The Strategies and Tools to Enhance Neighbourhood Liveability via the Doing Business in Winnipeg By-law β Problematic Business Activities report would specifically lower the business license rate for practitioners at body rub parlours and escorts. It also would require measures like panic alarms and CCTV cameras in the reception area. The intention of the report is to provide more safety and monitoring of such businesses and to better support the workers.
Joy Smith, the founder and president of the Joy Smith Foundation, however, takes a very different view. I am tired of pulling young girls out of these situations and places. Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.
We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. The Joy Smith Foundation works to rescue victims of human trafficking. Over the last 25 years, Smith has worked on more than 6, cases across Canada and many of them are rooted in these massage parlours.
She said these the average age of entry for someone being trafficked is between 12 and 14 years of age, and the traffickers overwhelmingly prey on vulnerable communities like the Indigenous and new Canadians. This is not how we should represent our beautiful city of Winnipeg. The report said there are many such unlicensed businesses operating outside the downtown core.
Smith noted these services are now being incorporated into many personal wellness businesses and was a focus of a Hamilton police investigation called Project Orchid. She said the engagement for the report was incomplete as administration did not talk to parlours, practitioners or escorts about the potential impacts of such a change. It is something she has done independently over the last six months and said they gave a resounding thumbs down.
