Montreal police target prostitution

Jun 15, 2010, 5:50 AM

samsung1

Ohio

Montreal police have announced an action plan to crack down on prostitution in the city's east end.

The plan involves targeting potential clients, officials said on Monday.

Six additional police cadets have been hired to patrol Ste-Catherine Street East, said police.

Officers will also set up roadblocks to hand out pamphlets, warning about the consequences of hiring prostitutes.

Most of the prostitutes' clients are not people who live in the neighbourhood, said Montreal police Cmdr. FranÃ§ois Cayer.

"In general, it's common people," said Cayer. "It's businessmen and people going or coming from work and sometimes they have baby seats or car seats in the car."

The problem in the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough has worsened recently due to construction projects in the city's new entertainment district, said local officials.

"You will find a lot of prostitutes probably those prostitutes worked usually in the Quartier des spectacles and they are now in Hochelaga and we cannot accept that," said Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough Mayor RÃ©al MÃ©nard.

So far this year, police said they have arrested 74 clients.

Dopamine, a local group that works with prostitutes, said it is not fully on board with the project.

The organization would prefer sex workers be given access to additional services, a spokesperson said.

The borough said it wants to open a drop-in centre for prostitutes in the coming years. June 14, 2010 cbc.ca

comments (5)

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steve22915 years ago

Why did I think prostitution was legal in Canada?

SnakePlissken15 years ago

Steve, as far as I know, the selling of sex for money is not illegal, but soliciting a prostitute in public is, as well as a being in a "bawdy house".

Call escorts or arrange OTC and I think you're in the clear as far as Canadian law is concerned.

steve22915 years ago

Snake - Thanks for clearing that up.

Of course, I'm not interested personally, just asking for a friend that may or may not be going to Canada at some point in time.

samsung115 years ago

^^^ LOL classic

MisterGuy15 years ago

In Canada, prostitution is legal, but it must be done in private places. Solicitation in public places is illegal. Owning a so-called "Bawdy House" can be punishable by up to 2 years in prison, and anyone who "lives wholly or in part on the avails of prostitution of another person" can be sentenced yo up to 10 years in prison in Canada.

Near the transition from Sainte-Catherine West to East has been a rough area for quite some time. Once in the 1990s, I was hangin' out on a corner of Ste-Catherine Street near the Latin Quarter late at night, and a buddy of mine & I saw quite a sight. There were pimps & street hookers getting in & out of cars and going in & out of alleyways, groups of kids openly smoking pot walking down the street, and some dude that was tagging the hell out of some shopfront with a load of spray paint. Up roll the metro cops on the scene, and who do they bother? Some guy that was doubled-parked out in front of a parking lot entrance! We both laughed, and I said out loud, "What the hell do you have to do in this town to get arrested?"

The issue here appears to be that since that area near the arts centers downtown is under construction that that the pimps & hookers have moved up Sainte-Catherine Street to the more residencial Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighborhood, which is closer to the old Olympic Park.