Promoting Intimacy and Positive, Healthy, Consenting Adult Sexuality

How cities 'license' off-street hookers
The Ottawa Citizen Sunday, June 16, 2002 - Highlights

Dave Notes: The illegal prostitution issue in Canada is regarding what goes on in massage parlors, or whether agencies are "living off the avails". Outcall prostitution is 100% legal in Canada. But the controversial bawdy house law from the 1850's which makes incall prostitution (which would include massage parlors) illegal is seldom enforced and many think it should be tossed out to help get the illegal street hookers off the streets. So again in Canada prostitution itself is legal but not in an bawdy house and you can't have a pimp or anyone "living of the avails" Does that include an escort agency is an issue.

Summary of Key Points
Like most people in Canada, the police, even "vice" cops, no longer feel that they should be enforcing a moral code on consenting adults. "If adults are having consensual sex,"

(Note here is a comment from Toronto man regarding above quote:
I think that is the attitude of most people in Toronto. Last year a city councillor called for a crackdown on MP's.
http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSLaw0109/07_massage-sun.html  He was ignored. I heard it being discussed on a radio phone-in program, and the host and all of the callers mocked the idea, saying that police should using be their resources to combat real crimes. Police actions seem to reflect this too. They only go after MP's or escort agencies that are breaking other laws (drugs, weapons, illegal immigrants or underaged workers). But police officials and politicians are reluctant to publicly acknowledge that they are knowingly allowing the sex business to operate, because that would appear as though they were refusing to enforce federal laws.)

And it's not only the police. Few judges or prosecutors want to punish prostitution involving consenting adults.

Even if police did want to pursue unusual charges that technically fit Criminal Code requirements, they aren't likely to stick. Where charges against off-street, consensual prostitution do result in convictions, punishments are typically just light fines. "We've actually run some stings on some of these massage parlours as far as bawdy houses and everything else," says Aurel Leblanc of the Edmonton vice unit, "and we've gone through the courts and what the courts have given for sentences and what we gather from the court is they're not interested in seeing any of these charges coming through. It's consensual sex between two adults in a private place."

The police also know that escort agencies and massage parlours are far safer for prostitutes than walking the streets. And they know off-street prostitution is much less likely to annoy communities than streetwalking. Aurel Leblanc notes that while Edmontonians are sometimes offended when a new massage parlour gets a licence and zoning approval, when it "is in place and running, we very seldom get any complaints."

The regulations are clearly designed so that sex-for-money is restricted to two types of businesses: escort services and body-rub parlours.

Both the Ottawa and Toronto bylaws are empowered by the Ontario Municipal Act. That provincial law sets out a definition of "body rub" that leaves little doubt about what is really involved: "Body rub includes the kneading, manipulating, rubbing, massaging, touching, or stimulating, by any means, of a person's body or part thereof but does not include medical or therapeutic treatment."

Part of the problem is that city councillors refuse to say out loud what escorts really do. Instead, they claim they are "only licensing the introduction of the service. That's like saying that they don't really licence restaurants to feed people, they just introduce people to the owner." Ms. Valliquette says that to sweep away this polite fiction, "we wrote to all the councillors and said, hey, this is the score. We're prostitutes, we're not escorts. We don't take anybody out for dinner. We actually do all our business in the sack. Get with the program."

But in reality, charges against off-street prostitution are rarely laid. In 2000, roughly 93 per cent of all prostitution-related incidents reported by police involved street activity, despite the fact that the street trade accounts for only about 20 per cent of all commercial sex. Even that may overstate how much off-street enforcement of the prostitution laws there is since a common source of those charges are unlicensed massage parlours. But these businesses are not closed because they allow prostitution. The real issue is that they don't have municipal licences and often violate zoning regulations. In effect, this is just bylaw enforcement -- as demonstrated by the fact that licensed massage parlours are almost never busted.

