Should prostitutes be allowed to operate brothels in Canada?

Recently in Canada the Supreme Court has made the decision to review the legal rights of sex workers to work in brothels, hire body guards and drivers. As it stands today it is legal for prostitutes to work in brothels but illegal to proceed with street prostitution. Prostitution as a whole isn’t illegal but as I have learned through many new articles that a lot of activities that involve prostitution are banned. Brothels in Canada are seen to be “the safest way to sell sex is for a prostitute to work indoors in a location under her control”. This was stated during the ruling of the legalization of brothels by the judges. For this reason some provincial governments have made prostitutes operating brothels legal. These brothels are used for the protection of these prostitutes and allow them to carry out their jobs in a legal environment. The final ruling of issue will now be Canada wide as this appeal was by the Supreme Court.

During the ruling over the legalization of brothel houses and the legal rights to allow there to be body guards and drivers for prostitutes, there were actual and former prostitutes present to argue their side. These prostitutes have felt that the government has been disrespectful towards them and their profession. Although, in Ontario with the legalization of working in brothel houses, hiring body guards and drivers there has been some relief. Valerie Scott, a former prostituted has felt relieved in a way that “[they] are now brought into society” and “almost full citizens”. The prostitutes don’t understand why their safety matters less than other individuals in the province. These prostitutes believe that brothel houses will provide a place of safety to carry on with their job, just like most Canadians have safe work areas. 

            While reading any articles about this situation I have found it very interesting to look at both sides. These articles have provided me with a lot of useful knowledge to come up with my own opinion about this topic. I must say that in the beginning I was set with my own opinion but as I was reading articles there were situations and ideas brought up that I didn’t even take in to account when I first built my own opinion. An opinion that I have come across that also finely states my opinion is one from the Prime Minister Stephen Harper. As he has stated and I firmly agree with is that “prostitution is bad for society and harmful to communities, women and vulnerable persons”.

In my opinion I believe that prostitutes shouldn’t be allowed to operate brothel houses in Canada to carry out their jobs. These brothel houses promote prostitution which I believe is very harmful to society. Prostitution demoralizes women as the idea that you can purchase a women comes along with these prostitutes and brothels. Safety of every human being in Canada is very important although in such a case I believe that the prostitutes should know the dangers of their occupation as they chose this type of work. Making brothels illegal in Canada will be to protect society and the morals of women and some men. This law is not to add extra risks in this field of work but unfortunately won’t make it any safer.

 Here is a link to a CNN article:

 http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/26/world/americas/canada-ontario-legalizes-brothels