Rant: Hey, Lets Address that Prostitution Ruling...

... by licensing/building brothels/casinos on Toronto Island.

*sigh*

You know, I'd really like for society to sit down and have some rational discussion on the issues of the sex trade but... this...

*sigh*

Look, this is what's called a False Dilemma or Limited Options Fallacy. At best case, it's essentially setting up what has been, largely, a family park for years as the destination for something no one wants in their neighbourhood such that, when opposition mounts, you can fall back and go: "Well, I tried and if we can't put it there, well, we can't put it in our other neighbourhoods either!", knowing full well that your position never stood a chance to begin with.

Saying: "well, there's a nude beach out there now!", in a corner... generally out of sight of anyone who doesn't go looking for it... as justification is just wrongheaded as well because there's a pretty substantial line between the societal costs and risks of nudism vs. prostitution.

But the wrongness goes entirely past the social issues here. The Toronto Islands also stand out as a largely undeveloped tract of parkland:

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and what's really being proposed here is that we open up the park property, being quite valuable lakefront property, to massive redevelopment. That, for many people who've been fighting to keep the islands "pristine", or at least as much so as they can be with a small airport at one end, is the worst case scenario: that the Casino/Red Light district is just a means to that end. Because, once you've got zoning and political clearance to go ahead with plan A, it's quite easy to "give in" to public pressure and replace those brothels with Hotels, condos and other facilities. They're going to fight the development aspects of this suggestion tooth and nail and if they have to scream "SKANKS IN OUR STREETS!!!" to win they will.

Meanwhile, actual issues facing participants in the sex trade remain unaddressed.