Everything changes, however, if the police discover that the employees of an off-street sex business are not consenting adults. Foreign women brought into Canada illegally and coerced into prostitution are a particular concern. So are women under the control of pimps. In addition, says Mr. Gillespie, the involvement of anyone younger than 18 "is a major priority with us no matter what the crime is."

More extensive highlights of this very long article:
How cities 'license' off-street hookers
The Ottawa Citizen Sunday, June 16, 2002 - Highlights

Licensed municipal escort agencies are supposed to keep prostitutes from working the streets. But the licences are so expensive few women can afford them and are forced to earn their living on the stroll.

The City of Vancouver has five relevant licence categories in its bylaws: escort services, dating services, massage parlours, "body-rub parlours," and "health enhancement centres." The regulations are clearly designed so that sex-for-money is restricted to two types of businesses: escort services and body-rub parlours.

A number of provisions make this clear. First, health enhancement centres (such as aromatherapy or reflexology businesses) are explicitly forbidden from engaging in or offering "an act of prostitution." And massage parlours are barred from allowing members of the opposite sex to attend on customers. But body-rub parlours face neither restriction.

The definition of a "body-rub" makes the reality clearer still: It "includes the manipulating, touching or stimulating by any means, of a person's body or part thereof, but does not include medical, therapeutic or cosmetic treatment given by a person duly licensed."

Licence costs further expose the reality. A dating service licence is $104 a year; massage parlours, $172; health enhancement centres, $160. But an escort service licence is $802 a year and a body-rub licence is $6,527. In fact, the body-rub licence is the third-most expensive in Vancouver, after those for the horse track and the Pacific National Exhibition.

The official line also falls apart under careful questioning. Asked to explain why the body-rub and escort licences are so much more expensive than the others, Lynne Kennedy, the Vancouver councillor, said the city wanted to make them "more prohibitive." But if these are lawful businesses like any other, why would the city want the fees to be prohibitive?

If any doubt still lingers, one need only stand on the sidewalk outside Vancouver's most famous body-rub parlour and look at the enormous mural of writhing, nearly-naked women that graces the entrance.

Vancouver is far from alone in tacitly licensing prostitution. Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg all regulate and licence escort agencies, massage parlours or both, and all charge licensing fees far in excess of those levied on other businesses.

In Toronto, escort agencies are not licensed but "body rub parlours" are. Business licences cost $6,700 initially and $6,500 on renewal each year. All employees must also be licensed, starting at $192 each and $100 on renewal. By comparison, a taxi licence renewal is $870, while both pawnbrokers and "holistic centres" (such as aromatherapy spas) renew their licences for $100. There are currently 19 licensed body-rub parlours in Toronto employing 211 people. The city receives $162,000 a year on renewal fees alone.

Ontario's municipalities are required by law to set licence fees no higher than what is needed to cover the costs of law enforcement. And since unlicensed massage parlours (or "body rub parlours," in the words of the bylaws) number in the hundreds in Toronto, making bylaw enforcement difficult and expensive, this would justify a higher licence fee for body-rub parlours. But there are enormous differences between body-rub licences and those of other business. Is the cost of enforcing the body-rub regulations really more than seven times the cost of enforcing the taxi bylaws, or 65 times the cost of monitoring pawnbrokers? Does the city really spend all $162,000 it makes from body-rub licences, or is it actually making a profit? When asked this, Mark Dimuantes, a City of Toronto policy officer, replied in an e-mail only that "the city is currently working out a process for activity-based costing to more closely monitor the costs of enforcement."

In the newly amalgamated Ottawa, the old cities' bylaws governing escort agencies and massage parlours will stay in place until they are harmonized. Vanier licenses one body-rub parlour, charging $2,000 for the annual renewal, plus $150 from each worker. In the former City of Ottawa, there are five body rubs that pay $300 renewal fees. In the other cities, there are no by-laws so "the only thing that may regulate it is zoning," says Susan Jones, director of bylaw enforcement.

