CBC story: licensed MPs

[Zarhan Fastfire 6450]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-sex-trade-licensed-parlours-1.4686709

 

 

There are a number of interesting (and some distressing) points in this article, which I looked up after hearing bits and pieces on the radio: the fact there used to be so many and now and there are but two (official and licensed, anyway); the murkiness of public understanding, even now, among officials, of the law; the general sense the police seem to have (as a hang-over from the past, I believe) that such places are safe havens for SPs free® from exploitation; an ex-SP's self-contradictory statements about what they represent.

 

The weirdest thing is the entire piece shows that no-one concerned, from the City to the Police to the reporter, seems to have a real understanding of what the laws are since the passing of the last major piece of legislation under the Harper Conservatives, even though it's simple enough to be stated thus: sex work is legal for the provider, illegal for the consumer. So simple and yet so illogical that, on an intuitive level, people have a hard time retaining it in their minds, as the article seems to demonstrate.

 

The slightly encouraging thing is the sense the Police seem to have that having such places is a good thing, that saftey for SPs is paramount. Surely to goodness that means there ought to be more of them, not fewer. That it's precisely because there are fewer that there are more on the street, and more "on the internet", something they seem to decry.

 

Well, you can't have it both ways. A number of people in the article were very happy Broadways closed (so were a number of people on this board). Sure, it's not a good thing when such places are near youth centres. That does not mean they should be nowhere, or that the City should have halted its licensing granting (as they seem to have done). Take the law and general trends to their logical conclusion: no safe, regulated, space for SPs means SPs work, by definition, in unsafe, unregulated, places, and not, as some Nordic fairy tale would have it, no space at all. That's just as easy to understand, surely, as the current law, and a lot more logical.

 

Winnipeg City Council, members of this forum, indeed, the general public, to you I say: if you want to save a life, license more MPs, "rub joints", or whatever else you want to call them. Keep them discreet as you like, but let them open. Somewhere, anywhere. Let the police make their visits so they know everyone is safe, SPs and punters alike. We don't need any more missing and murdered women taken off the streets. Nor do we need punters shaken down by organized gangs in some dicey hotel room.

 

Write your MP (the other kind). I know the feds have their hands full right now, but if you put "oil" somewhere in the subject line and only get around to saying "body oil" somewhere in the body of the text, at least you know someone will open it.

[livenudecats 4067]

Very interesting read. Thanks for posting it.

[WhereIRoam 21825]

The following could be said for numerous industries:

The biggest difference between those who make the laws and those who live within them is they are not one of the same. Those who 'make them' believe they know how it operates and what it takes while those who 'live within them' and must abide by them are the ones who truly know what it takes and how it operates.