Hazards of the trade

Hannah Jones and Erica Brown describe their typical work week much like someone who drives for Uber or a food-delivery app.

Just like those independent contractors, the two women set their own schedules, often fitting them around other jobs.

The difference is, they safeguard their identities because their work can be extremely hazardous.

They are sex workers at a massage parlour in Winnipeg.

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The city’s erotic massage parlour industry operates unabashedly in the open. Several local escort agencies and parlours tout their services online, Google reviews included. But it also operates very much in the shadows.

That dichotomy is reflected in how loosely the trade is regulated.

The industry exists in a legal grey area — purchasing sexual services is illegal in Canada, but selling them isn’t — and there is limited oversight and safeguards in Winnipeg.

It’s an industry where many hope to remain anonymous, with most sex workers operating under pseudonyms to protect their identities and to keep themselves from being stalked or harassed.

Jones and Brown — both pseudonyms — felt a rush of fear earlier this month after an anonymous social media page with explicit photos surfaced revealing their legal names, along with the identities of several other women who operate in the city’s sex-work industry.

“I compare this industry to the wild, wild west… Anything goes.”–Hannah Jones

They believe the photos were posted as retaliation by management at their former workplace, Diamonds Massage on Sargent Avenue, after they expressed concern over how the body rub parlour was being run.

The women went to police and alleged that Diamonds Massage management would force women to pay unfair room fees, steal their tips and ban them from doing sex work outside of the parlour.

And some of their accusations were darker: Jones and Brown both said management would prey on vulnerable women in need of money to support a drug habit and get them to perform sex work, and force women to perform sexual acts beyond their comfort levels if the client paid enough.

A Winnipeg Police Service spokesperson confirmed that its counter-exploitation unit is investigating the women’s claims but wouldn’t provide further information.

When contacted by the Free Press, the owner of Diamonds refused to give his name but confirmed that staff had accused a manager of creating the social media post. He said the manager has been fired, calling the incident “totally wrong.”

When asked about the women’s other serious allegations, he told the Free Press it was “the very first (he was) hearing about (them).”

He said he’s leaving the industry and sold the Diamonds Massage building days after the police talked to the women.

Jones and Brown say the sale of the building doesn’t fix the bigger problem. They say the victimization and exploitation of sex workers by management could have been prevented if there were bylaws in place regulating the escort business in the city.

“I compare this industry to the wild, wild west. No rules, men have got guns a-blazing, there’s women in the saloon waiting for their next client. Anything goes,” Jones told the Free Press.

“And that’s very dangerous and problematic.”

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Here’s how erotic massage parlours work. It doesn’t always involve sex, though it often does.

Clients pay a room fee to the establishment’s management and then tip the worker they choose. Clients and the worker barter in the room as to what will occur and how much it will cost.

Jones and Brown said they’ve been paid for everything from cuddling to actual massages to just having a conversation with someone who’s lonely. Some days they earn upwards of $1,000, while other days pass without a single client.

“The majority of clients are sweet, are very respectful,” Brown said. “Some are businessmen or people in power, people that you would never think.”

It’s not always cuddles and conversation, however. Both say they’ve been in frightening and unsafe situations.

And while they’ve never encountered trafficked women in their workplaces, they know that happens, too.

“I’ve had clients that have tried to force me to do things, push my head down. I’ve had clients that have begged me for things and raised their voice at me and been very, very aggressive with me. Scary things have happened to me. … It has happened where I’ve had to leave the room and leave the client because I didn’t feel safe,” Jones said.

“Some are businessmen or people in power, people that you would never think.”–Erica Brown

They are quite familiar with the stigmas they face — that they use their money to fuel drug habits, that they don’t pay taxes, that they break up families. They know how to handle those accusations.

But having their identities revealed? That introduced a new level of fear.

“My parents are Christian. I’m a Christian. I was raised in a very religious home. My parents can’t find out that I do this,” Jones said.

