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globe & mail editorial: the legality of escorts advertising in newspapers/yellowpages

syn

"tlc"
Aug 31, 2001
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globe & mail editorial: the legality of escorts advertising in newspapers/yellowpages

The importance of being earnest and doing nothing

By WILLIAM THORSELL

Monday, April 22, 2002 – Print Edition, Page A11

The morality squads of the nation stir from time to time, raised from their appropriate torpor by the scent of exploitable outrage or affronts to official decency.

This month, it is the "discovery" that many escort agencies are agents of prostitution: "On the face of it, escort services are legal enterprises unless they're offering more than just the escort," says one Toronto police officer after arresting 12 people for "living off the avails." Their crime was not the provision of sexual services for money, which is quite legal in Canada. It was managing a business to do so.

The personal columns of the interesting publications in Canada are chock full of explicit ads by prostitutes offering the illusion of affection and the promise of release.

These ads and what they deliver are quite legal for three reasons:

(1) They are placed by self-employed individuals. No one manages their work or shares in their revenue, so no one is living off the "avails" of prostitution -- a criminal offence.

(2) The self-employed sex worker offers nothing but home delivery. The act of sexual commerce is not habitually concluded in the same place. Thus, we avoid the Criminal Code's prohibition on "keeping a common bawdy house" -- defined by a place regularly used for commercial physical gratification or acts of "gross indecency" (another can of worms).

(3) The ads are placed in paper or electronic publications that do not qualify as a "public place" when it comes to soliciting. Soliciting is a crime only when it scares the horses, slows traffic, threatens property values or otherwise gets up the noses of tourists or the bourgeoisie. Soliciting in public is a portentous crime; soliciting in the classified ads is a legal convenience.

The escort services that fatten the ad budgets of the Yellow Pages and colourful journals risk the attention of morality squads because of their structure: These businesses are managed, which means that the executives of those that provide prostitutes "live off the avails." It doesn't matter that the businesses may be well-managed, or that the sex workers may be safer or better cared for there. If the police are stirred from their torpor in these cases, it is an easy hit under the Criminal Code.

To be fair, the police may prefer to ignore these realities, accepting how constructively hypocritical they really are. But then someone comes along and lays a complaint, and what are the police to do -- especially if it involves a minor? Attention must be paid and then, we hope, the importance of seeming earnest and doing nothing returns, and the business of adult prostitution is left to serve the public comme d'habitude.

This is one of these cases where hypocrisy may be better than reform in dealing with public policy and social change. Because prostitution itself is legal, the Criminal Code regulates it through various prohibitions -- no public soliciting, no managing, no habitual locale, no recruitment, no minors. Observe the rules and it's full steam ahead. Offend the least sensible rules -- living off the avails -- while running an otherwise admirable operation, and the police will generally let you be.

The alternatives are either messy amendments to the Criminal Code that require MPs to vote for a liberalized sex trade, or appeals to the courts under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, claiming affronts to freedom of expression or such. The first is unrealistic, and the second is improbable, so official tolerance is the best option, with all the risks of arbitrary enforcement of the law that this implies.

There is a parallel in the application of laws against marijuana use, though the police remain oddly more vigilant on this file than they do on commercial sex. You assume you can relax in enjoying a joint or two at a weekend party, secure in the assumption that the police have grown tired of pretending that the Criminal Code should apply to this, whatever its formal status. Yet, many Canadians are still dragged before criminal courts for simple marijuana possession, clouding their futures with silly convictions at ridiculous cost. If we cannot insist on more hypocrisy in the application of this law, it might actually have to be changed.

Discretion is the soul of justice, and sometimes discretion effectively suspends whole sections of law in the face of changing values. Remember how we refused to execute murderers for years out of sheer abhorrence, despite the existence of the death penalty? Now we would do so out of simple humility, given our demonstrated skill in convicting the wrong people.

Ignoring the law can be wiser than enforcing, interpreting or revising it. The same principle applies to many other aspects of life.
 
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vidi vici veni

Pedantic Lurker
Aug 17, 2001
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Across the Rubicon
A very sensible column

So much of civilized behaviour is based on generous dollops of hypocrisy. Yes, Thorsell has penned a winner here. Kudos to the Globe. Thanks for the posting Syndy.

vvv
 

gramage

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Feb 3, 2002
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wait, was that a sensible article written in a Canadian newspaper? and now it's snowing after spring already came? hell has frozen over, the apocalypse is here RUN!
 

rr_bill

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Mar 18, 2002
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There may still be hope for us.

gramage said:
wait, was that a sensible article written in a Canadian newspaper? and now it's snowing after spring already came? hell has frozen over, the apocalypse is here RUN!
Hopefully WILLIAM THORSELL will run for parliament. We need some sensible people in there.
 

syn

"tlc"
Aug 31, 2001
917
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0
downtown toronto
loveless marriage

Dr. Wanker said:
So if you're in a loveless marrage, and your wife is staying with you "for the kids" and she's eating your food and staying at your house... is she a prostitute?

