The Supreme Court of Canada on Friday Dec 20,2013 has unanimously struck down the nation's anti-prostitution laws.
The ruling follows a court challenge filed by former and current sex workers.
The justices' decision gives the Canadian government one year to craft new legislation.
All nine of the court's judges ruled in favour of striking the laws down, finding they were "grossly disproportionate".The sweeping 9-0 decision in Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford will take effect in one year, inviting Parliament to try to come up with some other way to regulate the sex trade if it chooses to do so.
Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin said many prostitutes “have no meaningful choice” but to “engage in the risky economic activity of prostitution,” and that the law should not make such lawful activity more dangerous.
“It makes no difference that the conduct of pimps and johns is the immediate source of the harms suffered by prostitutes,” she wrote.
“The impugned laws deprive people engaged in a risky, but legal, activity of the means to protect themselves against those risks.”
Under the ruling, the Canadian parliament has 12 months to rewrite the legislation or it will be withdrawn.
Anti-prostitution laws will continue to be enforced in the meantime
Dominatrix Bedford, one of three current and former sex workers who initiated a challenge to Canada's prostitution laws at the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa
Note
Canada's criminal code currently makes it illegal to keep a brothel, communicate in public about acts of prostitution or live off its proceeds
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