A court dismissed a charter challenge on Monday launched by a man arrested in sting targeting the sex trade in downtown Maple Ridge more than four years ago.Provincial Court Judge George Angelomatis found Leslie Blais guilty of communicating for the purpose of prostitution and handed him a $1 fine.Angelomatis praised Blais’s challenge to Section 213 of the Criminal Code – a court battle that’s taken almost five years.“By putting himself in this position, it deserves some leniency,” Angelomatis said before handing Blais the nominal fine.Blais, a construction foreman from Maple Ridge, believes prostitution laws contribute to the physical harm, abuse and murder of sex trade workers and challenged their constitutionality under of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Blais argued he should be acquitted because the law he was charged under is unconstitutional.It is the first such challenge brought forward by a john – a man who uses the services of prostitutes.Blais was arrested in May 2006 in a sting conducted by the Ridge Meadows RCMP. The 45-year-old man tried to pick up a female RCMP officer who was posing as a prostitute. Instead of pleading guilty or attending “john school” like most men arrested in the sting, Blais decided to challenge the solicitation law, saying it violated prostitutes’ rights because it made their work more dangerous.As the case proceeded through court, expert witnesses, including Simon Fraser University criminologist John Lowman, were called to testify.One of Canada’s leading experts on prostitution, Lowman reluctantly testified that his research found an increase in violence against sex trade workers since the new law came into effect.Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Campbell argued that neither Lowman nor defence presented evidence that show a connection between the solicitation law and displacement of sex trade workers to isolated areas or how it prevented them from screening potential violent clients. “No one in this room wants street prostitutes to be subjected to violence that they are subjected to,” said Campbell. “But we are not policy makers. We are not legislators and we are not here to speculate on how it might be best to deal with prostitution. As a court of law, all this court can do is apply the law.”Campbell noted the defence was relying on evidence presented in a landmark Ontario court case, which eventually led to three major anti-prostitution laws being struck down last year.“Parliament does not have the obligation to protect those who violate otherwise valid laws,” she added.Blais isn’t fazed by losing the charter challenge in provincial court.He decided to fight the case because he once worked in a downtown Vancouver restaurant frequented by prostitutes. He saw the violence the women were subjected to and got to know them as people.His lawyer Ray Chouinard confirmed Blais will most likely pursue an appeal.“When he first he started this, he said he was willing to take this all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada,” Chouinard added.