Calgary - Bawdy House Sentencing Delayed due to Ontario Constitutional Appeal

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

Kevin Martin reports for the Calgary Sun, 15 May 2012:

 

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2012/05/15/19762896.html

 

The sentencing of a Calgary bawdy-house keeper is being delayed

by the case of an Ontario dominatrix.

 

Linh Quy To was to face sentencing Tuesday, but lawyers for both Crown and defence said the decision should be delayed while courts in Ontario sort out the case of three sex workers.

 

Crown prosecutor Brian Holtby said both the federal and Ontario attorneys general are appealing a decision that struck down the law against keeping a bawdy house in Canada.

 

In March, the Ontario Court of Appeal struck down Canada's bawdy house provisions as unconstitutional and amended the pimping provisions of the Criminal Code so that only those exploiting hookers will be prosecuted.

 

The Ontario court ruling came after a constitutional challenge by dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford, former sex worker Valerie Scott and current prostitute Amy Lebovitch.

 

Sex-trade workers had praised the Ontario Court of Appeal's decision when it was released March 26, saying it gave them the legal right to set up safe and secure brothels.

 

Both Holtby and defence counsel Stephen Bitzer agreed Justice Sandy Park should delay sentencing Linh Quy To until the Supreme Court decides whether it will hear an appeal of the Ontario ruling.

 

"Because of the unsettled state of the law right now we don't think it would be fair to either party to proceed to sentencing," Holtby said. "I would estimate in six months, or so, we will know whether leave to appeal will be granted."

 

Holtby said if the nation's top court agrees to hear the appeals from the AGs, a further delay will be warranted.

 

"I anticipate coming before you to ask for an adjournment again if leave is granted," he told Park.

 

To, 54, earlier pleaded guilty to charges of keeping a common bawdy house and exercising influence over the movement of others to aid them in prostitution.

 

She admitted selling two women to undercover cops for $4,000.

 

Holtby said To's conduct warrants a two-year prison term since she took advantage of immigrants who were strangers to Canadian culture.

 

Bitzer said a conditional sentence of less than two years would be appropriate, noting the couple who brought the prostitutes to Canada were deported without charge.

 

To was originally charged with human trafficking, but the charge was dropped.

 

The case returns to court on Nov. 16.

[Andee 220524]

Why was the charge of human trafficking dropped? If you "sell" someone for $4K, sounds like human trafficking to me.

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

My interest in the current news article is that sentencing for the Bawdy House charges is being suspended pending further development in the Bedford v Canada constitutional challenge.

 

 

As for human trafficking, following is an analysis published after the trafficking charges were dropped, at the time that Linh Quy To pled guilty to the other charges on 12 Mar 2012:

 

In the seeming never ending escapade of laying human trafficking charges only to see them dropped before trial, Calgary's first human trafficking charges laid at the end of 2009 were dropped yesterday as the accused plead guilty to lesser offences.

 

It was December 2009 when Calgary Police busted an operation involved in sex trafficking Chinese women. A fake hair salon fronted for various residential bawdy houses throughout the city. Just over two years later the trafficking charges were dropped as Linh Quy To pleaded to running a bawdy house

 

To, and another individual, were both charged with trafficking two Chinese women for the purposes of prostitution. Unfortunately dropping charges has become common with cases initially labelled as human trafficking.

The problem simply put is a 'chicken or egg' scenario. Crown prosecutors are hesitant to lay charges due to the lack of case law, conversely, successful convictions can't happen without the development of said case law.

 

Currently the law requires significant evidence to prove the various legal conditions in order to be a 'slam dunk' human trafficking case--which seems to be the only kind prosecutors are interested in pursuing despite law enforcement using the legislation under both the Criminal Code and IRPA.

 

http://coerce.ca/news/calgarys-first-human-trafficking-charges-dropped/

 

 

The other woman believed to be coordinating the trafficking was not charged at all, but simply deported:

 

A pregnant mother of three arrested during a Calgary bawdy house investigation has been sent back to Hong Kong, while another woman's court case progresses slowly.

 

Siu Ling Wong was removed Dec. 31, two weeks after police searched her downtown apartment looking for links to the city's latest sex den and human trafficking case....

 

Wong was suspected of using her apartment suite to co-ordinate the cross-country movement of sex workers. She was not charged, although officers seized 10 cellphones and two computers from her home suspected of being used to post prostitution advertisements on Internet classifieds...

 

http://www.globalnews.ca/pregnant+mom+in+calgary+sex+ring+sent+back+to+hong+kong/69251/story.html

[fortunateone 156618]

10 celphones!