Toronto strip clubs: Will the new rules allow … a handshake?

Ben2009

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/cityhallpolitics/article/1271810--toronto-strip-clubs-will-council-loosen-the-rules

City council has been asked to loosen its strict no-touch bylaw in Toronto strip clubs, allowing for “innocuous” contact such as a handshake, but the industry’s national advocacy body wants the laws scaled back even further.

“They haven’t listened to us properly. What they’re supposed to be prohibiting is sexual contact,” said Tim Lambrinos, executive director of the Adult Entertainment Association of Canada.

“The recommendation still says a dancer can’t sit (on a patron’s lap). People are sitting on legs and laps at weddings. It’s not considered an indecent act,” said Tim Lambrinos, executive director of the Adult Entertainment Association of Canada.

Following a seven-month review of Toronto’s strip club regulations, city staff is recommending that a bylaw that currently forbids all physical contact to be changed to prevent dancers from sitting, touching or resting on patrons, or from making any physical contact “with breasts, buttocks, genital, pubic, anal and perineal areas of a patron.”

Staff say the proposed change maintains the intent of the original regulation but allows for benign contact. The licensing and standards committee will review the findings Friday.

In preparing their report, city staff consulted with adult entertainers, club owners and the Adult Entertainment Association of Canada.

Dancers told staff the current no-contact rule — which carries a $250 fine for violators — is unrealistic and can actually make it more intimidating to file a complaint.

Of those surveyed, 92 per cent said the current no-touch provisions do not prevent unwanted touching.

Mississauga is the only major Ontario municipality that spells out specific off-limits areas — breasts, buttocks, genital or pubic areas — while allowing for some touching. London, Ottawa, Windsor and Hamilton all operate with strict no-touch rules.

The report also recommends that private rooms and booths must have an open side, or that the walls may not be higher than 4 feet, which Lambrinos said is standard in Toronto clubs anyway.

Lambrinos’ major concern with the report is that staff ignored the industry’s request to end the licensing requirement for dancers. The AEAC pitched a one-year pilot program whereby entertainers would merely register with the city, providing proof of age, ability to work and a criminal background check.

Lambrinos said dancers are uneasy about the licensing requirement, because it requires them to officially register with the government as an adult entertainer. He said dancers have reported instances to the AEAC of border officials quizzing them about their exotic jobs.

There is no evidence or suggestion the City of Toronto has handed over private information.

Committee chair Cesar Palacio said he supports the recommendations.

“I don’t think there’s any evidence that the licensing system will have any negative impact on the entertainers at all … but jurisdictions without the licensing system have higher instances of human trafficking,” he said.

Dozens of dancers’ comments on the issue were included in the report. In general, the entertainers interviewed appeared to be in favour of the current system.

“It’s best if the city control this to keep prostitutes out of the club,” one said.

“The AEAC is not a union and does not speak for all industry stakeholders. Licensing provides me with safety and security of knowing the other women I am working with are legal to work in Canada and not convicted,” said another.

“Licensing requirement doesn’t make any sense … it’s for the city to make money, no other reason,” said another comment.

Ben2009

Toronto strip clubs need better rules, former stripper says
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/cityhallpolitics/article/1274415--toronto-strip-clubs-need-better-rules-former-stripper-says

Former stripper Mary Taylor says she supports the City of Toronto’s move to amend the no-touch rule by spelling out body parts that are off limits.

Taylor told council’s licensing and standards committee that she would get rid of lap dancing and go back to no-touch table dancing where dancers performed on a portable box at the customer’s table.

If that happened, dancers would be protected from unwanted touching, said Taylor, who worked as a stripper in Southern Ontario.

“Now, you’re actually sitting, gyrating, on somebody’s lap for $20…grinding, gyrating, however you want to call it. It’s not burlesque any more.”

The current rule forbids any physical contact between the entertainer and another person’s body.

Taylor said used condoms have been found in couches in VIP rooms in strip clubs, and city licensing director Tracey Cook said an entertainer told her the same thing in a recent meeting.

