star article on holistic massage parlors
- Thread starter peteeey
- Start date
'Sex & City Hall'
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...le&cid=1115416214663&call_pageid=968332188492
'Sex & City Hall
The city has licensed more than 200 holistic centres that operate as brothels.
Now it's powerless to stop them
ROBERT CRIBB AND DALE BRAZAO
STAFF REPORTERS
Minutes after she arrived for a job interview at a holistic health centre last fall, Michelle found herself naked from the waist up, giving a customer a full body massage in a back storage room filled with mops, dirty laundry and cigarette butts.
"I had no idea what it was going to be like," the petite 22-year-old recalls. "I kind of had to learn on the job."
Michelle learned quickly. By the end of the day, she had earned $300 providing services routinely offered in most of Toronto's city-licensed holistic centres — "nude reverses," "body slides" and "hand releases."
The City of Toronto licenses more than 200 brothels under the banner of holistic health centres, a Toronto Star investigation has found.
Licensed to offer alternative health treatments such as shiatsu, reflexology and aromatherapy, about three-quarters of the city's holistic centres operate as sex dens.
Almost as fast as the city hands out holistic licences, public complaints bring visits by inspectors from the same city department that investigates and lays bylaw charges — a license-and-prosecute revolving door that costs taxpayers $2.5 million a year....'
'Valerie Scott is convinced that no matter what holistic centres call themselves, they are simply brothels.
"In the '60s they were massage parlours. Then they were body rub parlours. Now they are holistic centres.
"In China they call them beauty parlours. We can call them flower shops if we want to, but the fact remains they are brothels, and they will always be brothels." '
I think he is taking about:peteeey said:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...le&cid=1115416214663&call_pageid=968332188492
'Sex & City Hall
The city has licensed more than 200 holistic centres that operate as brothels.
Now it's powerless to stop them
ROBERT CRIBB AND DALE BRAZAO
STAFF REPORTERS
Minutes after she arrived for a job interview at a holistic health centre last fall, Michelle found herself naked from the waist up, giving a customer a full body massage in a back storage room filled with mops, dirty laundry and cigarette butts.
"I had no idea what it was going to be like," the petite 22-year-old recalls. "I kind of had to learn on the job."
Michelle learned quickly. By the end of the day, she had earned $300 providing services routinely offered in most of Toronto's city-licensed holistic centres — "nude reverses," "body slides" and "hand releases."
The City of Toronto licenses more than 200 brothels under the banner of holistic health centres, a Toronto Star investigation has found.
Licensed to offer alternative health treatments such as shiatsu, reflexology and aromatherapy, about three-quarters of the city's holistic centres operate as sex dens.
Almost as fast as the city hands out holistic licences, public complaints bring visits by inspectors from the same city department that investigates and lays bylaw charges — a license-and-prosecute revolving door that costs taxpayers $2.5 million a year....'
'Valerie Scott is convinced that no matter what holistic centres call themselves, they are simply brothels.
"In the '60s they were massage parlours. Then they were body rub parlours. Now they are holistic centres.
"In China they call them beauty parlours. We can call them flower shops if we want to, but the fact remains they are brothels, and they will always be brothels." '
"...a Toronto Star investigation has found." How much investigating was required to reveal these deep dark secrets? Maybe looking at the ads in the taboids and on the internet? Does anyone who is not stupid believe legit massage is all that ever happens at rub 'n' tugs?
What next? The shocking truth that the escort business can involve more than accompanying clients to the opera?
Even if you don't like The Star, do they say anything in this story that isn't true? I think more of the general public will support liberalizing our laws if they know the truth that the existing laws are not being enforced.
What next? The shocking truth that the escort business can involve more than accompanying clients to the opera?
Even if you don't like The Star, do they say anything in this story that isn't true? I think more of the general public will support liberalizing our laws if they know the truth that the existing laws are not being enforced.
The most shocking things about the article IMHO are...
.... they act all indignant about the "realities" of Holistic parlours yet the Star's classifieds are full of massage parlour ad's! What hypocrites they are. Also they published two photos of massage girls, one "Michelle" who hid her face and refers to all her customers as scum and a picture of "Sophia" who works at a spa on Queensway. They allege she dropped her dress to entice them to stay and have what appears to be a photo taken off her handing car keys at the door to a customer who forgot them. Her life might just be ruined by that photo. And if people can figure out who "Michelle" is, I'll bet her customers will get her fired if they can as she needs to be a burger flipper to appreciate what other skills her hands are good for. As for the two reporters who wrote this "expose", thier pictures are in the articles too. Anybody who has thier favorite spa closed down thanks to this atricle might want to express thier thanks personally. I hope "Sophia" has some legal grounds to sue the star for publishing her picture without authorization.
.... they act all indignant about the "realities" of Holistic parlours yet the Star's classifieds are full of massage parlour ad's! What hypocrites they are. Also they published two photos of massage girls, one "Michelle" who hid her face and refers to all her customers as scum and a picture of "Sophia" who works at a spa on Queensway. They allege she dropped her dress to entice them to stay and have what appears to be a photo taken off her handing car keys at the door to a customer who forgot them. Her life might just be ruined by that photo. And if people can figure out who "Michelle" is, I'll bet her customers will get her fired if they can as she needs to be a burger flipper to appreciate what other skills her hands are good for. As for the two reporters who wrote this "expose", thier pictures are in the articles too. Anybody who has thier favorite spa closed down thanks to this atricle might want to express thier thanks personally. I hope "Sophia" has some legal grounds to sue the star for publishing her picture without authorization.
Breaking news...Torstar panders to skin trade.
Confidential sources have revealed that the free newspaper "Eye" owned by Torstar (parent company of the Toronto Star) has, for a lengthly period of time, been promoting brothels....