Does that make your home a common baudy house?

If you eat the food she cooks with the money you give her... are you living off the avails?

one more ringing endorsement of the institution of marriage ...

syn
 

luckyjackson

Active member
Aug 19, 2001
1,505
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This is the 3rd or 4th sensible article the G&M has published in as many years. Last one I remember was about the selective raids going on at SC's. Bill are you here? Wouldn't be surprised if he was an avid MP or SC goer. More likely he sees the premium ladies. ;)

It just goes to show how desperate we are here for a more mature attitude. In many countries such an open admission of hypocrisy would be cause for embarrassment among the l.e.
 

vidi vici veni

Pedantic Lurker
Aug 17, 2001
287
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Across the Rubicon
Well, no

luckyjackson said:
This is the 3rd or 4th sensible article the G&M has published in as many years. Last one I remember was about the selective raids going on at SC's. Bill are you here? Wouldn't be surprised if he was an avid MP or SC goer. More likely he sees the premium ladies.
Lucky:

You're more than a little off-base on this one. William Thorsell, former editor of the Globe and Mail and now head of the ROM, is a well-known, out of the closet, gay.

vvv
 

clipper

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Apr 4, 2002
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Dont Knock the Globe

Hey, I SUBSCRIBE to the Globe. There are many great articles in the paper.

On a more materialistic note, the business section has a regular column with excellent stock picks by various analysts.
You guys could pick up some investment smarts here, support some of your other activities like scanning the Sun's escort listings and drooling all over the Sunshine Girl.
 

luckyjackson

Active member
Aug 19, 2001
1,505
2
38
Whoops!

Not surprising really. Gay people are our natural allies when it comes to keeping law enforcement out of the business that goes on between consenting adults.
 

vidi vici veni

Pedantic Lurker
Aug 17, 2001
287
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Across the Rubicon
Re: Dont Knock the Globe

clipper said:
Hey, I SUBSCRIBE to the Globe. There are many great articles in the paper.

On a more materialistic note, the business section has a regular column with excellent stock picks by various analysts.
You guys could pick up some investment smarts here, support some of your other activities like scanning the Sun's escort listings and drooling all over the Sunshine Girl.
I don't think that anyone's knocking the good ole Globe. Right now they are probably the best paper in Canada, certainly in Toronto. The departure of Lord Tubby from the Post, ensured that.

Still, when it comes to investing, one shouldn't count out the National Post. You just have to ignore the Financial Post's editorials. As a columnist at the Globe, Terence Corcoran used to sometimes surprise me with original takes on matters. At the Post, he just indulges in ideological posturing. Now after reading a few of his pieces, you'll acquire the power to know what he's going to say on any subject. Predictable, boring, and annoying. Too bad.

vvv
 

vidi vici veni

Pedantic Lurker
Aug 17, 2001
287
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Across the Rubicon
Re: Re: Re: Dont Knock the Globe

Crazy Canuck said:
Which makes his editorials just like those in the Star, the Sun, and the Globe....

One is tyically aware of a writer's ideological "posture" when it is different from one's own. You don't notice the ideology when the writer shares your perspective, but it doesn't mean that the writer is any less ideological.CC
You have a point but I think it's beside the one that I was making about editorials in the Post. As I said, Corcoran used to surprise me. I didn't necessarily agree with him but I'd have that great experience of seeing a familiar situation in a new light. Wouldn't you agree that he's fallen into a rut? The sense of possible surprise, of creative thinking about problems, seems gone from his writing and that's too bad.

vvv
 

vidi vici veni

Pedantic Lurker
Aug 17, 2001
287
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Across the Rubicon
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Dont Knock the Globe

Crazy Canuck said:


Corcoran suprised me, not for what he wrote but that It got published in a major newspaper. There was never a sense of suprise or creative thinking in his writing since it is merely an application ideas originating with someone else. (Ayn Rand) To see a writer who is an advocate of freedom, rather than of statism and more government as the solution to every problem, in a major newspaper is a pleasure. And when you're right, consistency is a virtue.
CC
Well, it must be nice to feel in possession of a revealed truth. Myself, I've never experienced much attraction to religion. But even in the applicaton of another's ideas, surely you can show some creativity, can't you, or do you see it all as just quoting chapter and verse? Even theologians do better than that.:p

But perhaps you're right. Perhaps you've hit upon Corcoran's present approach to writing, i.e. by the numbers. If so, too bad.

vvv
 

vidi vici veni

Pedantic Lurker
Aug 17, 2001
287
0
0
Across the Rubicon
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Dont Knock the Globe

Crazy Canuck said:
There was never a sense of suprise or creative thinking in his writing since it is merely an application ideas originating with someone else. (Ayn Rand) [snip] And when you're right, consistency is a virtue.
C.C.

