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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, April 4, 2012 · 12 Prostitutes should not be licenced or taxed Continued from page 6 If not challenged, this ruling will only expand the dreadful practice of sex trafficking as happened after The Netherlands legalized brothels -- revealed in a 2006 study, which also showed that 70 per cent of prostitutes were threatened, 60 per cent assaulted, and 40 per cent had been forced into prostitution or sexual abuse by acquaintances. In 2007, Amsterdam shut down a third of its brothels in an attempt to take back control over the sex trade from organized crime, pimps and human traffickers. The truth is prostitutes are exploited. They are vulnerable people, worthy of help, not shoved into brothels, licenced, unionized and taxed. If unchallenged this decision would have terrible unintended consequences for tens of thousands of young girls and boys, as selling sex would have governmental sanction added to the Hollywood images in movies like Pretty Woman, which romanticize prostitution as being a well-paid, respected and glamorous career choice. The reality is the opposite. Most young women who become prostitutes are coerced into it by bullies, pimps and the necessity of drug addiction. The Ontario Appeals Court decision would formalize the exploitation prostitutes suffer, by attempting to legitimize it. The court does not have to decide if the HST should be applied to prostitution, or about CPP, and Workers' Compensation for prostitutes. Nor did it consider the prospect of unemployed women: our daughters, sisters, and mothers having trouble collecting Employment Insurance (EI) if they don't accept available jobs in a government-sanctioned job as a prostitute. I wonder if the learned judges who wrote this decision, who are all very well paid and live in fine communities with low crime rates, will volunteer the house next door as a suitable place for brothels? Because that is the burden they are prepared to place on our Town councils. Who in Oakville will volunteer their street or community as a red light district? Governments would have to deal with all this. Along with the fact that there are 25 million human slaves worldwide, and legalized brothels would provide pimps, organized criminals and human traffickers with a legal means to exploit women and boys. Rob Nicholson, Canada's Minister of Justice, is currently reviewing the government's options going forward. I will advocate for the protection of vulnerable women and boys to make sure no federal government authorizes the systematic dehumanization of those groups that treats them as a commodity. Legitimizing brothels and living off the avails is not progressive for women or society. It is regressive. My government is working to get young women and men to stay in school longer, choose post-secondary education and training, and apprentice in trades such as chef, carpenter, electrician, technician -- not the sex trade. Terence Young, MP Oakville