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Originally Posted by RyLucky
Personally, I think Geo is being a little naive to the nature of exploitation
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Could you expand on that? I will never deny that exploitation takes place in the prostitution industry, even if it was fully legal, transparent and accountable it's unlikely we can come up with a perfect system. My argument is simply that we need to make the system more transparent and accountable, sweeping it under the rug as we do today in enabling wide scale exploitation that we are in very little position to address in any kind of systematic fashion.
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That said, in practice, prostitution is essentially already decriminalized. Police and social workers are well aware of the reality of the industry, and seem to approach it with empathy and tact. There are tons of programs to get kids off the street, provide sexual health resources, and spread education. Should these attitudes be more strongly codified? Perhaps. Total legalization and regulation seems as though it would only be institutionalizing complex issue that perhaps is better addressed with other programs.
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"Prostitution isn't illegal in Canada" is a terrible way to marginalize the issue.
Look at Policy Wonk's main issues with prostitution.
First, he has a problem with girls disappearing since they have to go to seedy secluded places to conduct their business. Why do they need to do that? Because in Canada brothel's are illegal. Brothel's can be set up as a safe and regulated place to conduct business that can be legally held accountable for protecting and preventing abuse.
Second, he has a problem with the risk to disease that a sex worker faces. Again, brothels can be required to do screening and background checks of clients. They can be forced to provide generous health benefits, require regular testing, and in general provide an atmosphere that could make the workers less at risk.
Up until a few months ago, brothels were completely illegal in Canada. Sex workers were
forced to operate in a nebulous black market system that exponentially increased their risk.
Did anyone actually read the supreme court decision? The decision was made primarily on the basis of safety and protecting a modern sex worker. Members of the sex industry, women, were fighting for more protection.
Another big aspect that is completely overlooked is human trafficking, which like most times, doesn't get talked about enough. You know, that multi billion dollar industry dedicated to kidnapping women, moving them to foreign countries, drugging them, exploiting them, and forcing them to work as sex workers. It is a totally different beast than the women who choose to make their living by selling sex for money. With a legal brothel operating and providing background checks, official wages, and a support system, all of a sudden a sex worker needs a passport, a SIN, they need to be issued T4 slips for their salaries, there is a paper trail, and it much easier to find and root out that kind of exploitation. Now these black market operations would be competing with legal safe official channels of prostitution, it makes the whole sex trafficking industry a lot more risky and a lot less profitable for the true monsters of the world.