XPost: can.politics, tor.general   
   From: Panca@nyet.ca   
      
   Your only source for hooker/escort advertisements will be a single publication:   
     (or you can ask M.I.Wakefield, he purports to know everything about Toronto)   
      (=_=) !!   
   ________________________________   
   The Canadian Press Posted: Dec 06, 2014   
      
   Now Magazine plans to defy ad ban in new prostitution bill   
   Alternative newspaper has long published ads promoting sexual services in back   
   pages   
      
      
   A ban on advertising sexual services takes effect Saturday as part of the   
   federal government's new prostitution laws — but at least one of Canada's   
   leading independent newspapers says it plans to defy it.   
      
   The prohibition is one of several sweeping new changes to the way prostitution   
   is now regulated in Canada in the wake of a Supreme Court decision last year   
   that found the old laws violated the rights of prostitutes.   
      
   But Toronto's Now Magazine, which has long published ads promoting sexual   
   services in the back pages of its weekly tabloid, has no plans to stop, said   
   Alice Klein, the alternative newspaper's editor and chief executive officer.   
      
   "Now Magazine started taking sex ads because we take ads, that's how we support   
   ourselves and we have always refused to discriminate against sex work and sex   
   workers," she said in an interview.   
      
   "We are committed to free expression and we don't believe it's our right to say   
   which advertisers are allowed to advertise and which advertisers aren't."   
      
   The Supreme Court struck down Canada's old prostitution laws last year, ruling   
   they deprived sex workers of the right to a safe and secure environment.   
      
   In response, the government introduced Bill C-36, which upended prostitution   
   legislation in Canada by criminalizing the purchase of sex — but not its   
   sale.   
      
   Through the law, the government is also cracking down on all those who profit   
   from the sale of sex.   
      
   "We will hold those who are advertising — not the prostitute themselves, but   
   those who are advertising these services either through papers or online —   
   also   
   to criminal account," Justice Minister Peter MacKay said last July.   
      
      
   Sex ads reportedly refused   
      
   Klein said Now has sought advice from one of the lawyers behind the Supreme   
   Court challenge.   
      
   "This is another area of the law which just makes the lives of sex workers   
   really difficult and of course attacks their ability to earn a living," she   
   said.   
      
   "But the law does say that sex workers themselves are allowed to advertise, and   
   our legal advisers understand that to include the publication of their ads in   
   our publication."   
      
   In Vancouver, sex workers are already reporting that some online advertising   
   services are refusing to take ads for explicit sexual services, said Kerry   
   Porth, a board member of Pivot Legal Aid Society in Vancouver and a former   
   prostitute.   
      
   "It makes it harder to work indoors if you can't actually advertise where you   
   are and what you're doing," she said.   
      
   Not everyone is opposed to the ban.   
      
   "We support the section of the bill that criminalizes advertising of sexual   
   services because of the role that advertising plays in normalizing and   
   entrenching racist and sexist stereotypes," Suzanne Jay of the group Asian   
   Women Coalition Ending Prostitution told a House of Commons committee.   
      
      
   Bill comes with $20M funding   
      
   In the course of its studies of the bill, the House of Commons and Senate heard   
   a wide-ranging variety of opinions and perspectives from more than 100   
   witnesses.   
      
   Their testimony exposed a divide between those who see prostitutes as victims   
   and others who consider prostitution a career choice.   
      
   Though the government considers prostitution a crime against women that must be   
   eradicated, they seem sensitive to the distinction.   
      
   The bill was accompanied by $20 million in funding over five years for exit   
   strategies, a measure that was supposed to be emphasized on the day the bill   
   came into force.   
      
   But when the government realized that day was Dec. 6, which happened to be the   
   National Day for Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, they quietly   
   announced the funding a few days earlier.   
      
   Some say it's entirely appropriate for the bill to come into force on Saturday.   
      
   "I think it's tremendous it becomes law on Dec. 6," said Megan Walker, the   
   executive director of the London Abused Women's Centre, which works with   
   prostitutes among other women.   
      
   "We believe that prostitution is men's violence against women so we're happy to   
   see this action that's been taken."   
      
      
   Funding not enough, agency says   
      
   Walker was among the dozens of witnesses who told the government the $20   
   million wasn't enough, though she said her agency sill hopes to get some of the   
   funding to hire an additional staff worker.   
      
   "Even if the government had announced $50 million across the country or   
   whatever amount they determined, likely people would complain, including us,   
   its not enough," she said.   
      
   The only way to solve prostitution is to address what leads to it, said Kate   
   Gibson, the executive director of the Wish Drop-in Centre Society in Vancouver,   
   which works with survival sex workers.   
      
   Divided evenly amongst the provinces and then amongst sex workers themselves,   
   $20 million would amount to $47.02 a year per sex worker, Gibson said — a   
   paltry sum.   
      
   "They think they are going to end something that is rooted in economics and   
   historical trauma," she said of the government's efforts.   
      
   "They don't want to address any of that."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)