RobX

For massage in Montreal there is also montrealmassage.ca

This is an update on the status of some of the ex-Maison Massage girls, who are still in business: Aniah is working as an indy travelling mostly between Montreal and Toronto. You can reach Aniah via her website. Little Nadia is now working at Alteza Massage in Montreal. For an appointment contact Alteza Massage.

The Sex Work Reference Resources list is no longer available at the URL posted previously. However, it is available here: http://sexworkerhelpfuls.tumblr.com/post/114424633518/swer-media-club

I found this list on a tumblr site (http://free-speech4sexworkers.tumblr.com/.) It is quite an exhaustive list of sexwork reference resources including biographies, Sociology texts, documentaries, how-to guides, novels, magazines, movies, TV shows, etc. I thought it would be worthwhile to post here. Here is the URL for the list: http://free-speech4sexworkers.tumblr.com/post/112850462653/swer-media-club

This is an update on the status of some of the ex-Maison Massage girls, who are still in business: Aniah is now working along with Ophelia (also formerly of the old Maison Massage) at a new location in Old Montreal in a re-christened Maison Massage, now owned by Ophelia. You can reach Aniah via her website. Little Nadia is now working as a independent masseuse, for at short time only, in downtown Montreal in the Atwater area. You can her reach by email at her littlenadia-massage hotmail address.

The film has been presented in the past with English subtitles - for example, as announced here: http://phi-centre.com/en/events/id/lescriminelles Thus, there is a version available with English subtitles. The film can be ordered on DVD here: http://lescriminelles.com/dvd/ The web page does not mention whether the DVD comes with English subtitles, although since it is available with English subtitles, one would expect that the DVD should include this choice in it's language options.

The film is now available for viewing online here: http://lescriminelles.com/project/film/

A follow-up on this story in the Globe and Mail: Sex workers panicking after deaths of two B.C. escorts [url]http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/sex-workers-panicking-after-deaths-of-two-bc-escorts/article13994042/[/url] Here is an extract: [QUOTE]After the news broke, Susan Davisâ??s phone rang nearly non-stop â?? around 80 calls in the first 24 hours alone. A long-time sex worker, an outspoken activist and a mother figure of sorts for other women in the trade, Ms. Davis became a go-to contact for other workers panicked to learn of two recent escort deaths and left wondering: â??What should I do?â? â??Theyâ??re freaking out. Everybody is freaking out,â? Ms. Davis said Tuesday. â??People are working together in little collectives because no one wants to be working alone, independently, right now. Some girls have come together; other girls are going on tour. Other people are just taking down their ads and everything.â? ... Simon Fraser University criminologist John Lowman, who has studied prostitution and related law and enforcement for more than 35 years, says safety measures are complicated by the quasi-legal status of prostitution in Canada: The sale and purchase of sex is legal, but many elements related to it â?? such as keeping a bawdy house, soliciting or communicating and living off the avails of prostitution â?? are not. â??Legally, they canâ??t have any kind of person who lives in part on the avails of prostitution, so they canâ??t have a bodyguard,â? Mr. Lowman said. â??They canâ??t have a driver if the driver knows heâ??s being paid through the avails of prostitution.â? Sex workers canâ??t operate out of one place on an ongoing basis, or else it becomes a bawdy house, or communicate in a public place. â??The current legal system is worse than absurd: Prostitution is legal as long as you donâ??t do it,â? he said.[/QUOTE]

YMMV is a a commonly used term in the escort business, which one does not generally find in other services industries, where all customers expect to be treated equally. Thus, one can legitimately ask the question: Why is it different in the escort business? There are several subsidiary questions regarding this issue that one can ask, which can best be answered by SPs: In most cases, is YMMV under the control of the client (eg. cleanliness, behaviour) or out of his control (eg. physical attractiveness, chemistry)? Does YMMV depend on the mood of the SP at the time, or does it solely depend on the client attributes or behaviour? Is YMMV time-variable - ie. should a client always expect the same, or possibly different, results the next time he visits the same SP? It would be interesting to have the viewpoint of SPs on the board regarding this question, as well as the opinion and experience of hobbyists on this subject.

This is an update on the status of the ex-Maison Massage girls, excluding those who have retired. Aniah is working along with Nikki out of a small apartment in downtown Montreal - a sort of mini-Maison Massage - Aniah during the week, and Nikki on weekends. They plan to do the same in Toronto. Currently, Nikki is in Montreal every second weekend, while Aniah, who does travel to Ottawa and Toronto, spends most of her time in Montreal. Eventually, she plans to spend two weeks of each month in Montreal, with the other two weeks of the month split between Ottawa and Toronto. There is more info on Aniah's website, which can be found by googling Aniah independent. Tiffany works out of a condo in Villeray close to Jarry metro station and also travels to Toronto. Her website can be found by googling Tifany (one "f") massage. I have heard that Milena is now doing therapeutic massages only, but I do not have her contact info. My personal favorite, Little Nadia, has come close to returning to erotic massage quite recently, However, those plans may, or may not, be on hold for the moment.

