[Sexworkersandfriends..potluck..] New city bylaw rubs massage therapist wrong way

[Andy Sorfleet]

EDMONTON JOURNAL
Monday, January 16, 2012

Gordon Kent




New city bylaw rubs massage therapist wrong way

[photo caption]
Trish Roberts, neuromuscular therapist, is concerned that after 25
years in the field the city wanted to give her a business licence in
the same category as body rub parlours.
Photograph by: Rick MacWilliam, edmontonjournal.com

EDMONTON - A longtime Edmonton massage therapist is incensed after
city staff indicated her new business licence must be in the category
that also covers people giving erotic body rubs.

"They told me I could have a rub-and-tug licence, but I will not be
able to get my regular licence," says Trish Roberts, who has practised
neuromuscular therapy for more than 20 years and runs the Body Lines
Neuromuscular Clinic.

"I said 'you're insane -- not only are you going to deny me a licence,
but you're going to insult me.' "

A major overhaul of city licensing rules last fall included relaxed
regulations for authentic therapists and stricter conditions for
body-rub workers, who might do "manipulation of an adult or erotic
nature," as well as strippers and escorts.

People licensed in the body-rub category, which also includes reiki
and other non-sexual treatments, pay a $208 fee, take a sexual
exploitation course, must list any aliases and undergo a criminal
record check.

So-called health enhancement practitioners, on the other hand, pay an
$80 fee and face few conditions, but must be members of the Natural
Health Practitioners of Canada or the Massage Therapists Association
of Alberta.

The problem is that Roberts and about 20 Edmonton colleagues are in
the Remedial Massage Therapists Association, so they don't qualify for
the health enhancement licence.

Roberts only learned about this hitch when she tried to renew her
business licence at the beginning of January.

Although her association has advised her to keep working while the
issue is being resolved, even though her licence has expired, she
calls the situation "crazy."

"Nobody seems to know what's going on ... I have been supporting this
city for 25 years in business and this is how I've been treated. I
have been denied an opportunity to earn a living," she says.

"I don't do anything wrong in my life. I pay my bills. I stay on the up-and-up."

Len Balogh, president of the 200-member association, says there was a
"oversight" when the bylaw was being reviewed last year because
Edmonton officials couldn't contact the Red Deer-based group's former
leaders.

He expects the bylaw will be changed to cover his members, who must
have 2,200 hours of education and disclose any criminal convictions.

"Edmonton is leading the way ... I think they have started down a good
path with the separate licences."

Chief city licensing officer Randy Kirillo says he expects to propose
council amend the bylaw to cover the association once details are
worked out, such as ensuring members have criminal record checks as in
the other two groups.

He doesn't know how long this will take.

"I see legitimacy to their organization being put in the bylaw, but
I'm not council, so I can't attest that the bylaw will be changed."

He won't comment directly on whether local association members will be
hit with fines -- starting at $200 -- if they work without a licence
until the issue is settled.

However, he has discussed with bylaw officials that "writing tickets
for their members will not be a priority of enforcement," he says.

Under the old bylaw last year, the most current figure available,
there were 1,057 licensed massage practitioners in Edmonton.


© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
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