Canadian breaking news and politics and hats and general sexiness

[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.

[Linus]

Speaking of Canadian sexiness..

[femmeInterrupted]

Queer Femme Artist Circe has a show!

http://thatswomensworkarts.com/services/

Here are some of her Butch/Femme images from her Queer Lives Series. For those of you in the GTA, it's worth a trip to support this wonderful representation of queer and butch/femme inspired art!

[Kobi]

An Ontario real estate agent has been fired by his agency after distributing newsletters promoting the value of traditional families, but says he is not homophobic and would be a “very good neighbour” to a gay man or woman.

Andrew Ciastek says he did not intend to offend anyone when he mailed a newsletter to residents of a Mississauga, Ont., neighbourhood that included a note entitled “traditional family is the best for the future of the kids.”

The article is said to have been taken from a Polish weekly newspaper called Sieci and pointed to research done by Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus. Regnerus suggests children of same-sex couples are more likely to be unemployed, depressed and get in trouble with the law.

“I put a few sentences from reputable polish (sic) weekly. I did not suggest in any way that this is my opinion," Ciastek wrote in an email to Yahoo! Canada News.

"If I only knew that some people were so much hurt by the statistics I included I would never do it and for that I really wanted to apologize."

A RE/MAX spokesperson confirmed that Ciastek had been "terminated and is no longer affiliated" with the agency. His profile had been scrubbed from the RE/MAX website on Friday.

A statement released by Christine Martysiewicz said the company "cannot and will not tolerate any form of discriminatory behaviour."

Ciastek claims the the affair was a misunderstanding. He said when he first moved to Canada more than 20 years ago, he lived in Toronto and participated in gay parades because they were colourful and he loved dancing. He said he was concerned about the impact that news coverage of his newsletter would have on his family.

"If I had a gay or lesbian neighbour I probably would be a very good neighbour and I would defend my neighbour if somebody wanted to offend him/her verbally or otherwise for the simple reason that everybody, no matter what colour or gender, has the right to love and be loved," he wrote.

Ciastek sends frequent newsletters to the community that included details on agency as well as information about the real estate market. Three recent flyers forwarded to Yahoo! Canada included some topics that could be useful to homeowners, such as information about paint and how to maintain air conditioning units, as well as tips on insulating an attic.

Other, more general, details were also occasionally included, such as an article on trans-fats and the study about traditional families.

Reaction to Ciastek’s newsletter has been strong, with residents complaining to local police and the Human Rights Tribunal. No charges are expected. A profile for Ciastek real estate agent ranking site currently contains 12 comments, all posted after the controversial letter came to light.

Most of them were anonymous, all of them were negative, and only one suggested the reviewer has business dealings with Ciastek.

“I regret my business relationship with him but it’s too much work,” said the one anonymous user who claimed a connection. “I cannot believe he would put out a flyer slagging one group of potential buyers without thinking about the harm it would cause to my listing. Moreover some potential buyers would definitely choose another house vs. mine if they are already fence sitting. He doesn't represent my values. But I realized this too late.”

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/daily...160030598.html

[Cin]

I hope some others had the chance to see Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip's final performance. It was awesome. Broke my heart a little bit.

[girlin2une]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

I hope some others had the chance to see Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip's final performance. It was awesome. Broke my heart a little bit.

Here, in my little town, they live streamed the performance and invited one and all down to the beach to watch the performance....
You are absolutely right....it was heartbreaking...