Both the Ottawa and Toronto bylaws are empowered by the Ontario Municipal Act. That provincial law sets out a definition of "body rub" that leaves little doubt about what is really involved: "Body rub includes the kneading, manipulating, rubbing, massaging, touching, or stimulating, by any means, of a person's body or part thereof but does not include medical or therapeutic treatment."

Monica Valliquette is an Edmonton prostitute who successfully pushed the city to allow escorts to be licensed independently, rather than requiring them to be licensed as employees of an agency. Now she and a colleague are suing the city, demanding it lower the $1,600 fee. "They are pimping us," she insists. "They're living off the avails of prostitution."

Part of the problem, she says, is that city councillors refuse to say out loud what escorts really do. Instead, they claim they are "only licensing the introduction of the service. That's like saying that they don't really licence restaurants to feed people, they just introduce people to the owner."

Ms. Valliquette says that to sweep away this polite fiction, "we wrote to all the councillors and said, hey, this is the score. We're prostitutes, we're not escorts. We don't take anybody out for dinner. We actually do all our business in the sack. Get with the program."

Police officers and bureaucrats are frank about the services escort agencies and massage parlours provide. Police typically include escort agencies and massage parlours when discussing prostitution, including those that are licensed. Officers are even careful to distinguish between therapeutic massage businesses and those offering sex. Aurel Leblanc, a staff sergeant with the vice unit of the Edmonton police, notes that his city has "over 300 massage parlours, but most of them are therapeutic. There are only 41 that are exotic massage parlours."

Mark Dimuantes, the City of Toronto policy researcher, is almost as blunt. Toronto has hundreds of unlicensed "rub-and-tugs," as he calls them, which are often charged and convicted as bawdy houses. As for the licensed body-rub parlours, "I haven't personally inspected any of those," he says, so "I don't really know what goes on in those. But I assume, you know, one can make the assumption that it's the same thing the illegal ones are doing."

All this activity violates the Criminal Code. Massage parlours offering sexual services and those who work in them can be charged under the bawdy-house laws. Escort agencies that arrange for prostitutes to meet clients violate laws against "procuring" - including the "pimping" offence of "living on the avails of prostitution." On a literal reading of the law, even the Yellow Pages and other advertising forums could be said to violate procuring laws when they carry ads for prostitution services, particularly when advertisers recruit new staff.

But in reality, charges against off-street prostitution are rarely laid. In 2000, roughly 93 per cent of all prostitution-related incidents reported by police involved street activity, despite the fact that the street trade accounts for only about 20 per cent of all commercial sex.

Even that may overstate how much off-street enforcement of the prostitution laws there is since a common source of those charges are unlicensed massage parlours. There are hundreds of such businesses in major cities like Toronto and they are often raided and charged with bawdy-house offences. But these businesses are not closed because they allow prostitution. The real issue is that they don't have municipal licences and often violate zoning regulations. In effect, this is just bylaw enforcement -- as demonstrated by the fact that licensed massage parlours are almost never busted.

Pressed for an explanation, the police typically blame a lack of resources. Bawdy house and procuring charges usually require lengthy, complex undercover operations. "In a nutshell, do we have officers to go and aggressively target perhaps lesser sections of the Criminal Code that aren't brought to our attention?" says Det. Sgt. Paul Gillespie of the Toronto police sex crimes unit. "No, we don't have the resources."

But it is apparent that there's more involved than a lack of resources. Like most people in Canada, the police, even "vice" cops, no longer feel that they should be enforcing a moral code on consenting adults. "If adults are having consensual sex," says Mr. Gillespie, "certain parts of that could be illegal under certain parts of the Criminal Code, but with the resources we've got, we don't go anywhere near that."

And it's not only the police. Few judges or prosecutors want to punish prostitution involving consenting adults. Alan Young, a professor of criminal law at Osgoode Hall who has defended prostitutes and massage parlour owners in court, says he was even told by one judge that "we don't conduct bawdy house trials in this jurisdiction." Most criminal justice officials just don't see prostitutes as criminals, Mr. Young says, nor are they eager to punish their customers.

