IT WAS never going to be easy for Peter Mackay, Canada’s justice minister, to come up with new prostitution laws after the existing ones were struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada on constitutional grounds last December. He had a year to come up with something that would protect the rights of prostitutes, which the court said were being violated, but which would also reflect his party’s deeply held view that prostitution was a criminal act and should be eradicated. He called the legislation he presented on June 4th a “uniquely Canadian” model. Critics called it “draconian” and “an unbelievable step backwards”. Selling a sexual service is not illegal in Canada, although almost all of the activities surrounding it are. Keeping or living in a “common bawdy-house”, “living off the avails” or “communicating for the purposes of prostitution” are all offences under the Criminal Code. When a group of prostitutes complained that these rules forced them to conduct legal business in unsafe environments, the Supreme Court agreed. “Parliament has the power to regulate against nuisances, but not at the cost of the health, safety and lives of prostitutes,” wrote the Chief Justice.

The new Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act borrows heavily from the so-called Nordic model, first adopted by Sweden in 1999 and later by Norway, Finland and Iceland, under which selling a sexual service is legal but buying it is not. Mr Mackay takes the same view as the drafters of the Swedish law—that most prostitution is not voluntary, and most sex workers are victims who must be helped to exit the profession. His bill includes C$20m ($18.3m) for programmes to help those who want to leave the profession.

But the Conservative government has added a few twists of its own to the Nordic model, which make it harder for prostitutes to sell their services. A new offence that carries a maximum prison term of five years prohibits advertising the sale of others’ sexual services in print or online. Another new offence with a maximum prison term of six months bans communicating for the purposes of selling sexual services in public places where a child could reasonably be expected to be present. Mr Mackay told a news conference this includes schools, parks, pools, malls, churches, religious institutions or residential streets.

The raft of new offences carrying prison sentences drew complaints from critics about the Conservatives’ penchant for incarcerating people. As one commentator put it: “When it comes to criminal justice policy, perhaps this government’s slogan should be: “Got a complex social issue? There’s a prison for that.” But the government’s main concern will be the risk that the revamped laws still violate the constitutional rights of prostitutes. “If there was a perfect, black-and-white, simple answer, after thousands of years, I think it would have been discovered,” said Mr Mackay in defence of his bill. Another court challenge looks inevitable.