Bawdy Work | A look at what goes on behind closed doors in Alberta’s massage parlours

Nearby business owners can complain but the hands of the law are largely tied

Sep 1, 2010  

by Mike Sadava

Photography by Jessica Fern Facette

Chelsea, a “real redhead” at Passions in Edmonton, is advertised as “slim and curves in all the right spots. She is a definite treat for you, unrushed and loves great conversation.” Tessa in Calgary, in her online description, says: “My skin is soft and I am curvaceous. I’m friendly, warm, attentive, playful and have a sense of humour … I enjoy the finer things in life including intimate moments, one on one.”

Sapphire Massage, a “fun parlour” in Edmonton, even offers the use of the back door for clients who want to be discreet.

“Sessions” in most massage studios start at around $200 for the first half hour. Tessa in Calgary asks that clients memorize the rates and provide the cash in an envelope as soon as they meet. “I feel uncomfortable if I have to ask.”

These rates are at least triple the rate for the services of a registered massage therapist, who would have at least two years of training. At that price there’s something going on beyond loosening tight muscles or easing back pain.

Yes, everybody knows. Society officially deplores the idea of a prostitution business, and other businesses aren’t keen on having them down the street or in the same strip mall, but massage parlours continue to thrive and proliferate. In Edmonton and Calgary there are more than 50 parlours, which is more than the number of McDonald’s or Starbucks outlets.

It takes $76 and a minimum of 250 hours of training to become a licensed “massage practitioner” in Edmonton and Calgary, which is a licence to massage a person’s body, “excluding genitalia,” under massage therapy bylaws. Provincial regulations for registered massage therapists that would require a minimum of 2,500 hours of training are expected to be unveiled in the next year. While most of these practitioners are legitimate, many of the women who sell sex in massage parlours have also taken the training. But they can also be licensed, for $194 per year, under a “personal service holistic” category, which doesn’t require the training but officially restricts touching to head, hands and feet.

A lot of legitimate businesses would envy the cash flow in the sexual massage industry. “Julia” could be regarded as the quintessential Alberta entrepreneur. She got into the massage business seven years ago to raise enough money to start her own business. Earning $300 to $700 per shift, she worked for other people for four years before buying into one of Edmonton’s massage studios. Her earnings have also enabled her to buy equipment for other businesses she runs, as well as purchase a house.

And despite her activities, she has managed to keep her marriage together for 10 years and now has three children. In many ways she is a typical middle-class wife and mother, and she says her husband has never opposed it. In fact, they were already a couple when she decided to give the massage business a whirl seven years ago. “I don’t talk about it – he knows what I do. It’s too much money to argue over.”

Julia defies the stereotype of a woman who is forced into prostitution by a drug-addict or some other form of chemically informed dependency. “I don’t drink or smoke; she says. My money goes into investments to make more money.” She doesn’t want to have either her real name or massage monicker used so she can keep that side of her life separate from the respectable businesses she runs.

Some women go into sexual massage temporarily to raise enough money for school, like the law student who is currently working for Julia. There are also a lot of single moms who are trying to make a better life for their kids, she says.

Her studio’s policy is to fire drug abusers. Julia has seen some younger women fall into that trap because they have too much money to spend.

Julia is in the process of buying out her business partner, and then she’ll stop servicing clients. Her income will come from the room fee of around $30 per client charged to the other self-employed women, as well as advertising fees.

Despite “success stories” like Julia’s, most Alberta cities wish that sexual massage parlours, and, of course, their cousins, the escort agencies, would disappear. Even smaller centres like Airdrie have passed bylaws in an attempt to limit massage to legitimate practitioners.

In Fort McMurray, at least four massage parlours turn up on erotic websites, but Tyran Ault, spokesman for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, says the administration is not aware of any sexual massage parlours in that city full of young oil sands workers with money to burn. “Our bylaw enforcement unit has never received a complaint regarding a massage parlour operating in the community,” he says, adding that the municipality regulates escort services and adult entertainment facilities. However, oil sands plant staff and contractors are not about to spoil a good thing. “For guys who want those kinds of things, they know where to go,” says one young worker.

Dealing with the issue is a conundrum for most municipalities. First of all, finding the ones where sex is sold can be difficult. Calgary, for example, has more than 3,000 businesses licensed for massage and most are legitimate. Canada’s ambiguity about prostitution in the Criminal Code makes taking action difficult and expensive. Prostitution is not illegal in this country, but communicating for the purposes and living off the avails of prostitution, as well as running a common bawdy house, are offences.

Knowing that something unseemly is going on in a massage parlour is one thing, but getting a charge to stick is another. Consider what the Edmonton Police Service says on its website about massage parlours: “It is not illegal for an individual to work for a massage parlour as long as they are licensed to do so by the city.  Further, engaging in non-sexual services while working for the parlour is not illegal. A masseuse who actually just gives massages is not doing anything illegal. Performing sexual services in a massage clinic may be illegal if the police can prove the clinic is a place which has as its purpose prostitution. If it is implied that a sex act is available but will cost the client extra and a discussion ensues about price for sexual services the masseuse and client are committing an illegal act (communication for the purpose of prostitution – section 213) unless the discussion occurs in a massage room. In that case, no illegal act has been committed.”

In other words, a consensual deal involving the provision of sex for money is technically legal, as long as it is made in private. Acting Staff Sgt. Steven Crosby of Edmonton Police Service’s vice squad, says it takes a lot of time and resources to investigate massage parlours. Police act primarily on the basis of complaints, but they keep tabs on these places with city bylaw officers and will investigate further if anything untoward is found.

Some of these places have been quietly doing their thing for years without drawing a complaint. A massage parlour in a central Edmonton neighbourhood had been operating for at least five years before anyone noticed and police were called in. “It’s hidden away because people don’t want to think about it,” Crosby says.

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