In my last blog entry I set out the problem of treating health practitioners as sex trade workers and argued that the Holistic Centre By-Law should be scrapped in its present form. But then, how does the city deal with the existing lisences used as a cover for body rub parlours? After all, both Dundas West and our end of Bloor have no shortage of these phony “spas” and “centres.” My personal position is that the city should acknowledge the existence of the sex trade and regulate it directly. This would allow us to monitor the human rights and public health issues that are the worst part of a covert–because illegal–sex trade. We could then have an above board and transparent body rub license, or even a brothel license, that would apply only to professionally run body rub parlours and brothels. Of course, our politicians will never make this controversial move.

Therefore, in the present situation the practical solution is a health practitioner registry system based on a recent and successful Markham initiative. I will let health practitioner David Pinto explain the registry in his own words:

We propose that Council adopt the “registry bylaw” model used by Markham. It is simple and much cheaper to administer than a licensing bylaw, because the City will not have to maintain the whole infrastructure needed to administer, enforce, and adjudicate the Holistic bylaw as it stands now. And it makes life measurably easier for the legitimate practitioner because it leaves them alone.

How it works is simple: Either you demonstrate being a member in good standing of a recognized Professional Holistic Association, or you’re charged with operating without a Body Rub license. To protect against phony associations, all associations must conform to a list of criteria set out in the bylaw: e.g., they must be a legally incorporated non-profit with an elected board of directors who must be mostly practitioners. The Association’s bylaws must detail its standards of practice, a code of ethics and a disciplinary procedure. The City will then be able to close down all of the phony places within weeks after the registry is set up, because the phony places will not be able to meet these criteria.

Also, once the City has finished with the process of harmonizing its zoning bylaws, it can make sure that the remaining body rub parlours are out of the residential neighborhoods where they have caused so much disturbance (because as “holistic centres” they were immune to the zoning regulations that did apply to body rubs)

The benefit of this solution is that health practitioners effectively regulate themselves through their association. They are not regulated by a bureaucratic apparatus that assumes beforehand they are something they are not.

On Thursday afternoon between 2 and 4 City Council will meet to discuss and vote on a revised holistic centre by-law. A bit of background is necessary. The original holistic centre by-law was enacted in 1998 as an attempt to curtail the activity of illegal body rubs parlours posing as legitimate practitioners of massage, shiatsu, reflexology etc. The by-law has been a massive failure, however, since it lacked a way to keep fake practitioners from acquiring a holistic centre license. As a result, instead of discouraging body rub parlours it has actually encouraged their growth.

David Pinto, a polarity therapist on the frontlines of this struggle, has argued that the city needs to address the sex trade more directly by doing away with the holistic centre by-law and increasing the number of body rub parlours licenses from the current twenty-five. His reasoning is as follows:

The City could have allowed more body rub parlours to be licensed and kept them out of residential neighborhoods through zoning, but they were afraid they’d be seen to be supporting the sex trade. So instead, they decided to create a new license for Holistic Centres and Practitioners and try to control the fake “holistic practitioners” that way…which now costs the City $2.5 million a year in enforcement costs.

If the City had used the screening mechanisms that our stakeholders committee had suggested in 1998, that would have prevented impostors from getting licenses. But the City ignored our suggestions and the resulting bylaw has (1) allowed over 2000 sex workers to become licensed as a holistic practitioners; (2) imposed increasing fees on legitimate practitioners to pay the costs of going after the illegitimate practitioners, and (3) imposed onerous and inappropriate restrictions on legitimate practitioners by treating us as if we were members of the sex trade.

This process has been fraught with politics. The consultation with stakeholders that began in September 2004 was suddenly cut short this May and many recommendations that would have alleviated the burden on legitimate practitioners were set aside. Then, after being informed that the by-law was on hold, possibly all summer, the Planning and Transportation Committee suddenly announced that they would be hearing deputations on the matter. Stakeholders were given four days to prepare. Despite this short lead time, the legitimate practitioners made a presentation that was impressive, logical and compelling. Indeed, Councilor Ootes emphatically stated that he was convinced of the need to treat legitimate practitioners separate from the sex trade enforcement issue. The stakeholders left the meeting feeling buoyed and confident.

The next day, however, everyone involved received a bracing reminder that City politics is a loaded game. In the Toronto Star, City Hall reporter Paul Moloney stated emphatically: “Holistic clinics welcome crackdown: Legitimate operators want sex workers out Happy to pay higher city licensing fees.” As evidence he quoted Alex MacDonald, a professional lobbyist representing the Edmonton-based Association of Massage Therapists and Wholistic Practitioners (AMTWP). The reporter mentioned no one else.

I was present at the deputations, however. MacDonald, was the only complementary health representative to support the report. Every other deputation given not by Mr MacDonald or by an employee for the House of Lancaster Strip Clubs argued against the by-law since it unduly punished legitimate practitioners by treating them as potential sex workers. The adult entertainment industry reasonably just wanted to get rid of a stiff competitor in the male arousal business. After Mr MacDonald’s contribution I recall thinking, rather ungenerously perhaps, that he had a similar if different motivation: to get rid of all legitimate, touch-based health practitioners who are a not a member of his association. Although Mr MacDonald and the AMTWP have since changed their position to be more in-line with the other health practitioners who presented that day, the damage was done.

Ultimately, the Planning and Transportation committee accepted the by-law report with a few qualifications, most notably holding the line on fee increases. I believe that Howard Moscoe summarized the committee’s feelings when he stated “We are halfway through the quicksand, we need to keep moving ahead.” However, until the issue of the sex trade is separated from the issue of legitimate health practice the holistic centre by-law will remain unfairly burdensome. The city itself recognizes that the body rub parlours are moving into Nail and Tanning Studios. This fact indicates that the body rub/sex trade problem is not only an issue affecting “holistic centres.”

In the NorthRonces.com neighbourhood, this issue directly impacts The Herbal Clinic & Dispensary and Sukha Health Spa. We encourage everyone who supports our community health practitioners to let their city councillor know that the Holistic Centre by-law is unfair and should be replaced with a tool that regulates the sex trade and no one else.

For more background to this issue please see “Body Work or Bawdy Work?” published in Vitality magazine.