Nikitha Martins and Claire Fenton

Richmond body rub studio crackdown applauded by councillor Kash Heed

A controversial crackdown on some massage parlours in Richmond has led to outrage from community groups, claiming that the policies and the recent enforcement measures are racist, sexist, and sparking safety concerns for the women working in this industry.

The body rub bylaws have been in place for more than two decades and include rules on the clothing staff wear, the businesses' hours, and more. For example, rooms cannot be locked and all staff must work in rooms with windows.

Staff say it's already the most extensive bylaw enforcement regime in BC for this line of work, and now they are considering ways to further scale those measures up, including increased fines and ticketing.

However, despite the bylaws being in place since 2000, enforcement and ticketing have ramped up in recent months following the guidance of some city councillors, and advocates say these "raids" have been traumatizing to the very people the bylaws claim to protect.

"The most recent operation involving Body Rub Studios was conducted on January 12, 2024. The City conducted a joint Business Licence/RCMP investigation on the six licenced Body Rub Studios to verify that they were operating according to the conditions outlined in the Business Regulation Bylaw No. 7538. As a result of this joint Business Licence/RCMP operation, the City issued eight MTis for non-compliance under the Business Regulation Bylaw. Since there was no evidence of Criminal Code violations during the operation, the Richmond RCMP did not intervene," the report reads from City staff.

However, advocates take major issue with this version of how bylaw and RCMP attended these businesses and treated the women working there. They are alleging the employees were forced to line up, that officers stormed into private rooms containing clients, and that officers asked for the employee's identifications.

The experience was traumatizing, and threats that more enforcement could be coming prompted many stakeholders to attend a meeting on Tuesday ahead of a council decision.

"I am by no means asking the city council to condone exploitation or violence, I am telling you that you are putting these women at greater risk if you shut down these establishments. The reality is that if women are not able to work there, they will continue working but in far more dangerous situations," Angela Wu with SWAN Vancouver said at the Community Safety Committee meeting.

SWAN Vancouver has been attending licenced massage parlours for two decades through its outreach work, and they say there are many misconceptions. They say there's an assumption that all women are providing sexual services and that all of them have been forced to do so.

"Women who work in these locations are there to make a living," she said, saying they haven't seen a single case of trafficking in licenced businesses in more than 20 years.

"Women have told us how terrified they are not of organizer crime or traffickers, but of bylaw inspections," she said, adding that if the council goes forward with even firmed measures, it will make the city the most dangerous in the region for sex workers.

That message was echoed by several other speakers at the meeting in defence of marginalized women. Richmond has six licenced body rub studios, the newest among them operational since 2008, and all the others have been in business for decades.

Some support came from councillor Bill McNulty.

"The report is generally a good report, but I think it's incomplete to make a final decision," McNulty said Tuesday night, noting that it was the first time he'd heard of these serious allegations against officers and bylaw enforcement.

However, councillor Kash Heed disagreed, stating his firm support for the officers' actions, and for the motion he had introduced.

"I think your bylaw officers are doing what we expect them to do. I think the RCMP are assisting them in the way we expect them to be. All we are asking for is compliance with this bylaw. That's it. We are not looking to bring in immigration because they don't have their papers, CBSA, maybe we should? Maybe we should even look at Revenue Canada because this is most likely a cash business," he said.

"If we want to open up this can of worms, let's open up this can of worms. It's not going to be healthy. All we set out to do was comply with our current bylaws. I applaud our bylaw department, our enforcement people," he added.

Councillor Alexa Lou seconded the motion and supported the questioning of employees for documentation.

"If we don't make sure that they have their papers and we basically give them a free pass to come work in the prostitution and licence prostitution in Richmond [then] we are complicit in human trafficking and exploitation. If we gave those same women a chainsaw so they could cut down trees to make a living, you'd be all over them like a fat kid on candy," Lou said.

"Would we be more forgiving in other industries if somebody didn't have their licence?"

However, SWAN Vancouver spokesperson Crystal Laderas stated that viewpoint is a racist stereotype about Asian women.

"Asian women can consent to sex work, they don't need to be saved. They need rights, not rescue," she wrote on social media during the meeting.

In an interview with Daily Hive ahead of the meeting, Laderas urged the City of Richmond to change its approach.

"They should be looking at guidelines that the City of Vancouver has in place or the City of New Westminster is developing right now, which are sex work safety guidelines, and they encourage respectful interactions between city staff and these workers in order to keep them safe. So while we have Cities like Vancouver, who have these guidelines in place and are developing them, Richmond is moving backwards by trying to increase the enforcement and introduce more fines," she said.

She says she's curious about what the RCMP would say about their involvement.

"I have questions about whether they were consulted when this report was written. Because there are a lot of inaccuracies in it, and I really am really, really curious. as to what RCMP would say about their involvement. If this is their best practice? If they advise anybody to do that? Because as far as we know from years of advocacy with the RCMP and recent calls and meetings with them, that heavy-handed approach is not the way you build trust with the community," she said.

"I haven't forgotten that just over a year ago, a number of councillors who campaigned for their seats, talking about community safety and combating anti-Asian racism. But so many councillors seem to be leaning into Asian stereotypes," she said.

Despite pushback from SWAN Vancouver at the meeting, the motion will go before all of the council later this month and a decision is expected. That meeting will be on February 26 and you can watch it online here.