Canadian Report OKs Prostitution in Homes

Prostitutes should be allowed to sell sex in their homes and Canadian provinces should be given permission to regulate “small-scale prostitution establishments,” a federal committee recommended Tuesday.

The committee also recommended stiffer jail terms for those acting as pimps and recommended special police units to track them down.

Police have been left largely powerless to deal with the problem of street soliciting since 1978, when the Supreme Court ruled that prostitutes could not be convicted unless they are “pressing and persistent.”

Asked to comment on the sweeping recommendations, the Progressive Conservative government’s justice minister, John Crosbie, said, “The committee has done a good job. Their recommendations are well thought out and take a balanced approach.”

Revolutionary Proposal

In its most revolutionary recommendation, the committee said Canada’s criminal law “should not prevent one or two prostitutes, 18 years or older, from operating out of a place of residence.”

“If any provinces decide to allow and regulate small-scale prostitution establishments, the federal law should not intervene,” the report added.

“The government has not decided on its response but I am certainly not going to rule it out,” Crosbie said.

He added that Canada’s Progressive Conservative government will be introducing a major package of legislation on prostitution and pornography by the end of the year that would make it “illegal to solicit on the streets per se.”

The 750-page report praised the efforts of Denmark and the Netherlands in producing what it called “a mix of selective criminal law and trade regulation.” It added that “decriminalization does not necessarily result in an increase in prostitution.”