More about Changes in Progress

A number of police forces have already greatly curtailed their activities against indoor prostitution, whatever that is. Some supporters have told me that senior police officials have said that there is little practical purpose in enforcing laws that have already been struck down twice and were under-enforced to begin with. So even if there is an appeal of the second striking down of the laws against living on the avails and keeping a bawdy house for prostitution, there seems to be a recognition that the old laws are done for. There is also public support, of about 2 to 1, in favour of the Court of Appeal’s decision, based on polls I have read about. The silence of certain media on the issue speaks volumes. We won and we were right.

Terri-Jean Bedford
http://DominatrixOnTrial.com

More about Possible Appeals

There is an important aspect about appeals that people often overlook. The time from a decision to the date the judgement takes effect is called a stay. For example the current decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal put a 30 day stay before the living on the avails law is changed and a 12 month stay on the dropping of the bawdy-house law against prostitution. An appeal to the Supreme Court will take more than 30 days so the Supreme Court must grant an extension of the stay or the law is dropped even if another appeal is heard. So decisions are about to be made soon by a number of parties, or things will change.

Terri-Jean Bedford
http://DominatrixOnTrial.com

Is the Supreme Court the Next Stop?

The issue of what legal steps remain to the parties in the prostitution challenge is complex and often technical. For one thing, the Supreme Court is not obliged to hear an appeal of the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal. For another, it is a very big task to mount an appeal, and not cheap. For yet another, the side appealing may actually have something to lose if the Supreme Court finds more issues with the Appeal Court decision than the appellant raised. The Federal and Ontario governments are reviewing it and so are we. Until these discussions are concluded and positions are taken I don’t want to speculate on whether the court phase of this debate on what Canada’s prostitution laws should be is over.

Terri-Jean Bedford
http://DominatrixOnTrial.com