Provisions of Canada's prostitution law were struck down by an Ontario judge who said they endangered the people they were meant to protect. Superior Court Justice Susan Himel in a brilliant, admirable flash of absolute wisdom agreed with three streetwalkers who said that restrictions on prostitution in Canada's Criminal Code forced them onto the streets to conduct business under threats of arrest and violence.
In light of this, the Ontario government which might possibly consider legalizing prostitution, may now be seeking willing prostitutes to provide sexual favours for johns of all genders. No experience necessary. Must have own pimp or be self-employed. Must also be prepared to accept the very likely possibility of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, including the following:
HIV/AIDS, chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, human papilloma virus, and syphilis, genital warts. Also Trichomoniasis, without treatment can increase a person’s risk of acquiring HIV but that’s o.k. just get treated. Now Herpes only causes outbreaks of painful genital lesions. Strains of HPV cause genital warts, and others are factors for cervical dysplasia and invasive cervical cancer. Only some of those are incurable, so not to worry. General gynecological problems, but in particular chronic pelvic pain and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), plague women in prostitution, but it’s worth the chance, right?
However, you’ll be happy to realize that no one but your gynaecologist will know if you have been infected -- if you tell him (and make sure he’s wearing rubber gloves). Well, the johns themselves may know about it in a couple of weeks, as will their wives in time when they wonder what the itching is all about. But that’s not your problem is it, and anyway how are you to know how many of the 40 johns or more you had that week were infected by you – or which ones infected you?
Hey but that’s o.k. you’ve got to make a living and an incurable infection is a small price to pay.
The kindly and knowledgeable Government which may allow legal Prostitution offers the following information:
Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are caused by a group of infectious microorganisms that are transmitted mainly through sexual activity. These agents represent a costly, burdensome global public health problem. STDs can cause harmful, often irreversible, clinical complications, including reproductive health problems, fetal and perinatal health problems, and cancer, and they are also linked in a causal chain of events to the sexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.
But that is O.K. you’re having enjoyable sex, right? I mean, you love sex, who doesn’t? So what if he stinks of body odour and calls you a # or wants to do things you find distasteful, and look, they only beat you up sometimes, right?
Melissa Farley, PhD, Founding Director of the Prostitution Research and Education, in the Oct. 2004 journal Violence Against Women article "Bad for the Body, Bad for the Heart," wrote:
"Legal sex businesses provide locations where sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, and violence against women are perpetrated with impunity. State-sponsored prostitution endangers all women and children in that acts of sexual predation are normalized..."
The greatest threat to our society is immoral sex, prostitution being the most damaging – the ramifications are far-reaching affecting not only the prostitutes themselves but many families.
Michael is a freelance writer in Toronto. 
