Canada court OK's
group sex in "swinger" clubs

Two Montreal clubs that cater to group sex do not breach standards of decency, Canada's supreme court has ruled. Wednesday's ruling, written by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, said group sex among like-minded adults in private does not meet the test of indecency. The decision might make it easier for "swinger" clubs or gay bathhouses to operate without the threat of police intervention or arrest. The ruling dealt with two Montreal cases in which swinger club operators were charged with keeping a bawdy house. Canada's criminal code defines a bawdy house as a location that is kept for prostitution or indecent acts. James Kouri and Jean-Paul Labaye were both convicted, but the unsettled state of the law was demonstrated clearly when separate court of appeal rulings upheld Labaye's conviction and overturned Kouri's. The high court threw out Labaye's conviction and affirmed the Kouri decision. "Entry to the club and participation in the activities were voluntary. No one was forced to do anything or watch anything. No one was paid for sex," McLachlin wrote in reference to the Labaye case. (AP)