The idea that being French and/or francophone means having a laissez-faire attitude to anything related to sex is a myth. It'a not true in France and it's not true in Quebec. Quebeckers do generally have tolerant attitudes towards premarital sex, birth control, abortion, and people's personal and private sex lives. But over recent decades a strong feminist movement has developed in Quebec and despite what some people say ("Well I'm a feminist and I support escorts") mainstream feminism is mostly anti-prostitution.
Of course, they say they support escorts and don't want them arrested, which is true, but they love the current "Nordic Law" which criminalizes clients but not escorts. The feminists refuse to acknowledge that this is a dumb law that effectively makes it more difficult and dangerous to work as an escort. It's all about good intentions!
Also, there are still elements of Quebec society that are very conservative, sometimes religious and family oriented. Most Montreal escorts come from the francophone population and a lot of people don't like that. Families worry that their daughters will get sucked into the escort lifestyle and they don't like that possibility.
France also has a Nordic Law on prostitution and the situation is similar though French police are much less tolerant of agencies. The elites in Montreal somewhat slavishly follow social trends in France so it's not surprising that attitudes towards questions of sex are very similar in France and Quebec.
