A posting at the 59 Carden blog accused City Council of being morally righteous in trying to establish a by-law to regulate body rub parlours.
Running a “common bawdy house” is illegal. Enforcing the law is not a morally righteous act. The problem with the law as it currently is enforced has been problematic for police forces in Ontario. They have not been able to convict the owners — who are the ones who should take responsibility — because the owners are not there and turn around and say they didn’t know that the “sale of sexual services” was going on. Yeah right….
A business licencing by-law however, can be used to shut down establishments that do not follow a set of regulations. The regulations are pretty simple - like wearing clothes and having a sink to wash hands. That shouldn’t be a problem for legitimate health care service providers.
It hasn’t been an easy road to come up with the perfect solution. Trained professional holistic health care service providers feel they are being lumped in with the sleazy businesses. A consultative working group is going to meet to get more input from this valuable stakeholder group before coming back with the proposed by-law.
Leanne
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March 24, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Magda Konieczna
Hi Leanne,
I just wanted to clarify — it was a comment, not a posting, at 59 Carden St. that criticized council over its stance on body rubs. That comment is here: http://guelphmercury.blogs.com/59_carden_st/2008/03/body-rub-angst.html#comment-107736444.
Magda
March 24, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Mike Wisniewski
And that’s just it Leanne,
you want to shut them down.
Why?
Only people who want to be there go there. Those who don’t want to go there don’t, unless, of course, they really did “rub you the wrong way”
March 28, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Leanne
I have no desire to harass or shut down legitimate businesses conducting lawful activity in the City.
Illegal ones are another matter.
Why? Because the operation of a “common bawdy house” in Ontario is illegal. So is a crack house. It’s not okay to break the law in Guelph. And it’s not okay to do it on main streets where children walk to school, and people go shopping, and legitimate professionals conduct their business next door.
March 29, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Mike Wisniewski
Did you ever stop to think there are laws on the books that just aren’t right? You’re taking a “if they say it’s wrong, it must be wrong attitude”. Just because something is “illegal” doesn’t make it wrong.
We’re not talking about children walking to school (you can’t shield them forever), people going shopping (if they want body rubs, they know where to find them; if not, I imagine they would steer clear) or “legitimate” professionals (legitimate professionals will keep their legitimate clientele)
We’re talking about the city intervening in a personal and private business transaction where they don’t belong, period.
Mike
May 5, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Mike Wisniewski
Nothing to add, eh?
Looks like I win.
June 25, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Mike Wisniewski
Well,
I hope your happy, you’ve obviously gotten your holier-than-thou, puritan agenda passed, yet again.
It makes me sick
Period
June 27, 2008 at 2:53 am
Leanne
I am very impressed with the quality and depth of the by-law that Council passed this week. The holistic health care practitioners helped to draft the final document, and a representative from the group came as a delegate to the Council meeting to express support for the by-law. He remarked that he believes Guelph has crafted the best example of a holistic health care services by-law in Ontario. I believe we have done an excellent job representing the best interests of the whole community in this regard.
Leanne
June 29, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Mike Wisniewski
The whole community MINUS the industry and it’s patrons that you’ve shunned.
WHOLE community my rear-end, this is nothing more than a witch-hunt.
I believe you didn’t even consider the interests of those involved in the body-rub sector. You just went in, blinders on, thinking these places are dirty and evil and needed to be shut down.
What did they ever do to you, really?