The lifting of the ban on massage parlours in St. John’s is being deemed a really important first-step towards increasing the safety and rights of sex workers across the province.

Program Coordinator with the Safe Harbour Outreach Project (SHOP), Heather Jarvis says it’s a first-step because we still need better regulations, which come down from the provincial government and not the City of St. John’s.

She says first and foremost, they’re calling for meaningful engagement with sex workers and establishing these regulations as we have a lot of good and bad practices to look to, to move forward.

Jarvis says those engaging in sex work are not breaking any laws, however there is a partial criminalization model that often still makes purchasing sexual services against the law. She says those are more punitive measures that continue to push people underground. There are no other examples where selling something and buying something is both legal and illegal.

Jarvis says this often means people are hiding, pushed underground into isolation and terrified of criminalization and being arrested.

This creates an antagonistic relationship with law enforcement, where they want people to be able to come forward especially because sex workers are the ones who first and foremost usually see violence and sexual exploitation when it’s happening.