Canadian high court rulings replace community standards for indecency

Published: 2006-01-04

OTTAWA (CNS) -- Canadian Supreme Court rulings that replaced the community-standards test for indecency with a harm-based model will make it harder to get convictions based on moral issues, said a constitutional lawyer. The Dec. 21 rulings legalized commercial clubs that feature group sex and spouse-swapping, or "swinging." Peter Lauwers, a constitutional lawyer, said this change will make attorneys hate to charge people based on other moral issues like bestiality or polygamy because it would be almost impossible to get a conviction based on the new harm-based standards. "It's a watershed decision and the implications will take years to sort out, not only in this area -- for common bawdy houses -- but for all the moral issues in the criminal code," Lauwers said Jan. 3. "They're all thrown in doubt because we don't have a moral concept of decency that applies in a general way."

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