Canadaâ??s hypocritical prostitution laws

[Sweet Emily J 172062]

[B]Canadaâ??s hypocritical prostitution laws[/B]
By Tim Denis

[URL="http://www.wellandtribune.ca/2013/09/16/canadas-hypocritical-prostitution-laws"]http://www.wellandtribune.ca/2013/09/16/canadas-hypocritical-prostitution-laws[/URL]

[QUOTE]
A new poll has found that 60% of Canadian men approve of decriminalizing prostitution, compared to just 38% of women.

As a purely sexist proposition, that in and of itself shouldnâ??t come as a great shock. There were a few surprising things in this snapshot of our thoughts on Mrs. Warrenâ??s Profession, though. The survey found support for legal prostitution was higher among all Canadians over the age of 35 â?? much higher than the 18- to 34-year-olds. Sort of runs counter to the popular perception of a liberal youth growing more conservative as they age, doesnâ??t it? Support for prostitution was highest in Quebec (54%) and lowest in Saskatchewan and Manitoba (23%).

The federal government had to deal with this thorny issue again in the past year and launched an appeal of the Ontario court ruling that struck down Canadaâ??s age-old prostitution laws. The age gap in this new study is interesting for a number of reasons. You would think that a younger generation would be more tolerant as it is about a number of current issues like pot use and same-sex marriage, yet the opposite seems true. We could, I suppose, chalk that up to the experience of age.

The very experience that would know that what weâ??ve been doing all these years doesnâ??t work. That just adding more charges and jail time doesnâ??t do anything except drive the problem further underground where it becomes harder to police and much more dangerous for those involved.

We have an extremely hypocritical set of laws surrounding the selling of sex in Canada. Prostitution is legal but making the deal for it is not. When arrested, the hookers generally get time and a record; the johns (who drive the demand) have the option of paying their way out of it by going to a weekend course and having their records expunged. Itâ??s another sign, though, that this generation has looked at their parentsâ?? liberalism, their parentsâ?? and grandparentsâ?? hippie-dippy past (to quote George Carlin) and found it wanting.

So why is the older generation more tolerant? Itâ??s curious. Seems that the boomer â??make love not warâ? group has spawned a new generation that is more Glenn Beck than Walter Cronkite. And while we, the boomers, became somewhat more conservative as we got older, I wonder if this new crop of Alex P. Keaton devotees will get more Liberal as they approach middle age. Just curiousâ?¦.

P.S. If you donâ??t know who Alex P. Keaton is, then you are the generation Iâ??m talking about.
[/QUOTE]

[Phaedrus 209521]

[QUOTE]The survey found support for legal prostitution was higher among all Canadians over the age of 35 â?? much higher than the 18- to 34-year-olds.[/QUOTE]

But, annoyingly, no attempt to explain why this might be. Perhaps the author just has no clue? I can't help but think that sex work is perhaps a more remote issue to many younger folks... I know I didn't think about it very much when I was in my twenties, for a variety of reasons.

FWIW, I'd be interested to see the breakdown by sex AND age.