Sarah Grochowski

As Richmond eyes harsher penalties for massage parlours, critic fears it will drive workers underground

The City of Richmond proposes ramping up bylaw enforcement on body rub parlours that could see the businesses' licences suspended or revoked.

A staff report going before the City of Richmond's public safety committee this week is recommending harsher penalties against body rub parlours for bylaw infractions.

One city councillor who supports the crackdown says he's concerned the businesses could be fronts for human trafficking. But a critic says increased enforcement could have the effect of scaring workers into more dangerous locations.

Currently, parlours can face fines of up to $1,000 for bylaw infractions. A report from Mark Corrado, the city's bylaw and licensing director, and Edward Warzel, manager of police services, proposes ramping up penalties to allow for steeper fines, as well as licence suspensions or cancellations. There are six licensed body rub parlours in the city, according to the staff report.

The staff report was a response to a motion put forward by Coun. Kash Heed at a meeting of the public safety committee last November during which he said these businesses were potentially "avenues that are used for human trafficking."

"We've got an incredible market, unfortunately in Richmond, and a demand for the services of sex-trade workers," he said. "I think it's incumbent on us … we take a strong stand against this."

Angela Wu, executive director of the Vancouver-based non-profit SWAN, which supports migrant and immigrant women engaged in indoor sex work, disagrees.

"For months, women engaged in sex work in Richmond have been subject to bylaw raids. … It has ironically pushed workers into spaces where there is a greater risk of exploitation and violence the city claims it wants to address," Wu said in a statement on social media last week.

"The report going before the committee …k is filled with misinformation and an irresponsible conflation of exploitation, trafficking and sex work," Wu said.

Authorities should instead take a "compassionate" approach to bylaw enforcement "so (sex) workers feel safe calling police when they are victims of a crime."

But Heed, a former police chief and B.C. solicitor general, says Richmond is "not looking to target the women who work in the parlours, but the unsavoury characters who are turning a profit by exploiting them."

Heed pointed to alleged criminal connections in at least one licensed body rub parlour, Water Cube spa. It previously operated inside the Radisson Hotel and was run by alleged money launderer Paul Jin, who was shot and wounded at a local Japanese restaurant in the fall of 2020.

"Bylaws are what the city has within its power to deal with this problem," Heed said.

While massage parlours are legal in Canada, purchasing sex work is banned. Since 2000, Richmond bylaws have prohibited body rub parlours from operating past midnight, from using locks on room doors and obstructing room windows, and staff from wearing outer garments that do not cover the area between their neck and knee.

In the past six months, Richmond bylaw officers have issued 13 tickets for non-compliance to licensed parlour operators, according to the staff report. The latest operation, carried out on Jan. 12 by bylaw and RCMP officers, investigated all six body rub establishments. While they found bylaw violations and handed out eight tickets for non-compliance, no criminal activity was cited.

Investigating illegal sex work enterprises remains a concern for Richmond RCMP, according to the report, "due to the possible nexus to sexual assault, human trafficking, organized crime and child or youth sexual exploitation."

The report outlines three cases over the past five years in Richmond involving suspected human trafficking, including one in 2019 where a sex worker told police they were assaulted, their movements were being controlled and they were forced to have sex with "multiple clients a day." The case ended with one person being convicted of assault and uttering threats," the RCMP said.

None of the cases mentioned in the report were linked to any of the six licensed body rub parlours in Richmond.

Richmond RCMP on Saturday said they were not able to provide a comment.

With files from Kim Bolan and Douglas Quan