Ontario Court Lifts Brothel Ban

The Ontario Court of Appeal has struck down a ban on brothels. The court has ruled that sex workers can legally take their trade indoor and may hire others to protect them. The ban on the solicitation of prostitutes is still in effect because the court believes that the nuisance created by street prostitution is real. The court said that the ban on brothels, or 'bawdy houses,' puts prostitutes in danger by forcing them to operate outdoors. Alan Young is the lawyer who launched the appeal on the behalf of sex-trade workers and he appeared pleased with the results. "The reality is sex workers have had the foresight to know it's better to work indoors and 80 per cent have moved indoors," explained Young. "The movement has already occurred. Now the law is following afterwards to say, that was a good move, and also now a legal move." The Court of Appeal has given the government one year to rewrite the law, although it is expected that the ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. Dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford is one of the three women involved in the case and she has already anticipated the next step. "If they do appeal the bawdy house law, once it gets to the Supreme Court what they'll have to do, or Prime Minister Harper will have to tell us, is who is a prostitute, who is not, what we can and cannot do in the privacy of our own home with another consenting adult," said Bedford. "They'll have to tell us what we can do; what is sex, what is not. Is spanking legal? For money or not?"