Poll: Wide Canadian support for brothels

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TORONTO, April 3 (UPI) -- By varying degrees, some 65 percent of Canadians agree that brothels should be legalized, a poll published Tuesday in Toronto suggested.

Of 1,004 adults polled between March 30 and April 1 by Ipsos Reid for Postmedia News and Global Television, 21 percent said they strongly agreed prostitution within brothels should be legal and 44 percent said they somewhat agreed.

Twenty percent said they strongly disagreed, while 15 percent said they somewhat disagreed.

The poll was conducted after five Ontario Court of Appeal judges ruled some wording of Canada's prostitution laws is unconstitutional. Many Canadian media outlets incorrectly reported the ruling legalized prostitution, when in fact it gives the federal government the option of redrafting the laws to correct the wording, or appeal to the federal Supreme Court.

As for the poll, Ipsos Reid chief Darrel Bricker told Postmedia there was an unexpected finding by age demographics.

He said it was "kind of surprising" that those 55 or older were 69 percent in favor of legalizing brothels, or "bawdy houses." Support among those 35 to 54 ran at 67 percent, while those 18 to 34 were 57 percent in favor, the poll said.

The survey had a 3.1 percent margin of error.