Canada Supreme Court Strikes Down Prostitution Laws
The high court deemed laws prohibiting brothels, communicating in public with clients and living on the profits of prostitution to be too sweeping.
"It is not a crime in Canada to sell sex for money," Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin
wrote in Friday's decision.
But Justice McLachlin wrote: "Parliament has the power to regulate against nuisances, but not at the cost of the health, safety and lives of prostitutes.
"The prohibitions at issue do not merely impose conditions on how prostitutes operate.
"They go a critical step further, by imposing dangerous conditions on prostitution; they prevent people engaged in a risky - but legal - activity from taking steps to protect themselves from the risks."