Ummm, Your Taxes Are Being Spent on WHAT???

[Annie]

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/EdmontonSun/News/2005/03/27/973569-sun.html

MPs want $200,000 for hooker junket

KATHLEEN HARRIS, SUN OTTAWA BUREAU


OTTAWA -- A group of MPs studying Canada's prostitution laws is seeking $200,000 in federal funds to visit European cities with red-light zones and legal brothels. The five-member justice subcommittee plans to visit Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden. Reno, Nevada, is also on the destination list.

"We want to go to Sweden because they have a particular model there where they decriminalize the sex worker, or the prostitute, and they still criminalize the customers," said NDP MP Libby Davies.

"In the U.K. they actually allow women to work out of their own homes. The Netherlands, of course, is a well-known situation where they have a fully operating area for the sex trade, and I think we're very interested to see what the impact of that is from various perspectives."

John Carpay, Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, is skeptical MPs will see a measurable research benefit from visiting brothels and red-light districts.

"The onus would have to be on them to show why it's vital to visit those places in person," Carpay said. "There's a lot of research and a lot of literature available that the MPs' staff and the library of Parliament staff can make available."

More importantly, there's no guarantee a visit will give a more accurate picture of what goes on in a red-light district or brothel - especially behind the scenes, Carpay said.

Nevada is the only state in the U.S. to have legalized prostitution, permitted only in licensed brothels. According to the group's $56,526 travel budget request, the Reno-area bawdy houses have endured sharp criticism for the conditions under which sex workers are forced to operate.

MPs would benefit from visiting these areas and meeting with law-enforcement agencies, counsellors and brothel owners, the budget-request document states.

The $143,678 travel-budget request for Liverpool, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Stockholm includes $62,840 for transportation, $25,328 for accommodation, $12,000 for food and $43,500 for items like interpretation, official gifts and fees. The travelling party includes three staff members.

The trip by Davies, Conservative MP Art Hanger, Bloc Quebecois MP Paule Brunelle and Liberals John Maloney and Hedy Fry was approved by the justice committee Thursday, but must still clear another Commons budgetary committee.

Justice committee chairman Paul DeVillers said there's value in learning from the experience of other countries.

"I think it will be of value for the subcommittee to go and speak to people in those countries that have different regimes and get a sense of which is the best way to go," DeVillers said.

Prime Minister Paul Martin has said he's not interested in legal reforms. But DeVillers said the goal is to improve safety for sex- trade workers and insisted there are many measures that can be done that fall short of legalization.

Davies said she was "sickened" that Martin ducked for cover on the controversial issue.

"He's got to face the reality that women are disappearing off our streets and they're being murdered," she said. "I felt really insulted that he would give this knee-jerk reaction."

 

[dmp]

I'm only upset because i didn't think of performing that 'research' first.

 

[dmp]

he Reno-area bawdy houses have endured sharp criticism for the conditions under which sex workers are forced to operate

What a load of shit...really...that guy is 'high'. Nobody is 'forcing' the whores to BE sex workers in the first place....wow.



Forced to operate...lol..