She looked at the law, and she recognized that the objects in the Criminal Code on prostitution were not prostitution laws; they were nuisance laws. So when the court examined that, they then weighed the benefit of having a nuisance law against the safety issues that we recognize are inherent in prostitution.
What she said in the statement, that Parliament is not precluded from imposing limits, is certainly a fundamental principle. It is the federal Parliament that makes the criminal law in Canada. It is then the court that can determine whether that law is constitutional.
With Bill C-36, I believe the honourable justice minister and his committee have addressed the issues that were raised by Madam Justice McLachlin, and her colleagues in the Supreme Court of Canada, and they have done that in a very effective way.
There are numerous law professors across Canada who have examined whether this new law will pass constitutional muster, and there are many who agree that it will. There is no doubt that it will be challenged, but I think the justice minister has done an exemplary job of crafting a law that speaks to the interests of the parties involved in prostitution. It decriminalizes it for the women, unless of course they are selling sex around children. It speaks to the buyers of sex, who are the exploiters. The preamble to this bill clearly says that's what we're after, the harm, and that we, as Parliament, have the right to make that determination and make that law.
This bill is a good bill. It's addressing what the justices raised in the Supreme Court of Canada. I believe it speaks to the real issue, which is the exploitation of women and the commodification and the commercialization of women's bodies, which is a frontal assault on human dignity and a breach of human rights.