Opinion by Barry Artiste
Certainly the Upstanding and Respected Churchgoer caught in this crackdown, can look forward to many unhappy endings.
Illegal Massage Parlours under the guise of Health and Wellness, certainly are hard to spot, though obvious signs such as naked masseuses walking around giving “Happy Endings” are a dead give away.
British Columbia’s Lower Mainland, Richmond, Burnaby and Vancouver areas have had their massage parlours busted as it was found the masseuses were in this country illegally from China, under the guise the women would be working legitimate jobs in the restaurant industry, instead found themselves bound into prostitution and massage parlours.
One wonders how these women can easily be brought into this country illegally, by these criminal organizations?
Illegal massage parlours tough to weed out
The sign above the Danforth Avenue storefront used to say “health spa.
” But last week, police taped papers in the windows reading: “Closed down by 54 Division major crime unit Toronto police” — their unofficial vow to residents that illegal massage parlours will not operate in this community.
On Tuesday, one day following the police announcement that they had raided nine spas that were alleged fronts for brothels, local business owners worried that more would open elsewhere. “It’s almost like you’re trying to clean a drug-affected area.
It’s successful here, but it just moves somewhere else,” said Hugh Huynh, who runs a pawnshop on the busy strip. Shopkeepers pointed to a new health spa that only serves men; it is across the street from a holistic centre that police shut down.
It could be legitimate, one hopeful retailer said. Police have charged 25 people with 81 criminal offences at six addresses on Danforth Avenue near Coxwell and Woodbine avenues and three on O’Connor Drive. In doing so, Detective Christopher Higgins said they have targeted all of the alleged bawdy houses in his division.
Undercover officers started their investigation in May. “Everything was offered to our undercover officers from reverse nude massages [where the client massages the masseuse] to sexual intercourse.”