Glamor shots from Lily's profile on " Montrealaise ," an online directory of Montreal sex workers and erotic masseuses. Lily jerks off men for a living at an east end Montreal massage parlor. She loves her job.
Lily is not a drug addict. Over the phone she sounds bright, fun, and articulate. How many there are is difficult to calculate, but a rough estimate by several sources puts the number between and on the island. Counting the greater Montreal area, there are probably well over Most erotic salons have, at a minimum, naked masseuses and a handy box of tissues nearby.
Some, Lily acknowledges, offer full service, which means sex is part of the package. She also says that others offer sex with underage girls, or girls trafficked from East Asia or Eastern Europe or Latin America. But that, she says, is a tiny percentage of the total. Yannick, like Lily, insists the overtly criminal establishments that hire underage or trafficked women represent a tiny percentage of the market. He says his associates are all strictly above board, run clean establishments, and see a real need to clarify and regulate the industry.
In a perfect world, Yannick would like to see massage parlors regulated, with clear rules on where and how they can operate. He wants no part of the truly awful side of the industry, which clearly exists , in Montreal and elsewhere. But he would like to see established lines along which he can operate. One part of the solution is fixing the issuing of permits. Sex workers in Montreal have had to do a lot of moving around over the past few years. Closing down the massage parlors would do nothing but drive the industry further underground and into darker corners, she argues.
That would put the women in more danger, away from resources that help them and even further stigmatize them.
