The challenge was launched by three activists connected to the sex trade – Terri Jean Bedford, Amy Lebovitch and Valerie Scott. They are seeking to strike down laws that prevent communicating for the purposes of prostitution, living off the avails of prostitution and keeping a common bawdy house.
Their lawyer, Alan Young, a law professor at York University's Osgoode Hall Law School, contends that the three laws are incompatible with the fact that prostitution is legal in Canada. [...]
“If this forum is to be the way that laws live and die in our society ... the courts should welcome intervention of groups who represent a broad number of Canadians and can give assistance to the court,” said Mr. Agarwal, a lawyer for REAL Women of Canada, the Catholic Civil Rights League and Christian Legal Fellowship. [...]
“What these three groups want is a freestanding airing of their grievance that drugs, homosexual bathhouses and prostitution are spoiling the fabric of Canadian society,” Prof. Young said. [...]
[b]Lawyers for the federal Justice Department support the groups' application for intervenor status.[/b]
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