Johns caught soliciting a prostitute on Alberta's streets could soon have their cars impounded by cops.
A bill sponsored by Calgary Buffalo MLA Harvey Cenaiko, giving police authority to seize vehicles from anyone caught "communicating" for the purpose of buying or selling sex, unanimously passed third reading in the legislature yesterday.
"I think it's a good initiative," said Justice Minister Dave Hancock. "It's trying to get street prostitution off the streets, dealing with it from the perspective of johns, which is appropriate."
There's no word yet on when the bill might receive royal assent. Hancock said he wants Alberta Transportation to vet the bill first, to make sure it's enforceable.
"It's one thing to proclaim a bill into law, but if it can't be enforced ... I suspect they will be looking at that relatively quickly," Hancock said.
"This isn't criminal law, so the presumption of guilt isn't really the issue. It's whether or not you're using your vehicle in an appropriate manner.
"There's no absolute right to use of the road if you're not using it for appropriate public purposes."
The Community Action Project (CAP), an inner-city lobby group that's been pressing the province and the city to do more to control street prostitution, applauded the bill yesterday.
"It's going to go ahead. All three party caucuses are backing it," said project spokesman Michael Walters. "And it means there will finally be a consequence for men who go to someone else's neighbourhood to buy sex."
The bill is taken from a model introduced in Manitoba in 1999. Like the Manitoba law, the Alberta law will allow the province to sell off impounded vehicles belonging to convicted johns and turn the proceeds over to anti-prostitution groups like CAP.
Johns can get their cars back if they agree to sign up for "alternative measures" programs designed to teach them the social costs of the sex trade, such as the Edmonton police john school.
"It's not a revenue thing for us," said Walters. "It's about teaching the customers that there's a consequence for them from buying sex."
Manitoba has seized 42 vehicles in the past year under its john law; three-quarters of those cars were later released. Manitoba Justice said the government thinks the law operates as a deterrent for first-time johns: nobody likes explaining to the wife why the cops took the minivan.
Amber Anderson, a CAP block captain in Norwood, said the bill is particularly welcome now the RCMP has launched a task force to investigate a series of mysterious murders and disappearances in Edmonton's street sex trade.
"We don't feel safe here. Our neighbourhood is shouldering the burden of this problem for the entire city."
