I'm telling you, every single year before F1 they publish nonsense like that
Good point. Anti-prostitution campaigns ramp up every year a week or two before the F1 Grand Prix.
The forces behind the campaign are anti-prostitution groups, the media, the police and parts of the national, provincial and local governments. But the driving force is well organized, fanatical groups like this one:
website:
https://www.lacles.org/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/_lacles?lang=en
Special GP week website:
https://untropgrandprix.com/
I don't think the police are enthusiastic about busting johns and forcing them to go to "john school," but they do what they are told and it makes the public think that law enforcement is "doing something."
The real pressure to "do something" comes from organizations like CLES. They get much of their funding from the Quebec government (your tax dollars at work!).
CLES launches a PR campaign around the time of the GP because the myth of a huge upsurge in prostitution during GP is a myth that refuses to die. Ordinary citizens believe the myth, police believe it, the government believes it, the media believe it and CLES takes advantage of the surrounding hysteria to justify its existence and get funding from the government. As Emily says, it happens every year.
If you read the article, you will learn that this operation took place months ago and yet we are just reading about it now, one week before the race. Wow, it sure took a long time to write that article!
Nevertheless, it is disturbing that local (Longueuil) police would launch such a large scale entrapment scheme. I don't remember something like this happening before. Thankfully for the unlucky guys who got trapped, they could avoid charges by paying a fine and going to a class led by a fanatical feminist preacher (I might choose jail over that
).