I find it ironic that my first (of what I hope is many more to come) blog on the subject of not just the "Oldest Profession", but also the divide between today's modern world, and those battling to keep some perceived or personal valued moral compass. While blogging itself has come to represent the nearly instant news, views and commentary which has forever changed the media landscape, the age old struggle to decriminalize the sex trade continues to divide modern day Canadians who also find themselves in this personal moral quagmire. Will the sex trade continue to be a business for the dark corners of society, or will modern sex workers be a regulated and accepted profession, charging and remitting GST and PST as most fee for service businesses? As the nine wise ones currently sitting on Supreme Court of Canada ready themselves to dive head first into this quagmire, the question which still resonates with me (and I surely hope others lest my first blog fall into its own quagmire)...Can the modern sex trade and modern morality co-exist?
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From 1909 to 1912 Winnipeg was home to the most notorious, but vibrant, state-sanctioned "Red Light District" in Canada. Nude women allegedly paraded the streets. Booze and sex were sold around the clock. Police raids and social reformers' efforts did little to curtail the burgeoning trade. At the time, Winnipeg Police Chief John McRae, with the blessing of the Police Commission, determined the best way to deal with growing problem was to establish a Red Light District on Annabella Street in Point Douglas where sex trade workers could ply their trade in the light of day. He would work with Winnipeg's "Queen of the Harlots" Minnie Woods to establish the district and by July 1909, Annabella Street homes were entirely comprised of brothels, complete with the brightest, and reddest lights in the city. The morality squad inspected the houses regularly and the women were required to have a medical examination and certificate every two weeks. But within the year there was a public outcry. Winnipeg's short experiment controlling prostitution had worked too well. The moralists were in an uproar and accused the City police with corruption. Some remembered how Winnipeg's last police chief, had himself been caught in a "disorderly house" raid decades earlier.
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A Royal Commission led by T. A. Robson took testimony in 1910. Moral reformers hired a private detective to provide their facts to the commission. Their detective estimated that on an average night, the red light district processed 292 customers in 2 1/2 hours. While the Commission found no evidence of corruption, public pressure forced the police to eventually act and close the state-sanctioned district for good, citing it as the "rottenest conditions of social vice in all of Canada." It was a victory for the Moralist and once again the Oldest Profession went underground in Winnipeg.
While this early Winnipeg experiment ultimately ended in failure, this age old debate continues between the modern movement to decriminalize prostitution, and those whose moral, social and/or religious values ply them against any such initiative. Winnipeg's early 1900's moniker as "the wickedest city in the Dominion" only demonstrates the polarizing nature of the subject. A Salvation Army journal said in 1887, "Underneath the seemingly moral surface of our national life there is a terrible undercurrent of unclean vice with all its concomitant evils of ruined lives, desolated hearth-stones, prostituted bodies, decimated conditions, and early dishonoured graves."
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While over 125 years has passed since the 1887 statement was written, the 21st Century value statement of The Salvation Army remains nearly the same. In February 2005 The Salvation Army reaffirmed their position on the sex trade by saying in their Submission to the Subcommittee on Solicitation Laws of the Standing Committee on Justice, Human Rights, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness; "Our perspective on prostitution is rooted in our values as a Christian denomination and social service agency engaged in outreach and the provision of support and services to people engaged street level prostitution as well as those who purchase sexual services. Believing that no one is beyond redemption, we seek to reach out in love and compassion to people engaged in prostitution and to people who purchase sexual services. Rejecting the notion that street level prostitution is a victimless transaction, we provide education about the harmful effects of prostitution on men, women, children, families and communities to purchasers of sexual services, information about health care, housing, educational programs and other support services to people engaged in prostitution and, whenever possible, we seek to journey with those seeking to leave prostitution and to provide them with the information, support and referrals necessary to make that possible." While this bold value statement provides a modern perspective, the meaning remains virtually unchanged. Just say no to the sex trade!
As the early modern Winnipeg experiment demonstrates, for every John McRae and Minnie Woods who, like their 21st century counterparts, look to legal controls and decriminalization, there are people and organizations' whom have moral values contrary to "modernizing" the criminal code to allow for the practice of the oldest profession. So are we able to answer the question of co-existence? The debate continues today and will continue long after the wise ones of the Supreme Court of Canada ultimately make their decision. Like abortion and capital punishment, this may forever be in the arena of "feeling" rather than "fact" While many of us may still be taking a wait and see position, I for one am looking forward to the continued debate.
