Regulatory body coming for massage therapy

A regulatory college for registered massage therapists that will develop professional standards and protect the public is being established, the Free Press has learned.

The province and Massage Therapy Association of Manitoba confirmed Wednesday a transition council meant to create a legislative framework for the proposed college is in the works.

“We’re about two to three years away from a functioning regulatory college,” Tricia Weidenbacher, executive director of the association, said Wednesday. “It’s been a 50-plus-year goal that we’ve been working toward and we are finally almost there…

“We’re over-the-moon happy that a college is in sight, because their job is to provide public protection.”

Plans for the regulatory body were revealed after the Free Press learned charges against a Winnipeg massage therapist, accused of sexually and physically assaulting a now-former client, were laid earlier this year.

Court records confirmed Humberto Eduardo Barreto, 61, has been charged with sexual assault, assault and assault by choking. The offences are alleged to have occurred between January 2021 and November 2023.

The charges stem from when Barreto was working as a massage therapist at a Waverley Street clinic, Winnipeg Police Service spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon told the Free Press.

The complainant was a former adult client and the assaults are alleged to have occurred at the clinic, said McKinnon, who would not release further details to protect the individual’s identity.

Barreto has had several administrative court appearances, with another set for July. The allegations have yet to be tested in court.

The college will set out training requirements, standards of practice, serve as a central registry for professionals in the industry and investigate complaints from the public, said Weidenbacher.

Weidenbacher’s association is a voluntary professional organization that has lobbied for a legislated regulatory college for the industry — similar to colleges that oversee doctors, nurses and paramedics, among others — since its inception in 1973.

“Are they actively practising, are they actively allowed to be practising, are they currently in the process of any kind of complaints? If there was a complaint in the past, what was the outcome of that complaint? That’s the college’s function,” said Weidenbacher.

The association has no authority at this point to prevent anyone from practising as a registered massage therapist, beyond cancelling memberships.

“That doesn’t stop them from continuing to practise, moving to another province and not disclosing that they’ve had this complaint or maybe criminal charges,” said Weidenbacher, adding that a regulatory college would provide protections for massage therapists, too.

Weidenbacher said the proposed college’s transition council is to be made up of members of the public and registered massage therapists.

Legislative amendments will then be required to create the college, after policy frameworks are created.

Weidenbacher said the association is working with officials in Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara’s office to set up the transition council, which is expected to be announced by the province in the fall.

“We know therapists want to professionalize these services and regulation is critical to that. This is an important first step in that process,” said Asagwara in a statement.

McKinnon said police investigators are unaware of Barreto’s current employment status. He’s not listed as a registered massage therapist with the provincial association; such registration is currently voluntary.

Police did not publicly reveal the charges, as is often the case involving professionals accused of crimes, until contacted by the Free Press. McKinnon said investigators did not believe the public was at risk.

“The investigators didn’t believe there was a risk to additional people — nobody else had come forward… We didn’t receive any other complaints,” McKinnon said.

It took a significant amount of time from the alleged assaults being reported and the charges being formally laid in court earlier this year, McKinnon said. She said that delay played a role in why police did not initially make the allegations public.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca