In June, the arguments will be heard. We feel that it is very difficult. Up until now, the Ontario courts have emphasized the prostitutes' right to safety and so have found that the sections of the Criminal Code dealing with brothels and procuring are unconstitutional, because they jeopardize the safety of the prostitutes.
Our claim is that one little principle has been forgotten, the equality of men and women. That is protected in both charters, the Quebec one and the Canadian one. Our view is that equality does not tie in very well with the sexual exploitation that prostitution really is.
You are going to be faced by something very difficult. The Supreme Court could rule that the lower courts were in error because of a little too much consideration of the will of a few prostitutes instead of looking out for the many. I confess that there is a wide difference of legal opinion on those decisions. However, the Supreme Court could also hold that the sections are not constitutional. In which case, the ball would be back in your court as parliamentarians. Then you will have to decide what you want to do about it.
That may be the time to adopt the Swedish model, which criminalizes the pimps and the johns, the people demanding the service, and decriminalizes the prostitutes, the people who are most affected and who have to be helped to get out of prostitution. That is the Swedish model, and I encourage you to read up on it, because it works.