turned her first trick in Calgary鈥檚 Chinatown when she was 14 with a man with rotten teeth.
Her parents had split up and her family life fell apart. Falle started sleeping on friends鈥� couches until she wound up on the sofa of four young prostitutes whose pimp was out of town.
鈥淚 was trafficked across the country by the man who recruited me and who made false white-picket-fence intimacy promises,鈥� Falle told the crowd.
鈥淚 made a lot of money. I bought my pimp a Mercedes. I had a Mustang, we lived in a penthouse, but I was still subjected to all of the violence,鈥� she said. 鈥淗e broke my arms, my ribs; my nose has been broken three times.鈥�
Her point? This happened indoors. Not on the streets.
The former prostitute says the worst beating she ever got was in a common bawdy house she shared with four other teens, so the idea that there鈥檚 safety in numbers is a myth.
Falle asks 91原创s to consider what will happen to young women and girls should those prostitution laws be ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Prostitution will become a licensed business, pimps will be legitimate businesspeople, billboards advertising brothels could start appearing on roadsides and 鈥渁 brothel could open up in the apartment next to yours or in the house next to yours,鈥� Falle says.
While prostitution is legal in Canada, running a bawdy house, living off of the avails and soliciting for the purposes of prostitution are not.
鈥淚f we legalize these three areas, will brothels be allowed to set up a booth at the high school job fair?鈥� she asks.
Just last month, two men were arrested in the Toronto area after recruiting a teenage Windsor girl to work in a strip club. They then took her to Toronto, where they forced her to prostitute herself.
鈥淚 think many well-meaning 91原创s support Bedford鈥檚 challenge against Canada鈥檚 prostitution laws because they believe it will help vulnerable women,鈥� Falle says. 鈥淏ut they are mistaken. It will make things much worse. It will legitimize pimping and human trafficking. It will enslave more women and girls.鈥�
Falle states the obvious: 鈥淚t鈥檚 not Canada鈥檚 laws that make prostitution unsafe, it鈥檚 the nature of the business 鈥� the johns who are raping and abusing the women and their pimps.鈥�
Here鈥檚 hoping the Supreme Court will not be fooled into lending legitimacy to the oldest oppression in the world.
