Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act
It is a criminal offense in Canada to buy sex, and I agree with that. The only part I disagree with is a jail term: waste of money. It should just be a heavy fine instead like it is in France.
One problem with this is that it's hard to prove beyond reasonable doubt. That's why I favour making fornication itself a fine-able offence but with proper protections for the accused (such as the right to request an inquisitorial trial so as to deter police from making false claims).
Any taxpayer who wants to legalize prostitution should consider the following cocerning the economic cost of HIV in Canada:
'In sum, the direct health costs of HIV/AIDS in Canada in 1999 were $560 million. To this must be added another $40 million, mostly from the Canadian Strategy on HIV/AIDS, for prevention, research, support to national AIDS coalitions, aboriginal communities, correctional services and other supports to HIV/AIDS victims that are not included in the direct cost figures cited in Table 1.23 Total direct costs of HIV/AIDS are therefore about $600 million a year.'
'The proportion of indirect to direct costs is also greater in estimates of total cumulative illness costs, because indirect costs due to premature mortality continue to accumulate even when direct costs cease at the time of death. Thus Albert and Williams estimate the total economic burden of HIV/AIDS in Canada to date at $36.3 billion, of which
$29.9 billion are indirect costs and $6.4 billion are direct costs (a ratio of nearly 5:1). They also estimate the future economic burden associated with the current HIV population at $27.3 billion, (reflecting a 4% discount rate), of which $23.3 billion are indirect costs and $4 billion are direct costs, a ratio of nearly 6:1.'
http://www.gpiatlantic.org/pdf/health/costofaids.pdf
