Canadian Prostitution Laws


SECTION 210, The Criminal Code
  This law males it an offense to:
     a) "Keep" a brothel (or manage one, own one, ...).
     b) Work in a brothel.
     c) Be found in a brothel (this is what brothel customers are 
     usually charged with).
     d) Rent or lease space to someone who plans to use the space as a 
     brothel. If a person renting or leasing space in Canada is convicted 
     of keeping a brothel in the rented space, the landlord is obligated by 
     law to evict said person.  Since most  Canadian brothels (using the 
     legal definition) are in fact the homes of the working prostitutes, 
     they stand to lose their homes if they are renters -- and convicted.

SECTION 211, The Criminal Code
  This law makes it an offense to knowingly take, offer to take, or 
direct someone to a brothel.

SECTION 212, The Criminal Code
  This law makes it an offense to:
     a) Procure or solicit a person to have illicit sex with another person.
     b) Entice someone who is not a prostitute to enter a brothel for 
     the purpose of prostitution.
     c) Hide someone in a brothel.
     d) Procure someone to become a prostitute.
     e) Convince someone to leave their residence and become a 
     "frequenter" of a brothel.
     f) Direct or take a new arrival to Canada to a brothel.
     g) Procure a person to leave Canada to become a prostitute.
     h) Exercise control over someone for the purpose of prostitution 
     (commonly used against pimps, also used against escort service owners, 
     managers, and phone operators).
     i) Drug someone (which includes getting someone drunk) to enable 
     another person to have sex with the person who has been drugged.
     j) Live wholly or partially on the avails (profits) of prostitution 
     (commonly used against pimps, often used against husbands, lovers, 
     boyfriends, etc.).  Evidence that someone is "habitually in the 
     company" of a prostitute, or lives in a brothel, is, in the absence 
     of evidence to the contrary, proof that the person in question lives 
     on the avails of prostitution.

SECTION 213, The Criminal Code
  This law makes it an offense to solicit or "communicate" for the 
purpose of prostitution in a public place.  Communicate can mean virtually 
anything; a wink, a nod, a smile, even conversation.  "Public place" 
includes any place that the public has access to, either by right or 
invitation (streets, parks, hotel lobbies, bars ...).  For the purpose 
of this law a public place includes "any motor vehicle located in a 
public place (like a street), or in any place open to public view (such 
as a parking lot or a trick's driveway)."

  It's perfectly legal for a pro to see a client in a hotel room, or the 
client's home or other personal space.  It's also legal for pros to 
advertise in magazines and newspapers -- magazines and newspapers are not 
considered public so whores can legally advertise in the press.  There 
is no need for a customer to use euphemisms or codes when speaking to a 
pro over the phone.  Telephones are not considered public places, so you 
can be as open as you want.

  Another law often used against both prostitutes and their clients is 
Section 173 of our Criminal Code -- our indecent act law.  This law makes 
it an offense to commit an indecent act in a public place in the presence 
of one or more people, or to commit an indecent act in any place with the 
intent to insult or offend another person.  Indecency is not defined in 
our Criminal Code, so Canadian judges have the power to determine what 
is indecent on an individual case bases.
  A judge may not consider two lovers fucking on a beach to be indecent 
but the same judge may think that a whore fucking her date in a car is 
indecent, and convict both the pro and the date.


2001