Vancouver sex workers have been cleared to challenge Canada’s prostitution laws.
The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed an appeal brought by the federal government that tried to stop the sex workers from disputing the laws.
Those laws include a ban on keeping a bawdy house, procurement, and communicating for the purposes of prostitution.
The sex workers had sought public interest standing in a case to launch a constitutional challenge against those laws.
The B.C. Court of Appeal granted them that status, and the federal government appealed.
But now, in a unanimous decision, the country’s top court says the group can go ahead.
The decision comes in the wake of a similar case in Ontario, where a court there struck down the ban on brothels last spring.