itself is not an offence in Canada, but laws are in place which effectively make it an offence for prostitutes to offer their services and for clients to ask for the services of the prostitutes. Section 213.1 of the criminal code states, that any person who "stops or attempts to stop any person or in any manner communicates or attempts to communicate with any person for the purpose of engaging in prostitution or of obtaining the sexual services of a prostitute is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction."1 (Barnhorst and Barnhorst, 1996a:196) This law applies more to street prostitution than to brothels but laws are also in place for the latter. Under section 2102 and 2113 (Barnhorst and Barnhorst, 1996b:197-199), "bawdy houses" are prohibited and section 2124 (Barnhorst and Barnhorst, 1996c:194-196) makes it an indictable offence to procure and live on the !
             avails of the prostitution of another person. The "procuring and living" section of the law carries a sentence of a maximum of ten years in prison.
             The living on the avails, procuring and bawdyhouse laws have been around since the birth of Canada' first criminal code. Initially there was a vagrancy provision that prohibited street prostitution, in 1972 this was replaced by the soliciting law. However, in 1978, in the case of R v. Hutt, the court ruled that 'soliciting' involved "pressing and persistent behaviour." After this ruling, it was no longer possible to secure a conviction by establishing that a person had offered a sexual service for a price in public; instead, the Crown had to prove that the accused would refuse to take no for an answer. This pretty much rendered the soliciting law ineffective so in 1983 the Fraser Committee (Special Committee on Pornography and Prostitution) was formed to look at the situation and give suggestions for law reform. The Fraser committee came to the conclusion...