Several years ago, Helen Griwkowsky sought a listing in the Yellow Pages as a registered massage therapist. She was horrified when she discovered her name listed under “escort services.”

Unsavoury characters — including a prominent member of the community — showed up at her clinic just outside Edmonton looking for more than just a massage.

“When we started out, we had that problem — people looking for ‘happy endings’, ” Griwkowsky said. While she laughs about it now, the episode illustrates how easily the line can blur between those who provide therapeutic or health-based massages and those who offer erotic services or “rub-and-tugs.”

It’s a source of frustration not only for massage therapists but for municipalities tasked with regulating the different businesses. Some cities have been at it for years.

The issue recently made national headlines when NDP leader Jack Layton admitted he patronized a Toronto massage business in the 1990s that police suspected of being a bawdy house. But Layton, who was not charged, said he was just going for a shiatsu and that he was the victim of a smear campaign.

In Winnipeg, residents recently called the city’s attention to a massage parlour located next to a community centre frequented by children. Men have propositioned young women outside the business and naked bodies have been spotted through the windows, said Molly McCracken, executive director of the West Broadway Development Corp., which is adjacent to the massage business.

In the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, B.C., staff at the posh Radisson Hotel have called police repeatedly over the past year to complain about a massage business, the Water Club, located in the hotel’s top two floors. During one visit in June 2010, a man answered the door wearing a towel but refused to let police in, according to a city staff report with detailed police accounts. On another visit in September, police were allowed in and came across a massage room with its window obscured by a towel. They found a man and woman — both naked — inside.

Last month, Richmond city council suspended the massage parlour’s licence for 60 days, citing a raft of bylaw infractions. The Water Club’s lawyer tried to argue that a licence suspension would have “devastating” economic effects since the business paid $20,000 a month in rent and would put 30 to 40 employees out of work.

The council was unmoved.

Municipalities across the country have tried to curb illicit activity by requiring so-called body-rub parlours — massage businesses that do not offer any medical or therapeutic benefits — to pay hefty licensing fees and adhere to certain restrictions.

The rules cover everything from how late the business can stay open to what employees have to wear to how floor plans should be laid out.

The city of Windsor, Ont., for instance, recently drafted a bylaw that says body-rub parlours must close at 10 p.m., requires employees and customers to keep their private parts covered at all times and forbids massage rooms from ever being locked.

A city councillor in Winnipeg recently brought forward a motion proposing restrictions on where massage parlours can be located in the city, saying that such rules already exist for pawn shops and cheque-cashing businesses. The city of Edmonton is in the midst of drafting a bylaw that would create a separate set of rules for “non-health related massage” businesses and beef up enforcement by establishing a team of police, city community standards staff, provincial health services staff and federal immigration workers.

But many businesses flout such rules. A report by a Simon Fraser University criminologist found that some business owners in Vancouver obtained licences as “health enhancement centres” but were really just fronts for prostitution.

Vancouver police spokesman Const. Lindsey Houghton confirmed his department carries out enforcement action against an average of five massage businesses a year and that criminal charges have been laid in some cases against businesses that purport to provide health-enhancing or therapeutic massages.

The same thing is happening in Toronto, said Toronto city Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti. He said city staff are not doing enough to scrutinize massage businesses before handing out licences to them.

“We hand out the licences without very many questions,” he said. “What that has led to is a huge amount of illicit massage parlours being set up, which is almost unenforceable.”

For their part, police agencies across Canada said they still tend to get more complaints about street-level prostitution and that undercover operations inside suspected bawdy houses don’t happen very often.

However, officials, including Ottawa police Supt. Ty Cameron, said they will not hesitate to take action against massage parlours that exploit minors, are engaged in human trafficking or are involved in organized crime.

Asked what members of the public should do to avoid patronizing the wrong business, police officials advised checking to make sure they have a licence, seeing if they are run by registered massage therapists and getting referrals from medical professionals.

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