“I was really angry more than anything,” Brown added.

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How did the sex trade in Winnipeg wind up operating in legal limbo?

Beginning in 2008, escorts, escort agencies, body rub parlours and body rub practitioners required a licence under the Doing Business in Winnipeg bylaw.

Agencies were required to operate only in the downtown area and workers had to provide photo ID, addresses and phone numbers in order to obtain a licence.

Other rules were more specific: escorts were banned from being nude on the premises of an escort agency, and those working in massage parlours had to be clothed from the neck down to, at most, 10 centimetres above the top of the knee.

Bylaw repealed

In 2022, city council voted to repeal the bylaw, but the 31 businesses that already had licences were grandfathered and permitted to stay open.

Jones said once the bylaw was taken off the books, management at Diamonds Massage — calling themselves “untouchable” — got worse.

And police checks at the parlour to ensure that no one was being trafficked or exploited dried up.

“I do feel like a victim in this business,” Jones said. “When you are an escort and you work in this industry, because you are self-employed, and there is no more regulation with the city, and we don’t have licences, so you really do feel like you’re on your own. These people can fully take advantage of you.”

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Sex workers and their advocates were split on the decision to repeal the bylaw. Some believed it was necessary to ensure the city was not potentially profiting from exploitation, while others saw it as de-legitimizing their work and sending them further underground.

Sgt. Shawn Trinder said city council’s decision has “absolutely” changed how Winnipeg Police Service’s counter-exploitation investigators are able to maintain contact with sex workers.

Previously, police had the authority to enter parlours to meet with management and staff, regardless of whether an investigation was underway or if they had a warrant.

“Back when those bylaws were in existence and we were able to utilize that, our intent in there was to make contact with the people working there, try and assess and make sure things are are going well, so to speak, the working conditions are OK, and make that in-person contact with the individual, and providing them information on how they can get in touch with us in case something changes…,” he said.

“That authority simply doesn’t exist now.”

Today, the unit connects with workers through other, more time-consuming methods, and focuses on “buyer enforcement” in the multi-faceted world of purchasing sex — be it at massage parlours, in hotel rooms, on the street or, increasingly, online. A “significant majority” of investigations are focused on a combination of online and parlour-based sales, Trinder said.

While the industry is constantly changing, he suggested the number of people selling sexual services in Winnipeg is in the hundreds — and the number of people buying it is significantly higher.

“It’s not as as clandestine as it used to be, which I think is actually a good thing. I think that has helped to take some steps towards making it a little bit safer,” he said.

“But for the general public, I think it still is relatively clandestine in the sense that they’re just not aware of how prevalent it really is, not just in Winnipeg, but across Canada.”

Trinder stops short of saying that reintroducing the licensing requirement would affect the number of people selling or procuring sex — but said there needs to be some form of oversight.

“The ability to have some kind of regulation, meaning it allows some form of inspection, whether it’s from law enforcement or even bylaw enforcement of some kind, to have the legal authority for someone to easily and regularly have contact with massage parlours, for example, I think (would) make it much easier.”

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The relationship between law enforcement and sex workers is often fraught. So, it’s no surprise that not everyone in the industry agrees with the police’s position.

The Sex Workers of Winnipeg Action Coalition (SWWAC) advocated for an end to the licensing requirement in 2022, calling the bylaw a financial hurdle, restrictive for sex workers and a mechanism that unnecessarily gave police the authority to surveil sex workers and keep sensitive records, including photos of individuals and client lists.

“I would never, on purpose, open myself up to that sort of surveillance,” said Emma, a member of SWWAC who asked to be referred to only by her first name. “Also not knowing where those records are, who has access to those records, and if I stop doing sex work, how I can get those records removed.”

“Sex workers are still plenty criminalized.”–Emma

“The police in Winnipeg also don’t see sex work as sex work, they see sex work and all sex workers as exploited,” said Austin, another member who works in the industry.

