Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford, 2012 ONCA ... - York University

Page: 123[307] While street prostitution poses real and grave dangers to the prostitutesthemselves, it also has a profound impact on members of the surroundingcommunity. It is not simply that men are subject to unwanted solicitation byprostitutes, or that women are subject to unwanted solicitation by would-becustomers. Street prostitution is associated with serious criminal conductincluding drug possession, drug trafficking, public intoxication, and organizedcrime. 16[308] Further, it appears that the application judge discounted the importance ofthe legislative objective in part because she found, at para. 434, that thecommunicating provision “[provides] little benefit to communities.” We do notagree with that approach. As we explained above, we do not accept theapplication judge‟s finding that the communicating provision has been ineffectivein reducing the social harms associated with prostitution. However, to the extentthat the law may have been ineffective to some degree in achieving its purpose,the role of that ineffectiveness in the gross disproportionality analysis is limitedbecause deference is to be accorded to Parliament‟s choice of means to achieveits objective: Malmo-Levine, at paras. 176-78.[309] In Malmo-Levine, the Court also discounted the significance of any allegedineffectiveness of the law where it was the result of deliberate non-compliance.16 The interveners POWER and Maggie‟s dispute the legitimacy of the government‟s stated objectives ofthe communicating law as pandering to the moral sensibilities of some members of society. We rejectthis submission for the reasons discussed above.