None of us know what will happen in the wake of the shutdowns of XO and Euphoria. I do think it's
possible that this time of turmoil will pass and everything will return to normal for agencies.
But I think it's equally possible that there will be a major change in the industry, namely, that an alliance of the police, the government, the media and the abolitionists (esp.
CLES and anti-prostitution feminists) will be able to shut down the agency part of the industry. At a minimum, the practice of using nice, conveniently located apartments/condos in upscale buildings seems doomed. The opponents of prostitution just won't tolerate it anymore. There may be some agencies that survive. But surviving might mean going back to the old ways of doing business i.e., smaller agencies with fewer girls, outcalls only and operators who are much more discreet.
As I have already noted, we could also see a complete shutdown of the agency model of business. The current hysteria is driven mainly by a perception that the agency way of doing business is inherently
exploitative (this word gets used often by opponents). The propaganda is relentless: agencies are no better than "pimps"; they recruit and hire underage girls; their clients are violent; agency girls are forced to do things they don't want to do. Of course, you can find examples of all those problems, but the public perception is now that those problems are very common problems of agencies and the only way to solve them is to stamp out the agency model of business.
So is this the end of the prostitution business in Montreal? No, of course not! It will live on and even flourish just like it does in many other places that have few or no escort agencies, for example, most of the USA and France. But prostitution will
only be allowed for
independent escorts.
The "Nordic" style prostitution law in Canada is already set up perfectly to allow and even encourage the indy model because, it is
perfectly legal for a woman to
take money in exchange for sex but it is
not legal for a guy to
give money in exchange for sex. The stupidity and hypocrisy of such a law is obvious but it suits almost everyone (except men) perfectly.
The media, the police, the government, the public and the feminists can say: "See, we stamped out prostitution but we fully support prostitutes. We only want to criminalize evil men and not the poor women they are exploiting!"
Wait a minute! Doesn't criminalizing the clients of prostitutes make it much harder and more dangerous for many indy prostitutes to do business?
"Of course it does! But who gives a sh*t? We hate agencies and we just wanted to get rid of them. We don't really care about allowing women to make their own decisions in life. We want to control them and give them limited options. You can work as a prostitute but only under the precise conditions that we will allow."
OK, got it.
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