After reading that article, I am a little more pessimistic about the future of the escort business in Montreal. While the shutdown of XO and Euphoria may not be direct results of the "government action plan on sexual exploitation" that is referred to in the article, it seems like the momentum is shifting in the battle between the prostitution abolitionists and supporters of a tolerant attitude towards the industry. The abolitionists have now tasted blood and they want more and they have been given more resources to pursue their goals. While they say they want to mainly stop any negative industry practices (underage girls, pimping, violence, etc.), they really want to abolish prostitution completely or greatly diminish the size of the industry.
The agency model of business is the most vulnerable to attack by the abolitionists. The Enquete episode provides the perfect script for how to shut down an agency. The police, the press and abolitionist groups such as
CLES do not have to shut down every agency. They just have to harass, intimidate and scare the owners, escorts and clients of a few high profile agencies and that will kill off most of the agencies. This is what happened to the agency business in most states of the U.S. including the state where I live in the southeast.
However, it's probably impossible to kill off the indy business and it may even help the indy business by making it the only acceptable way to operate. Some girls who now work in agencies will switch to indy but many agency girls are either not interested in working as an indy or not really capable of running their own business. The result will be lower supply, higher prices and much less convenient booking procedures for the client.
I hope I'm wrong about all this, but it feels like a new era is dawning in the sex business in Montreal.