star article on holistic massage parlors

[booboobear]

There will a few calls to City Hall and few busts as a result of the article. Three weeks down the road the Star article will all but be forgotten and it will be back to business as usual for the Holistic spas.

I agree . In general when it comes to sex in the city hypocrisy rules. Isn't it nice knowing the government is spending our hard earned tax dollars studying the sex industry abroad. They have done this before , just an excuse to spend or money and treat themselves at our expense. Nothing will change and they will come back with a report stating the obvious.

 

[HaywoodJabloemy]

From May 10 Toronto Star article:

...as he got out of his car, the Madame of this place was out there inviting him to come in and get a massage.

This is the second time in the last couple of years a Toronto newspaper has quoted an anti-MP person claiming the MPA or MP owner has walked up to cars parking outside their building to solicit business. Has anyone ever actually seen this happen or even heard of it happening? I haven't, and have trouble believing an MP owner would do something that stupid, almost begging to be arrested.

 

[TheNiteHwk]

Want to know how I feel?


I am Pissed Off!

That is not all... I have a lot more to say... I'm just not feeling well today. You will be hearing more from me you SOB's. (I know you are reading this) My pay cheque will be down this week at least a $couple hundred$. In fact a lot of good people will be put out of some hard earned dollars for the next while. But then like already said it will come back. In the mean time though some are suffering. Sad part is only or mostly it's the good people who will suffer. If you want to expose the 'dirty' side of the sex business then why don't you chase after the pimps who cruise school grounds and force girls to work the streets? We kick them out and they are back the same day. Why don't you write about the crack addicted SW who just keeps working cause there is no other place for her to go because we have not enough treatment centres here. Why don't you write about the high cost of university tuitions that some are working to pay off because government loans are way too much of a load for them to handle. Why don't you write about the single mothers who are working because Mike Harris said if a can of tuna is too much ask for a discount. In other words they can't afford to feed their babies so they work the adult biz. How about all the cars, houses, condo, furniture, BBQ’s, adult and kids clothing…. Billions of dollars the adult sex workers spend. How about considering all the income tax, GST, PST, property and school tax they pay. How about ME – last year I paid $20,000.00 in income tax. How about this: if you close down all these places all that billions of dollars now going into the economy will go up in smoke. Many more jobs will be lost. Including maybe yours…. Because then maybe you will have nothing more to write about.

Ahhhh fluck it… I’m so sick…. I can’t even think any more. I need to go vomit somewhere.

 

[slowandeasy]

Definition of Holistic Medicine

Holistic Medicine definition from dictionary.com

An approach to medical care that emphasizes the study of all aspects of a person's health, including psychological, social, and economic influences on health status.

I cannot believe that no one has mentioned this, but wouldn't sex or the release of sexual energies be part of holistic medicine???

After I have sex, or get a great body slide, my whole body feels great, and my mind suddenly becomes so much more clear...

 

[blitz]

I stayed out of this conversation for quite some time today...

Five of my friends 3 guys, mostly and 2 gals were discussing the recent Star articles and they were appalled that these "sex" services were available and what a silly joke that these "holistic" liscences were sanctioned.

Now, to person, all of them were familiar with the term "Rub and Tug" as they bantied it about quite often but there seemed to be a prevailing opinion that "release" means "sex". I was certainly shocked but perhaps this logic is the norm and the services that these reporters "declined" was in their minds and in the minds of many others, as evidenced by my friends, "sex".

I have partied a lot with these five friends and I do not see them as being prudes, sexually repressed, fanatically religious or afraid of sexuality.

I am not an MPA kinda guy. I like my sex fun, interactive and full. I've know an owner or two and attendants over the years and I know it's a job and it's not the most forthright of businesses.

My concern is that "regular folk" genuinely consider this as sex. Is it me/we that are wrong or them?

Should I really even give a hoot?

 

[Hugh G. Rekshun]

The Voices/readers responses are about 75% saying leave them alone or make them legal, and 25% want them prosecuted or closed down.

...I simply pointed out the hypocricy of taking the M.P.'s money to advertise while they slam the massage parlours at the same time. But no letters in todays star pointing that fact out, I'll bet they don't publish any that make that point.

Two have brought up the ads that appear in Star or Eye.

 

[beenthere]

Many years ago alchohol was considered to be an evil drink and was prohibitied. The funny thing is that eventually the government took over control eliminating the rum runners & speakeasys and prices have gone up and booze is now legal.

My parents used to buy numbers and Irish Sweepstakes tickets, an illegal practice. The government created their own lotteries and have turned thousands of tax payers into addicted gamblers and we now have legal gaming in the province.

Sooner or later there will be a more enliightened government or at least one that is greedy enough to want to create legal brothels where the attendants would have to take regular health checks and the government would become big daddy pimp taking a piece of the financial action.

In the meantime be careful, be smart and becareful who you provide any information to in regards to what may or may not have occured in private.

wasn't the old adage "loose lips sinks ships" or was it "loose lips drops dicks"

 

[kmark2000]

^^ agreed. I think their terminology is a little more broader when they used the term "sex" in the article. Treat it more like "sexual act".

This is like a new form of puritanism. They'd label a lap dance as sex then.

 

[RogerRabbit]

Do you agree or disagree with the Star's position below?

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...le&cid=1115935812561&call_pageid=968256290204

'To the dismay of local residents, hundreds of bawdy houses and illegal body-rub parlours are operating across Toronto, thinly disguised as providers of "holistic" care.
Colloquially known as "rub-and-tugs," these illicit establishments represent a troubling expansion of the sex trade, and they warrant a crackdown by police and city inspectors.
Ironically, many of the rogue businesses are licensed by city hall — not as body-rub parlours, but as centres that are supposed to deliver alternative treatments, such as aromatherapy or acupuncture.
An investigative series by Toronto Star reporters Dale Brazao and Robert Cribb has revealed that up to three-quarters of the city's more than 300 licensed holistic centres actually operate as brothels or body-rubs. That is outrageous.
Prostitution is commonly called the world's oldest profession, and it would be naive to assume the illegal sex trade in Toronto could be entirely stamped out.
There is, clearly, a thriving market for such services.
Police and city officials should, however, be making more effort to shut "holistic" spas that are operating under false pretences.
City licences, permitting delivery of alternative health services, should be much harder to obtain. Would-be holistic operators should be required to show they are members in good standing of a professional self-regulatory body.
The track record of every applicant for an holistic licence should be carefully checked to see if they have been fined for operating a rub-and-tug in the past or hit by criminal convictions.
Obviously, those with a shady record should be denied a licence.
City officials say some steps have been taken in this direction. Strict screening must be taken seriously.
Finally, city inspectors, backed up by police, should aggressively patrol establishments that have already been licensed.
With tougher and better enforced rules in place, residents might not worry so much when an holistic centre opens in their neighbourhood.'

 

[HaywoodJabloemy]

Like Keebler Elf said in post#20 of this thread, they say they don't want them to exist by falsely claiming to be something they're not, but they don't suggest another alternative for the MPs.

The MPs will just make sure they have one person who has taken a course in aromatherapy or RMT, if that's all it takes to keep their licence. In the U.S., they moved into hair and tanning salons, and chiropractic clinics after they cracked down on MPs. They won't disappear, they'll just find another way to do it regardless of how the city tries to enforce bylaws.