I was 23, broke and desperate, barely getting by on my office salary, so I changed professions. After high school, I left my small hometown in Nova Scotia to study aviation, and later ended up in Australia. In a distant continent, where no one knew me, I decided to try stripping.
But it was exciting. The strip club was my playgroundβa place where I could shamelessly flirt and get attention from men without having to perform sex acts. At 23, I moved back to Toronto and got a desk job.
My salary was barely enough to pay my rent, and I yearned to be earning stacks of cash like I had in Australia. So I started stripping again. But the Mississauga club that hired me was more like a brothel. I quit, resolving to never work in Toronto strip clubs again. Instead, I decided to try the erotic massage industry. The building was nondescript, without any signage or branding; the owner advertised the place on Craigslist.
Inside, there was a dim lobby and five small treatment rooms, each with its own shower. Prospective clients would pick one of the spa attendants out of a lineup. As the massage progressed, I would undress and give him a hand job. Treatment room doors were left unlocked so a law-enforcement officer could open them at any time. Our only recourse for safety was the onsite managerβalso the receptionistβwho oversaw operations and monitored security cameras.
But first I needed a licence. Ideally, a rub-and-tug would operate under a body rub licence, but the city has capped the number of those establishments at As a result, many erotic massage spas operate using holistic licences, outraging the legitimate holistic health community.
