Is A Massage Parlor Has Red Lights Inside Do They Provide Sexual Services

Regina police force say massage parlours, where sexual practice is often for auction, are chop-chop multiplying and in that location'southward little they can do to tiresome down that growth.

CBC iTeam's David Fraser visited 8 Regina massage parlours as part of our exclusive investigation. (CBC)

CBC iTeam investigation uncovers sexual practice for sale

Hidden camera shows what goes on within massage parlours

(Warning: Some language may offend)

Using a hidden camera, CBC'due south iTeam visited massage parlours all over Regina — and what they establish is that there are more than than just backrubs for sale.

A fellow member of the iTeam, David Fraser, visited addresses on Albert Street, Broad Street, Victoria Avenue, Rose Street and 11th Avenue.

He asked what services were bachelor earlier leaving.

In six out of eight cases, offers for sexual services for payment were either made straight or implied.

One woman explained that a "mitt job" would price "a full of $85."

Several others said a total torso massage would conclude with a "happy ending" — massage parlour lawmaking for an orgasm.

At most of the locations the women were reluctant to discuss details of the services offered.

Once, after offering a "happy ending," one woman explained: "I talk with you too much already. I will make it trouble, y'all know."

But at another location, the woman at the front end counter freely offered more than item.

She indicated that she had 10 different women on offer who are "all different sizes, shapes and colours", from a "slender, somewhat busty and blond" woman to an "extremely busty brunette".

"Non fat, non skinny. An hour-drinking glass figure," she said.

She explained the massage parlour is open up every twenty-four hours with one exception. "The but day we always close our doors is Christmas day."

"You tin can start from $100 existence the bottom of the cookie jar not getting a lot." she explains. "They don't even get undressed for that."

But she explained "you even so get a trivial something something. A little smile."

Notwithstanding "if you're looking for the whole shebang" the price starts at $200 for a half hr.

Regina police say massage parlours, where sex is oftentimes for sale, are rapidly multiplying and there'south picayune they can do to slow down that growth.

"There's more and more than opening upward all the fourth dimension," Detective Corporal Tim Filazek told CBC'south iTeam. He said a decade agone "at that place [were] two or three or four. Now you're seeing 15 to twenty."

Filazek added it's non difficult to sympathise why the sensual massage business is exploding hither.

"With the economic boom come up more jobs come more people, more than disposable income. We're seeing more and more massage parlours open up."

And, he pointed out, considering of a directive from the Crown prosecutor'due south office, "nosotros're kind of express of what we tin can do."

In Dec, the Supreme Court declared Canada's prostitution laws unconstitutional.

Filazek said that led Crown prosecutors in Saskatchewan to recommend constabulary stop laying some prostitution related charges as there's little hope of a conviction.

Massage parlours offer sex activity for sale

Massage parlours can be found in houses or retail locations on many of Regina's major arteries, like Albert, Broad and Victoria.

A hidden camera investigation by CBC'south iTeam confirmed that many massage parlours in Regina offer sexual services for cash.

Filazek says he has conducted his own undercover operation of several massage parlours "and the investigation led to me determining that sexual activity was taking place there."

Massage parlours are a well-known front for prostitution. Many are substantially brothels in disguise.

"These are really places of suspended disbelief," explains Benjamin Perrin, a UBC law professor who specializes in researching sex trafficking.

"Nosotros all bulldoze by and say 'Well really? Is this a registered massage therapist at 3 in the morning with flashing neon lights?' We all know that'due south not what's happening in there."

But Filazek's investigation institute that at least some people have been taken by surprise.

"We had a person come upward to united states and say 'You know what? I had a sore back I went to a massage parlour and after the massage was done the lady offered me sexual services in exchange for money.'"

Canada's prostitution laws in legal limbo

Concluding December, the Supreme Court ruled Canada's prostitution laws unconstitutional.

Those laws volition remain in force until Dec 2014, giving the federal government fourth dimension to draft and adopt new legislation.

Despite that, the Regina Police Service says it's been told to stop laying some charges until a new law is in place.

"Some of the senior crown prosecutors have given the advice equally to not lay these charges because they would not go very far in the court system." Filazek told CBC.

In an email, the Ministry of Justice confirms it has brash the province'south law services to take a different direction.

"Prosecutions' focus for the foreseeable future will be on those procuring services from sex merchandise workers and not on the sex merchandise workers themselves."

Filazek points out that even prior to the Supreme Court's decision it was very difficult to captive someone of running a common bawdy house or living off the avails of prostitution.

Law would have to testify that sexual practice was beingness sold at a massage parlour and that the owner of the business organization was getting a cut.

Police yet monitor massage parlours

Filazek pointed out the vice unit is still actively monitoring massage parlours past making regular visits to determine who is working at that place.

"We're making sure that the staff at these massage parlours aren't underage. That they're not minors. That they're working on their ain gratis volition." Filazek explained.

Regina police force officer Tim Filazek says the police continue to do checks on massage parlours to brand sure the employees are not underage or are victims of human trafficking. (CBC)

And he says the growing number of massage parlours appears to have resulted in fewer women working the streets.

"I remember for the public it's better. They're not seeing the girls continuing on the street corner. Kids walking home from school, they're not walking past street workers or clients driving by the street workers while piffling kids are out."

Searching for prostitution laws that work

Benjamin Perrin, a UBC police force professor who specializes in researching sex trafficking, says the landmark Supreme Court determination that alleged the state's prostitution laws unconstitutional is an opportunity for Canada to find a new and more effective approach to dealing with a very old problem.

According to Perrin, Canada's electric current laws were designed to target the nuisance of prostitution, keeping it off the streets and out of public view.

Supreme Court decision changed emphasis to protection

Only he said the Supreme Court found Canada's laws failed to deliver on a more important criteria, "providing any meaningful protection to people who are prostituted and sex trafficking victims."

Benjamin Perrin, a quondam legal adviser to the PMO, is prepare to testify at the MIke Duffy trial. (CBC)

And Perrin said it's women who have faced the brunt of Canada's criminal laws in this area.

"What you lot had is a system that really focused criminal sanction against those people who are, in my view, the victims in these scenarios in many cases. And the men who were paying and driving demand for prostitution and sex trafficking facing most no penalties."

Most people jailed for prostitution-related crimes are women

Co-ordinate to Perrin, 92 per centum of people jailed for communicating for the purpose of prostitution in Canada are female.

Perrin has researched the approaches that various countries have taken regarding prostitution.

He says legalization has "been a failed social experiment in all of the countries that we looked at."

"The most vulnerable prostitutes are never in those then-called government-approved brothels, considering they have either sexually transmitted diseases or mental health problems, which prevent them from legally beingness in those brothels," Perrin constitute.

"And so the almost disadvantaged people will never benefit from any of those then-called protections."

Nordic model could signal the way

In 2007, the approach which criminalizes pimps and johns but offers assist rather than punishment to prostitutes, was endorsed by the House of Commons Standing Commission on the Condition of Women.

And, Perrin noted, "nosotros also know that the Conservative Party of Canada adopted a policy resolution in Oct which substantially recommends the Swedish model be adopted as national policy."