Licensing staff are proposing the no-touch rule be amended to specify that there be no physical contact with “uncovered breasts, buttocks, genital, pubic, anal and perineal areas of a patron or any other person.”

A survey of dancers conducted by the city found the current no-touch provision — which carry a $250 fine for violators — is unrealistic. Of those surveyed, 92 per cent say the rule doesn’t prevent unwanted touching.

Other Ontario municipalities have generic no touch rules, while Mississauga is the only one that spells out specific off-limits areas.

In Toronto’s case, the intent is to allow “innocuous” contact such as a handshake while specifying what isn’t allowed.

A staff report said the city currently has 17 licensed adult entertainment parlours and officials have issued 1,467 burlesque entertainer licences. In 2002, there were 2,115 licensed dancers and 29 strip clubs.

The committee endorsed the proposed changes to the no-touching rule. City council is expected to make the final decision at its meeting later this month.

Ben2009

Toronto strip club no-touch rule change goes to council

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/10/19/toronto-strip-club-no-touch-rule-change-goes-to-council

TORONTO - A handshake is one city council vote away from likely being OK in Toronto strip clubs.

Councillors on the licensing committee agreed Friday with changing the no-touch rule for the city’s adult entertainment parlour regulations to make it much more specific around what strippers and patrons can’t touch.

“You want to shake a hand, you can shake a hand” city licensing director Tracey Cook told councillors during the almost six-hour discussion on changes to the no-touch rule.

Cook said the change, which city council still has to approve at its next meeting, provides more clarity for everyone involved.

The new no-touch rule specifies “no entertainer shall touch, sit or rest on, or make any physical contact with the covered, partially covered or uncovered breasts, buttocks, genital, pubic, anal and perineal areas of a patron or any other person when providing services at the adult entertainment club.”

It also specifies what patrons can’t touch the same areas on an entertainer.

Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker told his committee colleagues the changes proved one thing.

“This committee can even make sex boring,” De Baeremaeker said. “I didn’t think it was possible to make sex boring but leave it to a government committee to make even sex boring.

“I think we’ve made it so boring that nobody could be harmed once this stuff is passed.”

Although he supported the changes, De Baeremaeker doubted the current no-touch provision made handshakes a problem in strip clubs.

“It’s not when you shake the hand that you’re going to get in trouble,” he said. “It is when you’re shaking the other body parts that you are going to get in trouble.”

The committee heard from several people from the adult entertainment industry asking for the city to end its current licensing regime for strippers and instead let the clubs maintain registration records. City staff advised against the change and councillors rejected that idea.

Allen Cooper of the Zanzibar Tavern warned councillors the wording of the new proposed no-touching provision wasn’t clear enough.

“I don’t think the definition as proposed is eminently clear,” he said.

Mary Taylor of the now defunct Exotic Dancers’ Association of Canada told the committee the adult entertainment industry had declined with the introduction of lap dancing.

“The business actually seriously made a turn when the dancing went from the box to the lap,” she said. “It caused the demise of this industry.”

Taylor said “it’s not burlesque anymore.

“It’s actually foreplay in public and in the bars,” she said.

Ben2009

Toronto refines no-touch rule for strippers
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1280085--toronto-refines-no-touch-rule-for-strippers

After strip club dancers reported that the current rules don’t prevent unwanted touching, city councillors have amended the no-touch rule by spelling out body parts that are off limits.

Under the changes approved Tuesday, council changed the bylaw to specify there be no physical contact with “uncovered breasts, buttocks, genital, pubic, anal and perineal areas of a patron or any other person.”

Council made a last-minute change at the request of Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam that city staff and the police consult with gay entertainers on how the bylaw will work.

Wong-Tam supported the changes in the no-touch provisions — which carry a $250 fine for violators.

“It’s very difficult to police any kind of activity in these parlours,” she said. “Should an entertainer or performer feel like they’ve been the recipient of unwanted touching, then they would at least be able to point to a bylaw that protects them.

happypooning

this is getting ridiculous..this is why stripclubs can barely survive, closing one by one, allow handshake?? mm's hands and clients JJ