The Hamilton Spectator, May 31, 2013: http://www.thespec.com/news-story/3250848-hamilton-police-hunt-high-risk-offender-who-is-violent-toward-sex-workers/

Huffington Post: Michael Edward Farley Arrested In Vancouver Sex Worker Attack

An article appears in today's McGill Daily student newpaper, with input from Stella (Montreal sex worker support group), on the subject of how Montreal Police force (SPVM - Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal) deals with street sex workers in the city, and the consequences of these policing polices. - [url=http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2013/03/sex-and-the-spvm/]McGill Daily: Sex and the SPVM[/url] The article mains two main points: 1. SPVM targeting of clients results in increased risk to sex workers from bad clients: [QUOTE]Every year, beginning in the spring and early summer, the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) plants fake police officers disguised as sex workers on corners normally occupied by outdoor workers, in an attempt to target and prosecute clients seeking sexual services. â??[B]Client-based approaches are dangerous for sex workers[/B],â? says Ã?milie Laliberté, a former sex worker and the general director at Stella. â??Whenever thereâ??s a raise in the persecution of [Stellaâ??s] clients on the streets [by the SPVM], we have way more descriptions on the bad tricks list.â? The â??bad tricksâ? list is a section of a monthly bulletin released by Stella that provides workers with descriptions of violent assailants recently seeking services, and the act, and location, so that the workers may better protect themselves. According to Laliberté, the SPVM might arrest anywhere from 50 to 75 clients in one week. Fewer clients on the streets leads to longer hours spent soliciting, more tension and stigma from area residents, and less choice and control over clients. Reports of violence against sex workers increase. Theyâ??re going to accept clients that they would have not accepted before, and theyâ??re going to accept less for services than they would have done before. Sometimes they will have the instinct that maybe someone doesnâ??t look good or they get a bad feeling, but theyâ??re not going to listen to it because theyâ??ve been waiting on the corner for three hours, and so theyâ??re going to jump in the car.â?[/QUOTE] 2. The attitude of the SPVM towards sex workers results in violence against sex workers most often not being reported, and even when it is reported, it is often not investigated, effectively leaving street sex workers without any protection from the violence they are subject to on a regular basis. [QUOTE][B]Sex workers in Montreal greatly mistrust the SPVM because it sees them as criminals rather than members of a community[/B]. As a result, they are unable to ask for the services they need, and are forced to choose between obeying the law and maintaining their own personal safety. One of the major issues regarding sex workers and [lack of] police protectionâ?¦is that all the violence faced by sex workers goes unresolved. We have about 15 to 20 bad trick descriptions of events of assault, sometimes rape, sometimes attempts of murder,â? Laliberté told The Daily. â??These sex workers that come to us with a number, address, description â?? they wonâ??t necessarily press charges against the assaulters because they donâ??t believe in the system and theyâ??re afraid theyâ??re going to be the one ending up in jail.â? In Montreal, Stella annually records between fifty and sixty cases of violence, including rape, brutal beatings, and attempted murder against sex workers. These statistics, and the information that accompanies them â?? sometimes as specific as home addresses of the assailants â?? are available to the SPVM, often only nominally investigated. Only four or five cases reach the courts every year. 171 female sex workers were murdered between 1991 and 2004, according to a 2006 Statistics Canada report. Because many such killings go unreported, a House of Commons sub-committee declared that these numbers were â??almost certainly lower than the real figures.â?[/QUOTE] The article concludes by stating that sex workers are pinning their hopes on a favorable decision in the Bedford case which will be heard by the Supreme Court on June 12. [QUOTE]Weâ??ll be looking to the Supreme Court to make a decision that could make it much safer for all sex workers to work in Canada and receive as much protection from the police as any other citizen,â? says Laliberté.[/QUOTE] It is also worth mentioning that the attitude and policies of the SPVM towards sex workers contrasts greatly with those of the Vancouver Police, as explained in a recent article on the subject: [url=http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Vancouver+police+policy+prostitution+laws+called+model+country/8025737/story.html]Vancouver Sun: Vancouver police policy on prostitution laws called a model for the country (with video)[/url]

Man sought in beating of sex worker: http://www.castanet.net/news/BC/88346/Man-sought-in-beating-of-sex-worker

A full-feature documentary film, Les Criminelles, by Quebec film maker Jean-Claude Lord, opened this past Friday in Montreal, playing in French only, at Cinema Quartier Latin and Cinema Beaubien. Here is the film trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=uA5oei4D0rg The film features interviews with various Montreal sex workers, including strippers who work at the Kingdom strip club, as well as escorts, erotic masseuses, a street worker, a tantric goddess, personnel at Stella, a sexologist and others. The documentary denounces the stigmatization and criminalization of sex work and powerfully illustrates the impact of the stigmatization and criminalization of sex work, in terms of compromising the safety of sex workers, and the impact on the lives of sex workers in general. In seeking to understand the root of society's attitude toward sex work, the film asks several questions: Why is sex for money illegal when sex in return for a meal at an expensive restaurant or a trip is perfectly acceptable? Why is nudity so offensive to so many people when portrayal of graphic violence is perfectly acceptable to these same people? What are the consequences for society of such hypocrisy? In arguing against the stigmatization and criminalization of sex work, the film deals extensively with the fact that a good part of the demonization of sex work is spearheaded by feminist groups, specifically radical feminists. The film points out that the laws against prostitution were written by men and date back to a time when women did not have full right rights, could not vote, and were not considered as full citizens. The film goes on to to highlight the fact that, ironically, today it is radical feminists who are in the forefront of the fight against prostitution, and that feminists who refuse to accept the fact that there are sex workers who have chosen their profession of their own free will, are essentially portraying these women as infantile, immature and incapable of making the right choices on their own, which is not much different from how men viewed women before the birth of feminism. The film compares the actions of these radical feminist groups who campaign for the abolition of sex work to the witch hunts of the 18th century. If you are in Montreal this week and understand French, the film is well worth seeing.