Justice committee  Thank you. My name is Georgialee Lang. I'm a lawyer in Vancouver. I was one of the many lawyers that were in the Supreme Court of Canada in June of 2013 arguing in the case of Attorney General v. Bedford, the prostitution case. I was one of the lone voices that sought to urge t

Justice committee  No, I wasn't surprised that there was not more discussion of section 15. Our submissions, of course, focused on the fact that the law was a reasonable limitation in accordance with the charter. Of course, that was not found to be accurate. The court said that it wasn't a reasona

Justice committee  Prostitution is illegal. Yes, it is, it will be. It will be illegal for men to purchase sex. That's correct.

Justice committee  Not in all of its aspects, of course, because we know from Bill C-36 that women will only be criminalized if they are selling sex in the vicinity of children, but they are welcome to sell sex in brothels, in private homes. They are welcome to sell sex anywhere there aren't childr

Justice committee  Yes, I say it is and let me tell you why, because the old law was a nuisance law. Prostitution was not illegal, only the activities surrounding prostitution, and they were all caught in that section of the Criminal Code that deals with nuisance and disorder.

Justice committee  I'm sorry, but I beg to differ. The preamble is a complete paradigm shift. We move from nuisance law to law that clearly says that it's the decision of Parliament that women and girls are being exploited in prostitution, and furthermore, the government is saying that we need to f

Justice committee  That's another strong benefit of this law, that it actually recognizes that societal fabric. The people who don't want to have prostitutes around children can now feel protected because Bill C-36 prevents that.

Justice committee  Absolutely.

Justice committee  It was my colleague Ms. Miller, on behalf of her organization, REED, who suggested that be eliminated. I'm not suggesting that.

Justice committee  What I'm okay with is that prostitution shouldn't take place where there are children. I'm okay with that, and I think that will pass constitutional muster as well.

Justice committee  Well, I agree with you that it could be clarified. That could be an amendment that is undertaken by your committee, to make it very clear so there are no misunderstandings—

Justice committee  I haven't given any thought to that aspect of the law because I'm in favour of the entire law. However, I could certainly e-mail you and give you some suggestions. I'd be happy to do that.

Justice committee  That's correct.

Justice committee  No, I have my own law firm. I don't work for them. I was retained as counsel for them.

Justice committee  I'm sorry, I didn't. I wish I had.