TORONTO - The question of whether Canada's anti-prostitution laws violate the charter by endangering sex workers is now with five judges at Ontario's top court, who will spend the next several months weighing the landmark issue.
The federal and Ontario governments are trying to overturn a lower court ruling in which a judge struck down three laws against prostitution, saying they force people in the sex trade to choose between obeying the law and keeping themselves safe.
The Court of Appeal for Ontario heard arguments all week from lawyers for the governments, the sex-trade workers and seven intervening groups such as the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Christian Legal Fellowship.
Whatever the Appeal Court decides, it's expected that its ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. One of the judges joked this week that she and her colleagues were just a bump in the road.
But with such a critical issue at stake -- the sex-trade workers argue it's a matter of life and death for them -- the judges are expected to take several months before releasing a decision.
Alan Young, the lawyer representing the sex workers in this appeal, hopes the Supreme Court sides with the original ruling, so it will fall to Parliament to craft new legislation that is in keeping with the charter.
However, he said he is not confident that will happen under the government of Stephen Harper.
"This government will not look at this issue because it's too difficult for them and they don't know how it really is consistent with Conservative values," he said outside court.
The sex-trade workers argue that the laws prevent them from working indoors where it's safer, taking time to talk to a potential client to assess the risk they pose and hiring bodyguards.
A group of former sex-trade workers and human trafficking victims who aren't directly involved in the case were at court Friday as the hearings wrapped up to voice their opposition to the position taken by the sex workers Young represents.
If the laws were taken off the books it would help only a very small percentage of sex-trade workers, who are in the trade by choice and who would have the means to be able to take those safety measures, they said.
Timea Nagy, who at the age of 19 was trafficked from Hungary into a licensed strip club, now works to prevent trafficking and exploitation and said striking down the laws won't help people like her.
"There is a lot of human trafficking victims right now in strip joints, in massage places and behind doors and this ruling will not make it any safer for them," she said outside court. "It will not free them up from being enslaved."
Trisha Baptie said she worked alongside many of the women who ended up as victims of serial killer Robert Pickton. They would never have made it into a brothel even if it was legal, she said.
"What we need to do in the legacy of Pickton's victims is criminalize the male demand," Baptie said outside court. "If there was no male demand my friends would not have been on the streets. I would not have been on the streets. . . . We need to be strengthening our social safety nets rather than encouraging prostitution as a viable way to live."
Young, who spoke outside court as Nagy and Baptie stood behind him shaking their heads, said there is no doubt many women have had horrific experiences in the sex trade and agreed that the government needs to do more to address the social problems.
"I say to these people, 'I'm sorry for what happened to you, but don't extrapolate from your experience into public policy,"' Young said. "What this case means is the people who can take care of themselves will have the option to take care of themselves. The people who can't, the state needs to take care of them."
Protecting victims of exploitation and supporting the enforcement of existing laws is a priority for the government, said Member of Parliament and former police officer Shelly Glover.
"In all my years as a police officer, I worked with many exploited women and children in the area of prostitution," she said in a emailed statement. "I can tell you that we need laws to protect these individuals and prosecute the johns and pimps that victimize them."
