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December 22nd, 2005, 2:15:21 PM
Sex club ruling redefines 'indecency'
In a ruling that sex clubs are legal, the Supreme Court of Canada has changed the definition of acceptable behaviour
Dec. 22, 2005. 05:06 AM
JESSICA LEEDER
STAFF REPORTER
It might not transform Canada into a top sex tourism destination, but a Supreme Court ruling yesterday to legalize swingers clubs — including orgies and partner swapping — has broad implications for sexual culture and rights, experts say.
In its 7-2 decision, dealing with two Montreal swingers club operators charged with keeping a bawdy house, the court rewrote the definition of indecency. Now harm, rather than community standards, is the key yardstick that will be used to measure the point at which constitutional freedoms can be limited.
Under the ruling, public sex would meet the test of indecency, but orgies and partner swapping among adults in private do not. Acts must be shown to be harmful to the point where they "interfere with the proper functioning of society" before they can be labelled indecent, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote.
Experts said the decision could lead to the decriminalization of prostitution in the future. It also sends a clear message to police to back down when enforcing law on public sex. If officers have to crash into a suburban home to break up a key-swapping party between consenting adults, or burst through a closed bathhouse door, they no longer have any business doing it, said Bruce Freeman, a cultural anthropologist at the University of Calgary.
"There are these changing sexual mores in Canada," said Freeman, who recently surveyed residents in Calgary's Beltline neighbourhood on the presence of swingers clubs there and found an increased tolerance. "The larger point is the shift from morality-based enforcement to these types of harm-based," he said.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1135205412524&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
In a ruling that sex clubs are legal, the Supreme Court of Canada has changed the definition of acceptable behaviour
Dec. 22, 2005. 05:06 AM
JESSICA LEEDER
STAFF REPORTER
It might not transform Canada into a top sex tourism destination, but a Supreme Court ruling yesterday to legalize swingers clubs — including orgies and partner swapping — has broad implications for sexual culture and rights, experts say.
In its 7-2 decision, dealing with two Montreal swingers club operators charged with keeping a bawdy house, the court rewrote the definition of indecency. Now harm, rather than community standards, is the key yardstick that will be used to measure the point at which constitutional freedoms can be limited.
Under the ruling, public sex would meet the test of indecency, but orgies and partner swapping among adults in private do not. Acts must be shown to be harmful to the point where they "interfere with the proper functioning of society" before they can be labelled indecent, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote.
Experts said the decision could lead to the decriminalization of prostitution in the future. It also sends a clear message to police to back down when enforcing law on public sex. If officers have to crash into a suburban home to break up a key-swapping party between consenting adults, or burst through a closed bathhouse door, they no longer have any business doing it, said Bruce Freeman, a cultural anthropologist at the University of Calgary.
"There are these changing sexual mores in Canada," said Freeman, who recently surveyed residents in Calgary's Beltline neighbourhood on the presence of swingers clubs there and found an increased tolerance. "The larger point is the shift from morality-based enforcement to these types of harm-based," he said.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1135205412524&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home