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OTTAWA — Canada’s top court has announced it will review a lower court decision that gave Ontario’s sex workers the legal right to work in brothels and hire bodyguards and drivers. The development has great significance because when the Supreme Court of Canada issues its final ruling, it will apply across the country.

The court announced Thursday morning it will hear the federal government’s appeal of a landmark lower-court ruling last March that said some of the country’s anti-prostitution rules placed unconstitutional restrictions on prostitutes’ ability to protect themselves.

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The Attorney General of Canada’s application for leave to appeal was granted without costs. The court will also hear a cross-appeal by three former and current sex workers that allows them to argue that the rest of the prostitution laws they had challenged are also unconstitutional.

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The Ontario court’s previous decision will be stayed until the court hands down a judgment in the appeal and cross-appeal, the Supreme Court said.