New law allowing police to seize johns' cars takes effect Monday in Alberta

In Edmonton, they would go to john school - a one-day session where they hear from ex-prostitutes and learn how prostitution tears families and neighbourhoods apart. There's a tutorial on the bottom-line cost of divorce and a session on how friends of the prostitute may target a john long after the transaction is over.

JoAnn McCartney, a former Edmonton police vice officer who now counsels prostitutes trying to get off the street, says taking the wheels is only a means to an end.

"It's helping to reduce the anonymity," she says.

"If they've lost their car, they have to explain that to their wife, they have to explain to the boss why the company car is gone."

While the law was still being proposed, an anonymous questionnaire was circulated to 67 men at the john school. Quinn says 52 of them - or 78 per cent - said such a vehicle law would deter them from soliciting.

Manitoba began seizing cars in 1999 and Saskatchewan followed in 2002. Manitoba has seized 418 autos, Saskatchewan 400. Most of them were eventually returned.

Dianna Bussey, director of Salvation Army Corrections in Winnipeg, says having to explain the missing vehicle seemed to galvanize men's attitudes and led to some signing up for the course within hours.

"It brought home the seriousness of it," says Bussey, who counsels prostitutes and leads johns through their course.

Bill Thibodeau, who counsels and helps prostitutes in Saskatoon, says the new law has made a dent.

"It has slowed down some of the john traffic. Has it eliminated it? No," says Thibodeau, the executive director of EGADZ Youth Centre.

He says some men now appear to be going instead to escort services or arranging trysts outside the stroll area.

"Man builds a better mousetrap, Mother Nature builds a better mouse," he sighs, adding that in 15 years he has seen more than 20 young people in the sex trade die from suicide, violence and drug overdoses.

Rick Peach of Saskatchewan Justice says the seized vehicles have ranged from rusted beaters to big-ticket items. They've seized semis, a new Porsche Carrera and in one high-profile case, an ambulance.

In Alberta, civil libertarian Stephen Jenuth applauds concepts like john schools but says police should not have the power to decide when to seize a car.

"I don't think in a free and democratic society decisions regarding punishment should be up to the police," said Jenuth, a Calgary lawyer and president of the Alberta Civil Liberties Association.

As for the prostitutes, McCartney says they are torn.

The law may see a reduction in the number of johns, but those same men are the ones they desperately need to get their drug fix or to simply survive.

But McCartney said they're united in their loathing for those who pay for sex.

"They are absolutely disgusted by johns.

"They hate what the johns do to them, so any time there's some kind of penalty for a john, that's good."

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