EXCLUSIVE: Investigation reveals sex spas in your neighbourhood
Posted October 27, 2017 5:52 pm.
Last Updated October 28, 2017 1:20 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Holistic spas offering sexual services are in every corner of the city, with heavy concentrations in North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke.
CityNews brought you the story on Thursday, revealing that the city’s auditor general believes at least 25 per cent of the city’s 400 licensed spas are offering unauthorized services.
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25 per cent of Toronto holistic centres offer sexual services: report
500 charges have been laid over the past few years. However the bylaws and their enforcement tools aren’t effective at shutting these spas down, causing concern for one city Councillor.
Councillor James Karygiannis for Ward 39 (Scarborough-Agincourt) says his neighbourhood is overrun by “rub-and-tugs” and unlicensed holistic centres. Simply put, he wants them out.
“I do not want them in my ward,” he said. “It’s something we have to deal with very clearly. They need to give Municipal Licensing and Standards (MLS) clear directions on how to deal with them.”
Tracey Cook with MLS says while they know about it and attempt to deal with cracking down harder on these spas, their job is not that easy.
“We recognize that we have to have a much bigger conversation as a city about what has caused this and what are we going to do about it,” said Cook. “It’s a very large policy discussion and we’re going to take it from there.”
