City looks to expand body rub licensing, but will it make women safer?

The city of London is looking to expand its licensing rules for adult body-rub parlours to require women who work in the parlours to hold licences, a move some critics say won't achieve the stated goal of enhancing their safety. 

The city currently requires owners and operators of body rub parlours to be licensed by the city. However in a report coming to council's Community and Protective Services Committee on Tuesday, city staff lay out a plan that would expand the licensing requirement to parlour attendants as a way to ensure the "health, safety and well-being of persons." 

London currently has a limit of five licenced body-rub parlours. 

Megan Walker, a women's rights advocate who's long advocated for shutting down the commercial sex-trade industry, said the city should not be issuing licences for commercial sex work. 

"There is no way a city should be getting involved in this type of activity," she said. "It promotes an illegal activity and it fails to acknowledge the harm done to women and girls in the commercial sex industry."

Under prostitution laws passed by Parliament in 2014, purchasing sex is illegal. However sellers of their own sexual services are immune from prosecution.

An alliance of groups advocating for the rights of sex workers challenged the constitutionality of Canada's prosecution laws, but an Ontario court dismissed that challenge in 2023. 

Body rub parlours operate in a grey area under municipal licensing bylaws.

Walker is also a member of London's Police Services Board but said her comments on the body-rub licence issue are unrelated to her role on the police board. 

In her experience helping girls and women leave the sex trade, Walker said body rub parlours — licenced or not — are often entry points into sex trafficking.

"No woman has ever said to me I want to do this work," said Walker. 

Rules have increased

Orest Katolyk, London's head of bylaw enforcement, said the city has progressively stepped up its licensing rules for body rub parlous over the years. Operators are already required to keep on file identification information of employees while body rub owners and operators must be licensed by the city. Other rules set cleanliness standards and require a panic alarm system in all massage rooms. 

Katolyk said a new licence requirement would enhance and formalize the city's existing record keeping rules and be similar to licensing rules already in place in Toronto, Windsor, Hamilton and other Ontario cities.

"We're probably one of the few large and mid-size municipalities in Ontario that don't have those regulations," said Katolyk. 

He said expanding licensing is intended to comply with the section of the city's strategic plan to create a safe London for girls and women and provide resources that prevent sexual exploitation and trafficking. 

Katolyk said there has been an increase in the number of complaints about unlicensed body rub parlours recently. He said parlours that are licensed are subject to random inspections. 

Allison Preyde is a manager of prevention and education at Anova, a non-profit group that provides shelter and other supports for women fleeing gender-based violence in London. 

Changes 'about controlling women'

She said licensing of body rub parlour attendants is a move toward regulating the sex-trade industry when the main focus should be on decriminalization. 

"The move to licence attendants is really just about controlling women, rather than helping women to stay safer," said Preyde. "Really this is just putting more barriers in place for women to do these jobs, rather than protecting them from trafficking. 

"We need to be following the rules that are already in place rather than piling on more rules, which are just going to negatively impact women who are wanting to be there and trying to do the work legally."

The city will hold a public meeting to gather input on the licensing expansion and come back to council with a proposed draft bylaw later this year.