The actual enforcement of the new laws is actually a matter that will be handled by local LE and the provinces, particularly the various Attorney Generals and their staff, who will guide LE. Not the federal government.
The Harper Government is at odds with some provinces (most notably Ontario) - and has hardly maintained a constructive dialogue with most of them. They`re not really in a position to dictate to them how the new law will be enforced. So I don`t see them picking fights with some provinces over this when they have more important things to worry about; for instance, getting ready for the upcoming elections and play up their economic record.
The new law was primarily written in a manner to please the Conservatives` political base - not to gain new votes. Over the past few years, the Cons have made concessions - despite the objections of their base - over the issues of gay marriage and abortion, for instance. They probably felt they couldn`t do this again, especially over an issue that is not on the immediate radar of most Canadians.
As for local authorities, already the City of Victoria and its LE have indicated that they won`t enforce large chunks of C-36, and the same with Vancouver.
Some weeks ago, the inspector in charge of the prostitution unit at the SPVM indicated on Radio-Canada that, C-36 or no C-36, their priorities were going to remain: underage sex workers, actual trafficking, and coerced prostitution. As for the rest, it would be up to the
Directeur des poursuites crimiellis et pénales (DPCP), an independent appointment, to decide how to proceed. Given the DPCP helped SPVM design its new 3-year policy on prostitution even though they knew C-36 was in the pipeline, I believe this gives strong clues as to how it will be enforced in Quebec, and in Montreal specifically.
On the other hand, there are other places like Calgary and York Region, where it`s likely to be enforced fairly stringently - given the stance their chiefs of police took in front of the HoC Justice Committee this summer, and that they were directly consulted during the drafting of the Bill.
MacKay and his staff were very selective about whom they consulted while they were drafting the Bill, and whose opinion they listened to. For example, SPVM submitted a brief to the Department, and from what the inspector said on Radio-Canada, their take on the issue wasn`t taken into account. Other police forces and chiefs have publicly expressed doubts about parts of the Bill; for example, Chief Weighill from Saskatoon.
They haven`t really discussed any of this with the provinces, and haven`t given them additional resources to tackle this task. This is all quite different than what happened when the - now - old provision on communication (s213) was implemented with Bill C-49 back in the 1980s. Everybody was on board back to fully enforce it, and
it ended up being a big mess instead, which made things worse - and eventually led to more relaxed enforcement of the prostitution laws.
I believe we`re more likely to see a patchwork of enforcement scenarios across the country - some places being more lenient than others - which will be dictated more by local contexts rather than what the Cons in Ottawa might want.