Oh dear!
Confidential sources have revealed that the free newspaper "Eye" owned by Torstar (parent company of the Toronto Star) has, for a lengthly period of time, been promoting brothels....
Oh dear!
Yes, short term local token crackdowns always happen, but I'm talking about the federal laws in the long term.anon.penet.fi said:
If we're anything like Australia and New Zealand, where they allowed the MPs to become legal brothels, people will realize the present laws have become meaningless through a lack of enforcement, although I suppose it's possible that Canadians are more phony and puritanical.
I have not seen the whole article yet. For some reason I get a blank gray page when I click on the link. I had assumed the second post in this thread had the entire article, and didn't know about the overall negative tone and the MPA Michelle saying she hates her customers.
No it's not. I think they should close down every one of these places. If they obtained a license for holistic practice then they should do that. They make it quite clear that legit rub and tug places pay $10,000 a year to be licensed for erotic message. These so called holistic places are nothing more then a scam that are unsafe, not clean, and many a times a front for organized crime that ship girls from abroad so you can get your rocks off.peteeey said:
F
feminista
I think Dale Brazao has been involved with almost every prostitution related story the star has done in the past 5 years. Maybe he was rubbed the wrong way.
the on line article is a very abbreviated version of what is in the print edition...
the print story will continue on Monday and Tuesday as well...
they do give a link to "have your say" about the article... but i doubt they will print mine after i pointed out they take a column or two of ads from these places daily, and the $$ they make off eye magazine with pages upon pages of ads...
bunch of farking hypocrites
the print story will continue on Monday and Tuesday as well...
they do give a link to "have your say" about the article... but i doubt they will print mine after i pointed out they take a column or two of ads from these places daily, and the $$ they make off eye magazine with pages upon pages of ads...
bunch of farking hypocrites
If Body Rub licenses were available to whoever is willing to pay the fee, I might be tempted to agree with you...xxxseer said:
As it is, they only issue 25 licenses while the demand for the service is much greater than what 25 spas can service... it's just another way to legislate morality... to control and eliminate prostitution -- which has been around for millennia because there is a need for those services...
But the hypocrisy rankles...
But I do agree with you that real holistic clinics should stick to holistic services -- but they are being victimized, too...
Perry
F
feminista
The last time the Star did a 3 part series on a sex-related business about 10 people were charged. The cops overlook these stupid laws until their overlooking is publisized. Now it is publisized and I would expect some charges will follow.
Just as before, the Star -who partially lives off the avails of prostitution, will ensure that those who need those avails most will be charged or go out of business.
Last edited:
I'd question the assumption that all the parlours without one of the very limited number of body rub licences are scummy, and that all of the ones with the right licence are perfectly okay... not to mention everyone apparently assuming paying the city several thousand dollars a year somehow gives them the right to violate the Criminal Code of Canada.xxxseer said:
but the series and the police effort were all aimed at one guy, and I think he was the only one convicted and the rest had charges dropped after agreeing to testify against him. They didn't go after every escort agency in Toronto. They will probably go after a few MPs, but I find it difficult to see them even trying to close all 400 of them in the GTA.feminista said:
The MPs specifically listed in the print article might as well close now if they want to avoid being charged. They're sitting ducks. The cops will really make themselves look bad if they leave those ones alone.
We'll know The Star is full of crap on this if in the third part of the series on Tuesday they falsely claim Sweden's prohibiton on paying for sex has been a big success.
Last edited:
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.feminista said:
The problem I have with "cracking down" on holistic spas or MPs or whatever it is you want to call the adult SP industry is that no one ever, ever, talks about what they'll replace them with. The people who seek crackdowns think they can just put these places out of business and be done with it. But the simple fact remains that there will always be a demand for the service and men will always be willing to pay for it. You can shuffle it around from MPs to brothels to incalls to whatever, but it's not going away. If you really want to get rid of the underground sex trade, then you need to replace it with something. Probably an above-ground, legalized sex trade. But people don't want that either, so here we go again with the neverending cycle of crackdowns, reopenings, crackdowns, reopenings...
Address the problem, not the symptoms.
Address the problem, not the symptoms.
xxxseer said:
Hey XXXSEER, are you a reporter? you are obviously not partaking in the services available, so what is your game???
Many of these places are not unsafe, unclean or fronts for organized crime, your assumptions are incorrect. There are some that do bring in girls from overseas... unfortunately the massage parlour industry does not have a special exemption like the strip clubs do to bring girls in...
There are many bars and restaurants that are unsafe, not clean and some are fronts for organized crime as well, shut those down as well???
Recently there have been a number of shootings in nightclubs... shut those down as well???
If you are interested in the sex industry, why don't you identify yourself and have a frank discussion with the people on this board, instead of hiding in the shadows...
Dude, you know nothing about me so why make asumptions? Right?
I did not saying anything about the legit message places in this city. What I do have issue with is these "holistic" places. They say they are holistic but have nothing to do with it. Legit MP places pay the fees and run proper operations while these guys front as something else and because of tis are a more shady operation resulting in unsafe conditions for all. Nothing is invested in them - have u driven by or ben in onecof them ? The places are (for the most part) filthy. Don't think and assume that these non holistic holistic places for a minute (the majority of them) are shady operations. Don't be so naive to think otherwise.
I did not saying anything about the legit message places in this city. What I do have issue with is these "holistic" places. They say they are holistic but have nothing to do with it. Legit MP places pay the fees and run proper operations while these guys front as something else and because of tis are a more shady operation resulting in unsafe conditions for all. Nothing is invested in them - have u driven by or ben in onecof them ? The places are (for the most part) filthy. Don't think and assume that these non holistic holistic places for a minute (the majority of them) are shady operations. Don't be so naive to think otherwise.
