The lifting of the ban on massage parlors in St. John’s, Newfoundland is being deemed a really important first-step towards increasing the safety and rights of sex workers across the province.
St. John’s is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It lies on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the large Canadian island, Newfoundland.
The St. John’s City Council voted unanimously to lift the ban at Monday evening’s public council meeting, after debate about regulations for safety and employment standards.
Deputy Mayor Sheilagh O’Leary said a later conversation is needed on safety of the workers, and amended the motion, seconded by Coun. Debbie Hanlon, to include public consultation.
Program Coordinator with the Safe Harbour Outreach Project (SHOP), Heather Jarvis says lifting the moratorium on massage parlors constitutes a valuable first-step because we still need better regulations, which come down from the provincial government and not the City of St. John’s.
She says first and foremost, they’re calling for meaningful engagement with sex workers and establishing these regulations as we have a lot of good and bad practices to look to, to move forward.
Jarvis says those engaging in sex work are not breaking any laws, however there is a partial criminalization model (a.k.a. the Nordic Model) that often still makes purchasing sexual services against the law. She says those are more punitive measures that continue to push people underground. There are no other examples where selling something and buying something is both legal and illegal.
Jarvis says this often means people are hiding, pushed underground into isolation and terrified of criminalization and being arrested.
This creates an antagonistic relationship with law enforcement, where they want people to be able to come forward especially because sex workers are the ones who first and foremost usually see violence and sexual exploitation when it’s happening.
Regulations
As of now, the moratorium is lifted, but is still pending the enactment of an amendment package to current St. John’s development regulations, which could take up to three months.
The amendments include a number of restrictions on where message parlors can be located in the city. The amendment states massage parlors cannot be located within 50 metres of the downtown war memorial, 25 metres of a residential zone or apartment zone, or 150 metres of a school, place of worship or a daycare.
