Ontario Superior Court Justice Susan Himel laboured for a year over her landmark decision quashing Canada’s prostitution laws. Still, her verdict this week is but a lone voice that will not be the last word on the issue. Nor should it be.

The federal government indicated Wednesday that it will appeal. A legal appeal was the appropriate response the morning after. But even the Supreme Court should not have the last word on this issue.

The social and public policy arguments for and against decriminalization are far too complex to be off-loaded onto the courts (which get relatively little public input or publicity). Doing so would deprive ordinary Canadians and their elected representatives of the right to be heard on an issue affecting people and neighbourhoods.

It is a judgment call too important for judges alone. Parliament is the appropriate forum for such a debate. The issue could be assigned to an all-party committee for study and public hearings. That would give voice to prostitutes and their supporters, police, criminologists and others. MPs could also learn lessons from other countries that have decriminalized prostitution — notably, New Zealand.

The sale of sex is technically legal in Canada. But soliciting, pimping and running a bawdy house are subject to prosecution. Justice Himel argues persuasively that the vagaries of enforcement and the risk of detention fail to satisfy the Charter rights of prostitutes to be safe from harm. But untrammelled decriminalization could have a major negative impact on neighbourhoods, and Canadians cannot be expected to accept this as a fait accompli.

The evidence on both sides of the argument is far from conclusive. Decriminalization in New Zealand has hardly proven a panacea for prostitutes (though it may have improved their lot somewhat). Still, the notion that private bordellos would miraculously clean up the streets — and might have prevented sexual predators such as Robert Pickton from murdering so many prostitutes — seems a stretch.

That said, the world has changed since the Supreme Court last dismissed this issue two decades ago. Highly suggestive ads for escort services are found in community papers and even the Yellow Pages. The sex trade, which started out on the streets and then was driven underground, has quietly migrated to highrise buildings.

All the more reason for a public debate. It would not be easy for MPs to ignore strong social and religious taboos and political pressures. But in a parliamentary democracy, that is the appropriate forum for deciding such matters.