The sex trade, despite the efforts of many to destroy it, is alive and well in Canada and as the population grows, so does prostitution. Unfortunately, the state of prostitution in Canada today is detrimental to the safety and health of both the prostitutes and those that would make use of their services. The women are at constant risk of rape, murder, and the contracting of all sorts of sexually transmitted diseases, the most feared of these being the deadly AIDS virus.

Prostitution cannot be stopped. As long as there is a demand there will be a supply; and logic, common sense, and past experience dictate that there is always a demand. Hence it is only logical for our government to look at this problem from a different perspective, not elimination but regulation. It will not just do to de-criminalize prostitution but to legalize and regulate it.

The common misconception here in Canada is that prostitution is illegal. This is not true, prostitution itself is not an offence in Canada, but laws are in place which effectively make it an offence for prostitutes to offer their services and for clients to ask for the services of the prostitutes. Section 213.1 of the criminal code states, that any person who "stops or attempts to stop any person or in any manner communicates or attempts to communicate with any person for the purpose of engaging in prostitution or of obtaining the sexual services of a prostitute is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction."1 (Barnhorst and Barnhorst, 1996a:196) This law applies more to street prostitution than to brothels but laws are also in place for the latter. Under section 2102 and 2113 (Barnhorst and Barnhorst, 1996b:197-199), "bawdy houses" are prohibited and section 2124 (Barnhorst and Barnhorst, 1996c:194-196) makes it an indictable offence to procure and live on the !

Instead, the PC government that had power at the time bought into the "failure of the soliciting

With these measures in place, prostitution will become a legitimate business. The government can then treat this as it would any other business, regulating and taxing it accordingly. With this, instead of all the money that is spent on attempting to rid cities of a trade that is nearly impossible to exterminate, the government will make money. This system will also allow the government to get rid of the real criminals, the sexual predators that rape and kill prostitutes and the pimps who effectively terrorize, control and live off of the misery of these individuals. This cannot be allowed to go on.

Pimps often take large portions of the prostitute's earnings (sometimes as much as 80%), sexually assault their prostitutes, addict them to drugs, and verbally and physically assault them regularly. They do all this to retain control of these women; their goal is to humiliate, degrade and break the women's will so that they will never leave the pimp's service. More often than not, these individuals are very successful in this matter. As a matter of fact, the majority of the time the only way a prostitute is able to leave a pimp's service is when the pimp is either arrested or killed. (Hodgeson, 1997b)

To this end, 'John Schools' were established in Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, and Halifax. In these schools, men charged with 'communicating' (section 213.1) get lectures from health department official talking about STDs, activists from the community that speak on the problems street prostitution causes in residential areas, parents who's daughters are prostitutes, former prostitutes, and forensic psychologists explaining to these men what they can do to avoid buying sex in the future. The problem with these schools is that under the law, prostitution is not illegal, and the schools take a moral position that is not contained by the law. Also, the need for John Schools is questionable as statistics show that from 1986 to 1994, of the 2045 males that were charged under the communicating act, only 44 offended again. (Lowman, 1998d:931) The fact that they were charged was on it's own, a deterrent.

pansion had begun before that decision was handed down. They also concluded that it was "the contradictory and often self-defeating nature of the various criminal code sections relating to prostitution" (Lowman, 1998a:919) that rendered them ineffective. In light of this, the Fraser committee came to the conclusion that if the legislature wants prostitution to remain legal,

tion will not weaken the sex industry itself, but will weaken those that take advantage of the fact that it is illegal. Pimps as we know them today will become a thing of the past, and so will the rapes, murders, and beatings of the women who choose to work in this industry. Regulating it will also create a safer, healthier work environment for both those that are offering the

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