Canadian political rhetoric about prostitution is mainly abolitionist or prohibitionist. On the grounds that they do not want to be seen to condone prostitution, most politicians staunchly refuse to talk about where street prostitution might be relocated. And yet, prostitution is legal, and a widespread municipally licensed prostitution business is flourishing across Canada. By way of example, consider the prostitution licensing system now operating in Vancouver.
When it comes to prostitution, five categories are of particular interest:. A reading of these by-laws suggests that the City is attempting to limit prostitution to two venues: body-rub parlours and escort services. These are the only By-laws that require the owner of the establishment to report the names and addresses of employees to the police. Note that, unlike the By-law for a health enhancement centre, the body rub By-law does not expressly prohibit acts of prostitution on the premise.
In body-rubs, women are allowed to provide services to men body rubs employ mostly women , but only persons of the same sex are allowed to provide services in massage parlours and steam baths some of which also serve as venues for prostitution. The distinction between dating services and social escort services is less clear. The distinction seems to have been wrought in the early s. Apparently its purpose is to clarify which business is involved in commercial sex.
In the case of dating services, the names of both parties have to be recorded. Now consider the fees the City charges for different categories of business : There are roughly license fee categories in Vancouver. There was just one licensed body rub. Does this mean that the off-street prostitution trade is relatively small, or that most of it is not licensed? We suspect that it is the latter, and that more people work in the off-street prostitution trade than work on the street. We know from sex sellers and buyers interviewed in Vancouver that some massage parlours and health enhancement centres are fronts for prostitution.
Why pay many thousands of dollars for a body rub license when a massage parlour license is one fortieth of the cost? As to men and women working as escorts, why would they want to create an indelible record of their sex work with the city authorities? If we examine law enforcement patterns, it is clear that off-street prostitution is not a priority.
