No Canadian city has a sanctioned red-light district yet, but this city is now wrestling over the pluses and minuses of setting one up for the adult video, arcade, club, and bookstore industry.
Unofficially, Winnipeg has such a district, but the city has established a committee to examine whether it should or can regulate the sex trade, says the Winnipeg Sun. City Councilman Harry Lazarenko, who the Sun says pushed for the study, began his crusade after a man was acquitted of running an escort agency in provincial court, telling the judge he supplied prostitutes but not dates.
"I know I'm being called the city hall pimp," he tells the paper, "but we have to do something about the sex trade in Winnipeg."
Wayne Helgason, executive director of Winnipeg's Social Planning Council and a member of the new committee, tells the Sun supervising the sex business will help keep children out of prostitution.
However, Fadi Fadel - a one-time child prostitute who now works for Save the Children Canada - tells the paper a red light district may actually make it easier for children to join the profession.
And Winnipeg police chief Jack Ewatski says the proposal is not within the city mandate. "It isn't our responsibility to be supervisors of the sex trade which is controlled by organized crime and I can't endorse setting up a red-light district because it's against the law," he tells the Sun.
The committee also may include a retired judge, social workers, health workers, and a citizen at large, the Sun says. And Mary Richard of the North Main Task Force tells the paper those involved in the sex trade should help decide if they should be regulated. what part of the city a trade can be performed, said Ursula
Another problem - just where to locate a red-light district. Councilman Harvey Smith tells the paper Charleswood is the ideal spot because "that is where the johns come from."
