Street Prostitution in Toronto and other cities
Street prostitution is very different from the legal escorts, massage parlors or
strip clubs.
I very strongly discourage ever considering using street prostitutes, not
because prostitution is wrong, but because it should not be "in your face" in
public areas. It should be private with consenting adults which is legal vs
illegal public solicitation for sex.
Even more street prostitution does ruin lives and unlike professional providers,
street hookers are often victims - of pimps, abuse or drugs. Street work often
exploits and hurts people.'
A great many are only on the streets due to their drug addiction. They simply
can't get a job at a legal, legitimate agency or massage place. So often in
desperation they go to the streets. Otherwise why would anyone with good sense
take the risks of the street and risk arrest?
In my view these are not really consenting adults (even if over 18). They
usually not voluntarily being prostitutes but are forced to for drugs or pimps.
Their addiction has taken away their ability to make an objective choice or give
consent in an informed non pressured way.
For the "John" there is the danger from more likely disease, arrest, and
potentially being robbed or violence from a addict prostitute or pimp or just
other street people.
Therefore, while I am an outspoken advocate of legal, safe, sexwork by
consenting adults, I am totally against street prostitution and agree with its
illegal status in Canada as well as most of the world, where private
prostitution is totally legal. The U.S. is one of the few nations that outlaws
adult private sexwork. Fortunately Canada and most other nations are more mature
and are not controlled by the morality police as in the U.S.
Example:
Toronto Takes Action Against Public Nuisance Street
Hookers
In Canada outcall prostitution 100% legal, but not street hookers
West-end community cheers arrests
Charges against 206 `johns' deter prostitution — for now
Police are planning other initiatives in the coming month
Toronto Star May 19, 2004
It was music to John Dorion's ears. The Parkdale activist was thrilled when he
heard Monday night about the arrest of 206 men in a "john sweep" through three
west-end Toronto neighbourhoods. I'm very pleased with the police and we
encourage them to continue until the message hits home," said Dorion, chair of
Parkdale Community Watch. "Prostitution has been around forever. This is not
about prostitution; it is about people coming into our community and committing
crime."
Dorion and the 300-member group, founded in the late 1980s to keep Parkdale
safe, have been fighting for years to rid the neighbourhood of the persistent
problem of prostitution. "What is happening in Parkdale today is significantly
improved over what it was a number of years ago," he said. "But it's time now to
take the final steps to get the message out to these men to stop coming into our
community.
"We're going to keep on doing this until the message gets out that Parkdale is
not the place it was 15 years ago," he said. "It's a very desirable place to
live. It's a healthy community with all mixes of incomes. It's a family
neighbourhood. If these guys are going to come into our neighbourhood and do
this kind of stuff, they're going to pay."
This week's action is just the latest in an ongoing effort by police and
community activists to deter men from coming to Parkdale, and neighbourhoods
surrounding King St. W. and Strachan Ave., and Bloor St. W. and Lansdowne Ave.,
in search of sex. In March, 2003, a similar campaign was conducted, resulting in
the arrest of about 54 johns in the Parkdale area.
Dorion and his group plan to carry on lobbying for more sweeps and continuing
punishment for those who are arrested. Those charged in last year's crackdown
were sent to "john school" and had to perform community service within the
Parkdale community.
The men arrested earlier this week face a total of 221 criminal charges,
including communicating for the purposes of obtaining the sexual services of a
prostitute and several drug-related offences.
Police are planning other initiatives during the next few months, said Detective
Howie Page, head of 14 Division's vice squad, which spearheaded the operation.
Just what those initiatives might be he wouldn't say, not wanting to tip off any
potential johns.
Residents in Parkdale and near Bloor and Lansdowne have been fighting for years
to get rid of johns. Newer neighbourhoods like King and Strachan, which have
been gentrified in recent years, are just beginning to experience the problem.
"Girls are setting up shop right in front of an outdoor cafe," Page said,
referring to Strachan between Queen and King Sts. "Customers don't want to
listen to hooker transactions over their dinner plates."
Nor do residents like finding condoms in their backyards and laneways, Dorion
said. Unlike many other communities across Greater Toronto, prostitutes in these
neighbourhoods don't tend to use motels or hotels to ply their trade. They end
up in a garage or a back alley," he said. "It's a very intrusive criminal act.
Kids travel in these areas. The remnants of this are left behind for us to clean
up."
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