Even if police did want to pursue unusual charges that technically fit Criminal Code requirements, they aren't likely to stick. Where charges against off-street, consensual prostitution do result in convictions, punishments are typically just light fines. "We've actually run some stings on some of these massage parlours as far as bawdy houses and everything else," says Aurel Leblanc of the Edmonton vice unit, "and we've gone through the courts and what the courts have given for sentences and what we gather from the court is they're not interested in seeing any of these charges coming through. It's consensual sex between two adults in a private place."

In the 1970s, off-street enforcement was much heavier than today, averaging four times the current number of charges. Then in 1975, charges soared when Vancouver police carried out a sweep of all main off-street venues. In 1977, Toronto police did the same after a high-profile murder in a Yonge Street massage parlour.

The result was disastrous. The police drive didn't diminish the sex trade -- it simply pushed off-street prostitution onto street corners. Cities across the country were afflicted by a huge increase in street prostitution, especially in residential neighbourhoods; Vancouver and Toronto were hit worst. With this experience, says John Lowman, "the police know damned well what will happen if they crack down on the off-street stuff."

The police also know that escort agencies and massage parlours are far safer for prostitutes than walking the streets. And they know off-street prostitution is much less likely to annoy communities than streetwalking. Aurel Leblanc notes that while Edmontonians are sometimes offended when a new massage parlour gets a licence and zoning approval, when it "is in place and running, we very seldom get any complaints."

Police will enforce the law if they receive community complaints. Eric Martinat says the Ottawa police had a unit dedicated to investigating off-street prostitution but it was disbanded in the mid-1990s. Now, "we respond as the complaint and information come in."

Everything changes, however, if the police discover that the employees of an off-street sex business are not consenting adults. Foreign women brought into Canada illegally and coerced into prostitution are a particular concern. So are women under the control of pimps. In addition, says Mr. Gillespie, the involvement of anyone younger than 18 "is a major priority with us no matter what the crime is."

Officially, of course, no one will say that off-street prostitution is effectively a legal, regulated industry. But a major raid on Toronto escort agencies in April was a paradoxical demonstration of exactly that.

After more than a year of investigation, 130 police officers raided a company said to be operating 68 escort agencies. One million dollars in cash was seized, along with $3 million in jewelry, luxury cars and other property. The alleged owner, David Allan, 43, was charged with numerous offences, along with his wife and brother. Mr. Allan is said to have run escort agencies in Ottawa in the 1980s.

On the face of it, the sweep would seem to suggest the police actually are enforcing prostitution laws off-street. And in the press release and news conference that followed, that's the impression the police played up. Mr. Allan's operation was one of the biggest in Canada, the police said, and they moved on it after being "tipped off" by a john.

But what the john informed them of was not the existence of the escort agencies, or the fact that they were engaged in prostitution; the police must have already known this given that Mr. Allan allegedly spent $800,000 a year advertising his businesses in the Yellow Pages. What alarmed the police was the john's statement that when he called for the services of a prostitute, the woman who arrived was just 16 years old.

A similar scenario played out in Ottawa in late April, when a series of procuring charges were laid against men running an escort agency. The investigation was triggered by tips that the men were employing women as young as 14. In this case, the information came from social services outreach workers, but very often, adult prostitutes alert police to minors in the trade.

Both busts demonstrated something that is true in most of Canada most of the time: If off-street prostitution only involves consenting adults, does not violate bylaws, and does not annoy neighbours, the authorities will leave it alone. Only if these informal regulations are ignored is the criminal law enforced.

It's a reasonable, pragmatic approach...

The longer full article is at http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=B9A2B496-F3F4-4FF7-B9F9-9DB825294F49

This excerpt, with full credit, is being shared under the Fair Use provision of the U.S. Copyright laws and International treaties for educational purposes with no financial gain.

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