I guess I don't see all religions as consisting in the worship of a deity. Sometimes other things are put up on the altar and considered inviolate. Okay, I'm using the term 'religion' in a loose sense but you get my drift. Hey, I'm not without sin. I used to be a Freudian!:p

vvv
 

vidi vici veni

Pedantic Lurker
Aug 17, 2001
287
0
0
Across the Rubicon
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Dont Knock the Globe

Crazy Canuck said:
And I don't see recognition and apreciation of genius as tantamount to religion. :) CC
Fair enough. We each made our points. Have a good night.

vvv
 

syn

"tlc"
Aug 31, 2001
917
0
0
downtown toronto
Re: globe & mail editorial: the legality of escorts advertising in newspapers/yellowpages

syn said:
The importance of being earnest and doing nothing

By WILLIAM THORSELL

Monday, April 22, 2002 – Print Edition, Page A11

This is one of these cases where hypocrisy may be better than reform in dealing with public policy and social change. Because prostitution itself is legal, the Criminal Code regulates it through various prohibitions -- no public soliciting, no managing, no habitual locale, no recruitment, no minors. Observe the rules and it`s full steam ahead. Offend the least sensible rules -- living off the avails -- while running an otherwise admirable operation, and the police will generally let you be.

The alternatives are either messy amendments to the Criminal Code that require MPs to vote for a liberalized sex trade, or appeals to the courts under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, claiming affronts to freedom of expression or such. The first is unrealistic, and the second is improbable, so official tolerance is the best option, with all the risks of arbitrary enforcement of the law that this implies.

There is a parallel in the application of laws against marijuana use, though the police remain oddly more vigilant on this file than they do on commercial sex. You assume you can relax in enjoying a joint or two at a weekend party, secure in the assumption that the police have grown tired of pretending that the Criminal Code should apply to this, whatever its formal status. Yet, many Canadians are still dragged before criminal courts for simple marijuana possession, clouding their futures with silly convictions at ridiculous cost. If we cannot insist on more hypocrisy in the application of this law, it might actually have to be changed.

Discretion is the soul of justice, and sometimes discretion effectively suspends whole sections of law in the face of changing values. Remember how we refused to execute murderers for years out of sheer abhorrence, despite the existence of the death penalty? Now we would do so out of simple humility, given our demonstrated skill in convicting the wrong people.

Ignoring the law can be wiser than enforcing, interpreting or revising it. The same principle applies to many other aspects of life.
i bumped this thread as it related to the following discussion in the escort area: https://terb.cc/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19042

thorsell notes, "Ignoring the law can be wiser than enforcing, interpreting or revising it. The same principle applies to many other aspects of life." with reference to the marijuana laws ...

what a difference a year makes.

syn
 

HaywoodJabloemy

Dissident
Apr 3, 2002
657
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0
Never the safest place
The editorial is typically Canadian in two ways.
One, a 'don't rock the boat' attitude - don't change the law, just don't enforce it very much.
Two, it displays an almost childlike trust in police. Canadians seem to think it's perfectly okay to let police make up their own laws, by default in this case. It never occurs to anyone how open to abuse this type of ambiguous set-up can be. They thought it was okay in Australia too, until a Royal Commission found out the police in Sydney had their own guys stationed in places to make sure they got their cut from each customer.
 
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maverick9

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Jun 26, 2003
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gramage said:
wait, was that a sensible article written in a Canadian newspaper? and now it's snowing after spring already came? hell has frozen over, the apocalypse is here RUN!
Good article and hell has froze over (as I pretend this is not a temp heat wave)!
 

Perry Mason

Well-known member
Aug 20, 2001
4,683
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Here
Ppheeewww....

My problem with this approach is that it makes a virtue out of hypocrisy!

And if hypocrisy is a virtue with sex and drugs, then why not in everything else, too?

So what happens to all of us if "Do as I say, not as I do" becomes the accepted code of conduct? And the cops are given a free hand with this??!!

Did some one say something about hell freezing over? Only in the winter and in Canada!

As we approach July 1st, let us all practice singing the new lyrics to our anthem: Oh, Canada, our home and furtive land!

Perry
 
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