St. John's should have consulted sex workers before drafting new rules for massage parlours: support worker
Melendy Muise says those most affected by potential regulations haven't been approached
St. John's is working to update its regulations for massage parlours, but a woman who has spoken out on how she was exploited and forced into the sex trade as a teenager says the details are important — and unclear.
Melendy Muise is eager to see what those regulations will look like, or how they will help to stop the more serious problems in those establishments.
"I think that we need to get a handle more on what we're doing with the ones that exist before we open more," said Muise, who is a support specialist with the Coalition Against the Sexual Exploitation of Youth at Thrive in St. John's.
There has been a moratorium on adult massage parlours in the city since 2015. Coun. Maggie Burton told CBC News the draft regulations for those parlours are still an internal document, with ongoing review.
"Once we complete the review process which is currently ongoing, we will have a new draft to release for consultation," Burton said.
But consultation with the people affected by such regulations — sex workers and the people who work to support them — should have been part of that process all along, Muise said.
"I can't speak for other people, but I can speak for the people that I work with and they didn't come to us for any consultation," she said.
"We went to them."
Muise has detailed her own personal account of how she was forced into the sex trade at 16 by her boyfriend at the time, a relationship she said became abusive after she started refusing his demands.
After reaching out to the city in the summer when she heard about the draft regulations, Muise made a presentation to the city's committee of the whole in July about some of her concerns.
Massage parlours aren't safe: Muise
"The city's goal is to both protect the integrity of residential neighbourhoods while at the same time to recognize workers' rights to a safe environment," Burton said.
But the city's existing massage parlours are not currently safe working environments, Muise said.
"What we know and what we hear from people that we work with is they're not safer than the streets. Sometimes they're less safe," she said.
Though her work at Thrive, Muise has heard from sex workers in the massage parlours that there can be more drug use and violence in some of them than in street-level sex work.
Though she said it isn't necessarily true of all existing massage parlours in the city, Muise said she has heard of problems like underage workers, coerced sex work and violent behaviour by clients. Sex is supposed to be illegal in such parlours but is happening, she said.
Unclear why moratorium could lift
Given that there are already issues with the city's existing massage parlours, and that the demand for jobs in those parlours doesn't exceed the number available, Muise said she it's unclear how municipal regulations for massage parlours would improve worker safety in the businesses.
Her understanding is that the city's regulatory powers over such establishments focuses on matters like building codes and zoning.
"What I've gotten a sense of is the really messy stuff is not anybody's responsibility at this point," Muise said.
Right now it's not clear who has been consulted so far in this process, why the city has decided to address massage parlours at this time, and why they might be considering lifting the moratorium, she said.
Muise hopes to get answers to some of these questions, and to be part of the process as the city moves forward.
"A lot of times when we consult on these issues, we consult with people that are speaking for us instead of us specifically."
With files from The St. John's Morning Show