Sex trade workers co-op okayed

If this works out well, and I can't see any reason why it wouldn't, it could be a step in the direction of making life a lot safer for Canadian sex trade workers. A group of Vancouver ST workers has won approval to incorporate in order to set up a brothel for the 2010 Olympics:

"A group of Canadian sex trade workers hoping to set up a legal "co-op" brothel in time for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver said on Friday they have won approval to incorporate themselves.

The provincial government's designation of the group as a business co-operative is the first step in what organizers say will create a safer working environment for sex trade workers in the Pacific Coast city." [...]

"The group hopes to win an exemption from Parliament by showing it would be safer to have prostitutes work in a single facility in Vancouver that they control, rather than plying their trade on the streets."

That sounds great: a safer, healthier environment where sex trade workers would be in one location, and as members of the co-op, would no longer be the vulnerable anonymous shadows they are on the street. But... and you just knew this was coming... oh, the swooning and the clutching of pearls... quick! To the fainting couch:

"The Conservative federal government has warned it will oppose the effort, which critics have said will only perpetuate the idea that prostitution is acceptable."

Yes, of course they'll oppose it, just like they said they would. Because it's so much better for sex trade workers to be left to work the streets at the mercy of the pimps and Picktons of the world. Anyone who can still deny that Conservative policy regarding the sex trade is about anything but punishment needs a crowbar to pull their head out of their ass.