Department of Justice survey suggests new prostitution laws that look a lot like our old prostitution laws

Remember how the Conservative government wasn't thrilled about the Supreme Court ruling that rejected Canada's set of prostitution laws as unconstitutional?

Well, good news for the government, because the government is unveiling a report that says the preferred set of replacement prostitution laws looks exactly like the old set of prostitution laws.

A public survey detailing what the public apparently wants to see in the country's prostitution rules is to be entered onto the record in Ottawa on Monday, but the details have already been widely reported.

According to CTV News, the Justice Department survey found that 56 per cent of respondents feel that purchasing sexual services should be illegal. And 62 per cent of respondents felt that profiting from the prostitution of an adult - by being a pimp or body guard, for example - should be illegal.

Though 66 per cent said it should not be a criminal offence to sell sexual services.

Follow that? Is shouldn't be illegal to sell your body, but everything else about the practice of prostitution should be illegal.

What did Canada's prostitution laws look like before the Supreme Court shot them down in December?

Prostitution was legal, but brothels, street solicitation and living off the avails of prostitution were unlawful. The Supreme Court ruled those prohibitions made the practice untenable. It gave the government a year to establish new rules.

Justice Minister Peter MacKay opposed the ruling and in February, the Justice Department launched this public consultation process that essentially worked as a referendum on the Supreme Court ruling.

Among the questions asked on the government survey were:

• Do you think that purchasing sexual services from an adult should be a criminal offence?

• Do you think that selling sexual services by an adult should be a criminal offence?

• What limitations should there be, if any, on where or how this can be conducted?

• Do you think that it should be a criminal offence for a person to benefit economically from the prostitution of an adult?

The consultation process appears to have brought around some potentially-productive feedback. For one, many of the 62 per cent who opposed living off the avails said prostitutes should have the ability to hire someone to protect her, though not a pimp or anything so grimy.

Others recommended health inspections for brothels. In fact, some actually promoted allowing brothels, in an effort to keep the practice out of residential areas.

If one were to look at the results through rose-coloured glasses, it appears the consultation process is suggesting Canada move to the "Nordic" model, a set of prostitution laws popular in many European countries that severely punishes the johns while seeking to support prostitutes who want out of the industry.

That said, Canadian prostitution advocates say the Nordic model is no better that Canada's previous laws because is still cloaks the industry in danger and illegality.

Katrina Pacey, litigation director for the Pivot Legal Society, has said that the Nordic model would force sex workers to travel to dangerous locations, limit their ability to screen out dangerous clients and clamp down on the amount their are about to discuss the transaction before agreeing to it.

Dominatrix and former prostitute Terri-Jean Bedford said following the December ruling:

A January report from the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network suggested that under a Nordic model, violent interaction is more common, clients are less likely to speak to police about troubles that may occur, sex workers remain the target of aggressive police tactics, and male and trans sex workers are often treated differently than female sex workers.

If the results of the Justice Department’s consultation process are any indication, Canada's prostitution laws may either revert to something similar to what was previously rejected, or updated into a policy that those in the sex trade almost unanimously consider similarly flawed.

The government technically has until the end of the year to establish its new rules, so this certainly isn't the end of the conversation.