Canadian breaking news and politics and hats and general sexiness

[betenoire]

So today is the day that the NDP membership chooses a new leader.

There are three people left. Thomas Mulcair, Brian Topp, and Nathan Cullen. Peggy Nash got bumped out in the most recent vote.

[EnderD_503]

I was honestly really disappointed that Nash was eliminated. She was really the only one I was really hoping to see lead the NDP.

[betenoire]

Originally Posted by EnderD_503

I was honestly really disappointed that Nash was eliminated. She was really the only one I was really hoping to see lead the NDP.

She was probably the most NDP-like of the potentials, so it does suck.

Thomas Mulcair. I don't know! I didn't vote for him, but I think he'll be okay. He's probably a bit of a departure, but that might be a good thing.

[EnderD_503]

Originally Posted by betenoire

She was probably the most NDP-like of the potentials, so it does suck.

Thomas Mulcair. I don't know! I didn't vote for him, but I think he'll be okay. He's probably a bit of a departure, but that might be a good thing.

With Nash I felt she was a lot more involved in the community than most MPs seem to be. When I was still living in Parkdale I was impressed at how engaged and visible she was with the community, in contrast to most MPs who you don't see or hear from other than around election time.

I don't know how engaged/visible Mulcair has been in his riding for folks living there, but Nash is one of the rare politicians who reads "activist" to me. I don't get that from what little I know of Mulcair. It would have been nice to see a party leader that was more "activist" than "politician" in Canada.

[Truly Scrumptious]

Ontario's Court of Appeal has struck down Canada's ban on brothels or "bawdy houses," but says the ban on communicating for the purposes of selling sex should stand.

In a 132-page landmark decision, the court said Monday that the ban on brothels puts prostitutes in danger by forcing them to ply their trade outdoors. It said sex trade workers should be allowed to work safely indoors.

The court said the law against brothels was too broad because "it captures conduct that is unlikely to lead to the problems Parliament seeks to curtail." It said the impact is "grossly disproportionate" to the law's intent because "the safest way to sell sex is for a prostitute to work indoors in a location under her control."

Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories...#ixzz1qFsSiD9m

[Linus]

Originally Posted by Truly Scrumptious

Ontario's Court of Appeal has struck down Canada's ban on brothels or "bawdy houses," but says the ban on communicating for the purposes of selling sex should stand.

In a 132-page landmark decision, the court said Monday that the ban on brothels puts prostitutes in danger by forcing them to ply their trade outdoors. It said sex trade workers should be allowed to work safely indoors.

The court said the law against brothels was too broad because "it captures conduct that is unlikely to lead to the problems Parliament seeks to curtail." It said the impact is "grossly disproportionate" to the law's intent because "the safest way to sell sex is for a prostitute to work indoors in a location under her control."

Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories...#ixzz1qFsSiD9m

Wow. That was interesting.

[Breathless]

http://shine.yahoo.com/beauty/miss-u...192000420.html
Miss Universe Canada Disqualifies Transsexual Contestant: She was Born a Boy

[EnderD_503]

Originally Posted by Truly Scrumptious

Ontario's Court of Appeal has struck down Canada's ban on brothels or "bawdy houses," but says the ban on communicating for the purposes of selling sex should stand.

In a 132-page landmark decision, the court said Monday that the ban on brothels puts prostitutes in danger by forcing them to ply their trade outdoors. It said sex trade workers should be allowed to work safely indoors.

The court said the law against brothels was too broad because "it captures conduct that is unlikely to lead to the problems Parliament seeks to curtail." It said the impact is "grossly disproportionate" to the law's intent because "the safest way to sell sex is for a prostitute to work indoors in a location under her control."

Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories...#ixzz1qFsSiD9m

And yet solicitation continues to be illegal... Honestly, our laws around sex work are really silly. You can be a sex worker, pay for sex/receive payment for sex, work in a brothel/own a brothel...but you can't solicit. It's like telling a shop owner that they can have their shop and sell their products, but they can't attempt to advertise/attract customers to their product. It has more to do with cracking down on sex workers than protecting them, imo. There is no reason sex work should not be entirely legal, and generally improve the treatment of sex workers. It's a business like any other as far as I'm concerned.

[suebee]

A prominent gay rights activist and journalist in Halifax was beaten to death outside a popular gay bar, Canadian media organisations report, in what seems to be a homophobic hate crime.

LINK

There's some discussion as to whether or not this will be classified as a "hate crime" as the attacker was on a day pass from a local psychiatric facility.