'Problem' massage parlour closed by community safety order

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A massage parlour in southeast Calgary has been shut down over alleged links to prostitution.
Police went to court to get a 30-day closure order against Paradise Spa at 3155 34th Avenue S.E., which takes effect Monday.
The community safety order (CSO) also prevents the owner of the property from leasing the space to any massage business for a year*after the closure period expires.
The property has been a problem for more than 10*years and the source of many complaints by local residents, police said.
“If you can imagine, there was a business operating as a daycare 100 feet from this massage parlor where prostitution was taking place,â€￾ said investigator Glenn Stuart.
“This is the first CSO granted in Alberta and likely Canada addressing the ongoing problem of businesses registered as massage parlors performing acts of prostitution.â€￾
The Calgary Police Service worked with the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Unit (SCAN) of the Alberta Law Enforcement Teams (ALERT) on the investigation. *
"Sometimes Dover and Forest Lawn and communities like that get a bit of a bad wrap. And I'll tell you, we do a lot of work in these communities. But there are a lot of good people who live in these communities and they don't deserve to have to live with this," said Stuart.
There are about 150 such massage parlours operating in Calgary, he said.
Doug King, a justice studies professor at Mount Royal University, says it's difficult to shut down prostitution operations.
"The door shuts and the transaction takes place in private between the individual and the person who is looking to provide the sexual services," he said.*"That's the hard part to monitor and to regulate so it is a very difficult criminal thing to look into."*