It’s a victory for those working as escorts, whether for agencies or from home, but 3 out of 5 judges voted to maintain the communications provisions which put street level escorts at risk.
It’s unfortunate that those most marginalized of sex workers still find themselves subject to the danger presented by those who would prey on them, from simple “bad dates” to those of Picton’s ilk. The two dissenting judges put it far better than I can: “The world in which street prostitutes actually operate is the streets, on their own. It is not the world of hotels, homes, or condos. It is not a world of receptionists, drivers, and bodyguards. The world in which street prostitutes actually operate is a world of dark streets and barren, isloted, silent places. It is a dangerous world, with always the risk of violence and even death.”
Read the story at the Vancouver Sun
Read about it at PIVOT Legal Society
Read the full Ontario Court of Appeals decision
About the Author
Reive
Reive Doig is the editor of Erotic Vancouver Magazine, a website devoted to promoting local sex positive events, spotlighting and linking to sexuality stories in the media, and offering media criticism of sex negative stories in the press.
Reive is a sex positive activist, polyamorist and a proud bisexual man. He is an active member of Vancouver’s kink community. He is also a partner in the monthly fetish night NOIR Fetish Ball and sits on the board of PACE.
With 19 years of experience in kink, he’s presented numerous seminars on BDSM and sexuality, spoken at Douglas College, SFU, and UBC, and has been featured in articles in The Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Sun, The Province, and Whiplash Magazine among others. He has been a source for several documentary and news producers, and was very thankful to end up on the cutting room floor for the series Kink. Reive has worked as an SM technical advisor, most recently on Smallville, and in the past for The L Word, and the unreleased short film Bondage.
