Whether we like it or not, sex is all around us. It walks the street with a name, a face, and a price. Pay for it, and you’re a criminal.
Mac Harb, MP for Ottawa Centre, wants to change that with Bill C-480, which would allow municipalities to legalize brothels.
Harb might just be on to something. Laws shouldn’t regulate morality.
They don’t always dictate what’s good for us, or our community. If you’ve smoked a cigarette, had a beer, or played a slot machine you can relate.
Laws can’t save us from ourselves. If we want to ruin our health by smoking, squandering our life savings gambling or having sex with someone we don’t know, we’re going to do it.
While Bill C-480 may seem immoral, to some it has the potential to clean up our streets. It would allow municipalities to put the sex trade where it belongs — behind closed doors and under strict regulation.
Besides getting the prostitution problem off the street, this type of legislation would also protect the real victims of prostitution — underage girls. In a licensed brothel, only women 18 or older would be permitted to work.
It’s a well-known fact that working in the sex trade is dangerous.
Prostitutes soliciting on the street don’t know who they’re getting into a car with — or what that person’s intentions are, beyond the services they are paying for.
Safety would be greatly improved in a regulated industry, by means of security within these brothels.
Prostitutes are human, too. While their choice of career may be morally reprehensible to some, they are feeding a demand. Not creating it. They don’t deserve to end up in a dumpster somewhere.
Some local community groups are objecting on the grounds that legalizing brothels may create a “red light district.” This is unlikely, as Ottawa is already hard-pressed for commercial space.
In the event that this did happen, isn’t it better to keep the sex-trade contained to one area? Or do we want to see it scattered throughout the city?
Somewhere in Ottawa right now there’s a girl pacing the street in spiked heels and a mini-skirt. We’ve all seen her. If there was a brothel down the street, would she be there, waiting for the next car that slows to the curb?
Prostitution is a problem in this city. We need to clean up our streets. Unfortunately, we’ll have to look beyond the issue of morality to do this. Housing the sex trade in legalized brothels isn’t merely sweeping the problem under the rug.
It’s an active step in regulating an industry that continues to thrive – a step we should consider taking.
~Melissa Hughes