Saskatoon massage therapist faces 10 sex assault charges
Sexual assault allegations against Mark Donlevy, a Saskatoon registered massage therapist, have now reached 10 after an additional charge was introduced in provincial court.
On Tuesday, Donlevy’s lawyer entered not guilty pleas. Nine of the complainants were Donlevy’s clients, while one is unrelated to his practice. Preliminary hearing dates are set for October and January.
The 48-year-old was initially charged in November 2016 with sexually assaulting two female clients between October 2013 and July 2016. Then in April, seven more women came forward.
Donlevy was a member of the Massage Therapist Association of Saskatchewan (MTAS) at the time, running his business — MD Muscle Therapy — out of his home.
Speaking outside court, Lori Green, executive director of MTAS, called for legislation to be passed to create a regulatory body for massage therapists in the province. She wants transparency for members of the public, she said.
“They have no access, as they would in a regulated division, to check the websites and to ensure that somebody has the proper education to be a massage therapist or does not have any pending charges or dismissals against them.”
MTAS is a self-regulating association, and if it has an issue with a member before anything goes to court, it cannot post that information on a website because of privacy reasons. Complainants would have to come forward to the association and sign a document giving MTAS permission to investigate, “And when they’re not guaranteed any real safety and protection from an association, they’re hesitant to do that,” Green said.
In Donlevy’s case, “there were certainly steps we perhaps could have taken sooner,” Green said. “And we could have certainly published on our website about the alleged rumours.”
While there are standards of practice and codes of ethics within MTAS, there’s no law behind them. All MTAS can do is remove someone from the association, but Green said there’s no way to ensure they don’t continue working.
“There’s nothing that stops anybody in Saskatchewan from practising massage therapy ... I could have several charges against me and continue to practise.”
Through an emailed statement in December, the provincial government said a consensus between stakeholders — specifically, members of the Massage Therapists Association of Saskatchewan and members of the Natural Health Practitioners of Canada — on legislation “has been difficult to reach.”.
Four provinces have professional massage therapy colleges: British Columbia, Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland.