KIRK MAKIN
An Ontario judge has turned down a request from two religious groups and a conservative women's group to take part in a constitutional challenge of the country's prostitution laws.
Mr. Justice Ted Matlow of the Ontario Superior Court said that the groups would be liable to turn the trial into a soapbox for spiritual views, which would be out of place in a strictly legal proceeding.
Judge Matlow said that the groups struck him as being unaware that the challenge "does not provide a political platform where interested persons are permitted to speak in order to advance their personal views, beliefs, policies and interests at large."
The ruling came as a blow to the Christian Legal Fellowship, REAL Women of Canada and Catholic Civil Rights League - which had argued that the court should hear a broad range of voices on a question with important moral dimensions.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ing-at-prostitution-law-trial/article1205115/
An Ontario judge has turned down a request from two religious groups and a conservative women's group to take part in a constitutional challenge of the country's prostitution laws.
Mr. Justice Ted Matlow of the Ontario Superior Court said that the groups would be liable to turn the trial into a soapbox for spiritual views, which would be out of place in a strictly legal proceeding.
Judge Matlow said that the groups struck him as being unaware that the challenge "does not provide a political platform where interested persons are permitted to speak in order to advance their personal views, beliefs, policies and interests at large."
The ruling came as a blow to the Christian Legal Fellowship, REAL Women of Canada and Catholic Civil Rights League - which had argued that the court should hear a broad range of voices on a question with important moral dimensions.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ing-at-prostitution-law-trial/article1205115/