“So, when they’re coming into a space with authority from the city to protect or to intervene in some way, they’re coming in and looking at workers and clients as all this kind of one big mess of exploitation, when we know from experience it is much more nuanced than that.”

The coalition would prefer that the federal government de-criminalize sex work, rather than seeing a return of more stringent municipal or police oversight.

While their work remains technically legal, they said police will still use loopholes to charge them with a crime.

“Sex workers are still plenty criminalized. Just because you’re a sex worker, you can still be charged with things regarding sex work. If I’m an outdoor sex worker and I’m holding up traffic, I can be charged for that. If I’m out in public by a church and I’m talking to a client and I’m soliciting, I can be charged with that…,” Emma said.

“Who better to know what to do to keep us safe than sex workers ourselves?”–Emma

That tension is often a barrier to an open, frank dialogue between sex workers and police.

“(When) sex-work industries are pushed in this partially criminalized way, it makes it really hard for sex workers to feel comfortable talking about concerns that they have in their own workplace, concerns about workplace violence,” Austin said.

An alliance of sex worker groups previously argued Canada’s law on sex work was unconstitutional and stigmatized sex workers. Their Charter challenge was dismissed in 2023. SWWAC, however, continues to fight for full decriminalization.

“Who better to know what to do to keep us safe than sex workers ourselves?” Emma said.

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Canadian cities are split on how to regulate escort services.

Two years before Winnipeg repealed its licensing bylaw, Regina introduced its own for body rub establishments. Owners are required to go through background checks, take education sessions on sexual health and spotting human trafficking, and pay an annual $1,200 licensing fee.

The issue was divisive in Saskatchewan’s capital. Councillors who voted in favour said it provided some sort of oversight, while workers said licensing wouldn’t make the business any safer.

The new regulations also require panic buttons to be installed and prohibit locks on parlour room doors.

Edmonton, meanwhile, issues business licences to escort agencies and individual escorts, which require criminal record checks and for the applicant to take a half-day course on “employment standards, regulations, laws, rights and important health information that apply to those working in adult-oriented businesses.”

Before it scrapped its licensing requirement, Winnipeg was considering a similar approach, including a mandatory information session for workers, panic alarms in all rooms, and a closed-circuit television camera system in reception areas of body rub parlours.

“It was a very important vote for a lot of people, I think.”–Coun. Sherri Rollins

Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort-Rouge-East Fort Garry) was a pivotal force behind repealing Winnipeg’s licensing requirement in 2022.

She said she’s grateful for the discourse that inspired the change, saying sex-work regulation didn’t belong in a bylaw about doing business in Winnipeg.

“It was a very important vote for a lot of people, I think,” she said.

She said the move was in line with the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ calls for justice, and her focus now is supporting projects that assist vulnerable people working in the industry who may be fleeing violence or who are without shelter.

The city has a responsibility to ensure it isn’t benefiting in any material way from violence, she added.

“As a (former) school trustee, I spent some time with our school resource officers who, day to day, got people to school who otherwise were needing protection from johns,” she said. “These are very young — I would characterize them as children. … That really did take me aback, when I saw this Doing Business in Winnipeg bylaw.”

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Jones and Brown have complicated relationships with their line of work. Both acknowledge they were in a dark place when they began — Brown was living with an abusive boyfriend, while Jones was nearly homeless — but they say they’re thankful for what they’d been able to achieve in the years since.

“Starting in the industry gave me the financial security to know that I didn’t need to have (my ex-boyfriend) around, then I gave him the boot because I knew that I could pay my own bills,” Brown said.

“This job is an opportunity to make our lives better … this industry saved me,” Jones added.

Now, they’re veterans who watch and worry as new workers enter the field.

Sex workers in Winnipeg take care of each other and, without regulations, they regulate themselves.

“You need other girls to rely on, and you are in this as a team,” Jones said.

“And if you don’t have those friendships, if you don’t have that team beside you, you’re very vulnerable.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

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