I think Book Guy has the best accurate answer for you. It's been 7 years since I lived in either Ottawa or Montreal, but I don't think things have changed a whole lot. Prostitution is illegal period. Incall, outcall, pimping ect... in some magazines (NOW in Toronto) your ads may be more explicit. The Montreal Gazette when I lived there had the full descriptions of what their girls looked like. This changed while I still lived there because it was considered too graphic for a local paper. Alternative papers like NOW in T.O. use to have ads like " I Love it up the Ass" or " Let me suck you Dry", but this too has been toned down. Canada is not Amsterdam. Blatant prostitution is not welcomed. But as Book Guy mentioned, most areas have far more important things to do. As for Street action, in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa ( not sure about Banff), you will see the girls lined up on most nights between certain hours ( The rollers will usually come by at about 6 AM to clear things up before the business day begins if the workers are in a heavily commercial area). They are not bothered as much if they stick to certain areas. In Montreal it was St-Catherine's Street, Rue St-Denis ( gays), and St-Lawrence Street. Dorchester ( now called Rene Levesque street) was reserved for your Park Ave. Girls. If a girl or guy wandered out of these sections they were pretty much busted quickly. This is how it can be lived with by law standards, still very much illegal, but controlled. Incidentally, awhile back I saw the A&E documentary on prostitution throughout the world( I bought the tape because I thought it was very good and more honest then most reports). Toronto is thinking of having a true Redlight district, like Amsterdam. It would be in an area that is constructed like a circular street so that there is only one way in and out ( good for security) and they would build car ports for more privacy. It is a very big step, so I am sure T.O. is going to really sit on the idea for awhile. This would make street prostitution fully legal in Toronto.
I read somewhere that certain types of prostitution are legal in Canada. From what I can tell, street walkers and "bawdy houses" (which covers any incall situation) are illegal, but outcall is not. You can even discuss the services offered via telephone but you cannot do this on the street, in the car, or in any public place. Use of an agency, print and media ads are also okay but pimping is not. How is this different from an agency that advertises escort services? If the agency only charges a minimal, flat fee therefore not "procuring and living off the income of prostitution", then they are generally tolerated.
Furthermore, these all contribute to a lower cost for services. As an example, I read one agency advertises a total of $280 Canadian (supposedly a bit on the pricey side by Canuck standards) for a full hour --- this translates to only $182 US for a hot, blonde escort!!! What a deal!
So, am I pretty much accurate about my impressions of the Canadian service provider scene? I am from Southern California and will be travelling to Banff, Alberta sometime in the fall and have my eye on the hottie Tiffany from www.katesescorts.com. However, I am going there with a large group and would not want to be put in any embarassing situations such as being busted by LE. If it is true that outcall escort services are legal, then there should be no such risks involved with procuring such services, correct? Thanks in advance for your responses....
-- Modified on 8/11/2001 6:26:49 PM
Well, it has been a few years since I lived in Canada, but I dont recall prostitution being legal there.
I know for a fact that streetwalking is illegal, and I have heard of 'houses' being shut down, and in fact I recall something about an escort service being shut down.
Things may have changed (doubt it) but I suspect that it is a case of there being a difference between what is legal, and what is not a high priority for law enforcement to pursue.
I could be wrong, but since I did live there, and you havent gotten any other answers, I am the best you've got so far.
You could always call the RCMP in Canada and make an inquiry. Tell them you are doing research for a paper you are writing. Its not like they know who you are. If I am not mistaken, it is the RCMP who patrol Banff (which is a hell of a pretty area).
Incalls are not legal, under 1800's Bawdy house law but rarely is Bawdy enforced unless neighbors complain or if under aged or illegal aliens are suspected to be working. In one case a bawdy house appeal went to the Ontario Appeals Court and the madam was convicted of running a bawdy house, living all the avails etc. but the fine was only $3000. If it was in the U.S., you would go to jail for 10-20 years!
Outcall are always legal. You can discuss sexual services on a phone to your hearts content and advertise on websites and in magazines and newspapers. This communications is considered private since someone has to buy the paper or to a website choosing to read it.
But street sex is totally illegal as it should be and is illegal in most of the world where private prostitution is legal.
With outcall being legal in Canada you also have far more intelligent gals in the business for the right reasons, not out of desperation or do feed a drug habit than in the U.S. When you risk mandatory jail time if caught offering sex to a vice cop that deters many in the U.S. With such sexual repression comes more violence and other crimes. But the religious nuts that know what is best, insist anti-sex laws save neighborhoods and children. No lap dances at strip clubs, nothing sexual at massage parlors. Sex is simply do dirty and shameful to those that control us that it is far more costly than in Canada without the legal risks.
I have a huge section on the Canadian legal issues, quoting the Canadian Criminal Code sections etc, in my Montreal report. I also discuss it in various city reports such as Toronto related to the lap dances have to abide by local bylaws, which are licensing ordinances not criminal laws. But a place can still lose its license by breaking the bylaw but no one is at any legal risk.
Thanks for the specifics. This message supercedes anything I wrote in my other message in this thread (check the date-stamps).
Sorry to contribute to confusion ... Should have read the whole thread more carefully before posting my vague impressions to it.
BG
-- Modified on 8/15/2001 10:48:09 AM
You need to talk to Dave of Phoenix. He has a great report on this. From what I remember, Canada has laws against streetwalking and brothels "bawdy houses", but allows independent providers and agencies. Escorts advertise openly even in mainline newspapers.
Escorts advertise fairly openly here as well, but I am not trying to talk him out of it or anything.
