773 Queensway

After a two-year battle and dozens of complaints from neighbours, the city has managed to close down one of its most notorious rub-and-tug "holistic" centres.

The Ontario Court of Justice has ordered 773A The Queensway, a licensed "holistic" spa, to shut its doors on Monday, and keep them closed for two years.

"If they haven t locked the doors by August 1st, then we go in with a contractor and we board it up and lock it up," Pam Coburn, executive director of municipal licensing and standards, said yesterday. "And if we go back on August 2nd and they ve reopened, then we go again."

The city sought the closure order after the owner, Marc Pierre Venot, was convicted in January of operating the licensed holistic centre as an unlicensed body rub parlour.

Kwong Cham Shong, the manager of 773A The Queensway, said she will obey the court order, and plans to leave the country soon after the "spa" shuts down. The body rub parlour is located next to the Kingsway Lambton Home for Seniors, whose residents have long been demanding that the sex den be closed.

"I am going back to China," said Shong, known to her clients and neighbours as Sophie. "I like Canada. But I don t know what I did wrong. I follow the bylaws. I follow my lease. I don t know what these people have against me."

The spa was featured prominently in a Toronto Star investigative series earlier this year into the "holistic" scene in Toronto. The investigation revealed that as many as 75 per cent of the 330 city licensed holistic centres are nothing more than brothels.

A reporter who went undercover for an aromatic massage at 773A The Queensway was offered sexual services for additional money by an attendant, but refused.

And just last week Councillor Peter Milczyn (Ward 5, Etobicoke- Lakeshore) said he witnessed an attendant having sex with a customer in one of the massage rooms, even as city inspectors were on the premises conducting a routine site inspection.

"I saw a naked man on top of a naked woman on her back and he was having sex," said Milczyn. "He was thrusting."

The practitioner, who fled the massage room with her hands covering her face, later told reporters who had accompanied the inspectors that although she and the client were both naked on the table, she was not having sex.

"I was doing push-ups," said the practitioner, who identified herself to reporters as Julia. Shong said yesterday that Julia no longer works for her.

"She s a crazy girl. She takes a lot of medication. Everybody knows she s crazy, but she gives a very good massage."

News of the closure order was cheered by some of the seniors, who said they are tired of finding condoms in the parking lot, and sick of seeing patrons of the alleged health spa urinating against the walls of their building.

"I d like to see a variety store in its place," said Jean McKennae, a resident for 12 years, who requires a wheelchair to get around. "That s something we can all use."

"They ll be happy about this, no doubt about it," said superintendent Otto Curtis. "The main complaint we get from seniors, aside from the usual noise and traffic complaints, is of people using the property as a public washroom."

On Tuesday, city council introduced new measures to crack down on bawdy houses and illegal body rub parlours masquerading as holistic health care providers.

The major change, designed to weed out the sex workers from the legitimate wellness practitioners, requires all holistic operators to become members in good standing of recognized professional organizations.

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