TORONTO, July 15, 2011 – The League has written to MP Joy Smith to thank her for her plan to introduce a private member’s bill that would strengthen Canada’s prostitution laws. The proposal, which will be introduced this Fall, is based on the “Nordic model,” adopted in several Scandinavian countries, in which customers and profiteers can be charged, but the prostitutes themselves rarely are.

As an intervenor in the current court challenge to Canada’s prostitution laws, the League believes that the liberalization currently being sought in that case – essentially, the removal of all criminal sanctions against prostitution – does not reflect the wishes of the majority of Canadians. We also believe that a change with so many social ramifications should be made in Parliament, not in the courts.

League letter to MP Joy Smith
Backbench MP leading the charge, Edmonton Journal July 8