He's bascially done the erotic (or should I say "initmacy") tour of Canada and can give you all the info you need. I've read his reports on Vancouver and Toronto, and they're very informative. Good luck and enjoy the exchange rate.
Worth standing on guard for thee!
Pot is decriminalised in several places too....
(My first response to this thread. Note, that a more legally accurate response has been posted, to which I have added my assent. I'll leave this for its other content ...)
There's lots of misinformation on the internet. No prostitution is not legal in Canada (a statement I now retract). I don't know more specifics, but I do know you probably don't need to sweat it too much. It would be great if you could look it up for us and post something definitive.
In my experience, some things have happened that indicate to me some things about the law. One thing is, that several of the alternative newspapers that regularly allow escort service advertisements, in several Anglophone cities, have all had trouble with the police for it. Is that because of "public decency" and no free-press rights, or because of crack-downs on illegal prostitution? I dunno. Another thing is, that all escort services that I have EVER spoken with in Canada have refused to discuss anything explicit on the phone. Is that in order to keep things vague to make greatest possible profit, or because of some law? I dunno. And another is, that I know differences exist between Quebec and the rest of the country, and things there may be more lax in some areas (more European) and more strict in others (more Catholic and uneducated).
RCMP = Royal Canadian Mounted Police = Mounties. These are the Federal authorities (like, their boss is in Ottawa, so to speak; kind of a kinder gentler Federal Marshalls plus FBI), who have branches in all provinces. Prostitution may be more of a regional or Provincial matter. (Province = State.) Banff is indeed beautiful. There are Mounties there, but there are also Alberta Provincial Police (the state troopers) and also Banff city police (the boys in blue).
It's my understanding that in many Provinces bawdy-houses (hence, in-calls) and living-off-the-avails (hence, pimping) are illegal; that public sex (hence, sex in bath-houses and massage parlors) is illegal; that escorting solely for the purpose of sex (hence, outcalls without dinner) is illegal; and that soliciting money for sex, or vice-versa, is illegal; all of that, in most of Canada, to varying degrees. What is not illegal, I have heard, although I can't quite compute how, is the actual act of having sex for money. You go figure.
My experience has been, that the provider scene in Canada is pretty much the same as in most major US cities. It's low-priority for the police, and safe, and easy to find and partake in, as long as it's not in that demi-monde of drugs and violence and child molestation and sex slavery. The up-and-up internet providers are just as low-risk, and just as illegal, as in the US. Things differ city by city.
The exchange rate is currently very much to a US person's advantage right now. Prices for escorts are a little lower in most major Canadian cities than in the US (like, Cd$200 to Cd$350, rather than Cd$300 to Cd$500, for one particular class of escort, for example); and THEN you ALSO get to exchange it (so the Cd$200 to Cd$350 becomes US$135 to US$235, forgive my math, at the recent US$1 : Cd$1.49).
-- Modified on 8/15/2001 10:49:29 AM
I think Book Guy has the best accurate answer for you. It's been 7 years since I lived in either Ottawa or Montreal, but I don't think things have changed a whole lot. Prostitution is illegal period. Incall, outcall, pimping ect... in some magazines (NOW in Toronto) your ads may be more explicit. The Montreal Gazette when I lived there had the full descriptions of what their girls looked like. This changed while I still lived there because it was considered too graphic for a local paper. Alternative papers like NOW in T.O. use to have ads like " I Love it up the Ass" or " Let me suck you Dry", but this too has been toned down. Canada is not Amsterdam. Blatant prostitution is not welcomed. But as Book Guy mentioned, most areas have far more important things to do. As for Street action, in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa ( not sure about Banff), you will see the girls lined up on most nights between certain hours ( The rollers will usually come by at about 6 AM to clear things up before the business day begins if the workers are in a heavily commercial area). They are not bothered as much if they stick to certain areas. In Montreal it was St-Catherine's Street, Rue St-Denis ( gays), and St-Lawrence Street. Dorchester ( now called Rene Levesque street) was reserved for your Park Ave. Girls. If a girl or guy wandered out of these sections they were pretty much busted quickly. This is how it can be lived with by law standards, still very much illegal, but controlled. Incidentally, awhile back I saw the A&E documentary on prostitution throughout the world( I bought the tape because I thought it was very good and more honest then most reports). Toronto is thinking of having a true Redlight district, like Amsterdam. It would be in an area that is constructed like a circular street so that there is only one way in and out ( good for security) and they would build car ports for more privacy. It is a very big step, so I am sure T.O. is going to really sit on the idea for awhile. This would make street prostitution fully legal in Toronto.
I metioned above that Toronto may build an area that prostitution will more or less be accepted making it more secure and private ( car ports). I made the mistake of saying " This would make street prostitution fully legal". I apologize, in fact, it would still be illegal, but very controlled ( one area that could much more easily be monitored). I just had a conversation with someone who is living in Canada ( always better to get somewhat more accurate info from someone living in the area). He told me that if the government feels the need to be more strict with prostitution ( more busts than usual because of overwhelming cases of STDs reported, violent crimes associated with prostitution, child prostitution ect...), the police will usually bust the clients faster than they will try and set up the girls. This is because ( again in my referral's opinion), it is pretty much a waste of time busting the worker. They will be out in whatever minimum time needed to serve this very minor offense and she/he will go about business as usual. Where as for the client, a little more may be at stake, whether he is married or not. Again, this kind of thing I am told, usually happens if there is a NEED to be more strict. Other than that, law enforcement in Canada ( as in a lot of other places in the U.S.) prioritize all aspects of prostitution lower on their list of criminal deviance. Hopefully this helps.
Love Monet xoxooxxo