Folks in Montreal mobilize to fight the street scene.   Read more at The CBC…

Montreal residents fight prostitution online

Residents in Montreal’s Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district have launched an online group to fight street prostitution.

As of Tuesday, some 377 people, mostly residents in the southeast borough, had joined a group on the social networking site Facebook, where people discuss drug use and public sex they’ve witnessed in the area.

The Facebook group, called “Prostitution en plein jour” also features photos of prostitutes who work in the neighbourhood south of the Olympic Stadium.

Sex-trade workers have walked the streets in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve for years, says resident Frédéric Leroux, but the situation has worsened in recent months. “On the same corner, I saw a kid, waiting for a school bus, and I saw a prostitute, waiting for a client,” said Leroux, who has three children.

Police are doing little to solve the problem, and that’s why fed-up residents turned to the internet to take action, Leroux contends.

He said he doesn’t blame the prostitutes, but rather clients, or johns, who drive the demand.