Op-Ed: Council Says No to Strippers in the Queen City

Last night Regina City Council voted against a proposal to allow a strip club at the former Whiskey Saloon (formally JD’s Night Club & Bar). This happened after the owners of the business cut through all the red tape required, jumped through hoops and won the city’s administration approval, the step last night should have been a rubber stamp of Regina City Council.

Last week, social media was abuzz with petitions and arguments why a strip club should never be allowed in our fair city. From what I heard 19 delegations brought in petitions of over 2,000 signatures. This morning the same social media is abuzz with their victory chant classified by city council as a health and safety issue out of concern for other businesses in the area and by the victors as a moral victory for the city. Indeed talk radio was filled with banter from both sides as well.

I guess pole dancers taking off their clothes at a bar was the straw that broke the camels back.

Regina isn’t a city filled with churches with growing populations, I see few new churches being built but rather have noticed a number being sold. The church people I have talked to iterate to me an inability to reach the younger generation in meaningful ways. The flip side to this seems to be the adult entertainment industry.

Triple X adult video stores and adult product stores are abundant here. Going further we know strippers can already be booked for private functions from websites, private limo buses can be rented with dancer poles waiting to be used, and as long as alcohol isn’t being sold strippers can work on some bars as well. Open up many papers and you will find escort ads waiting for your perusal also many massage parlors have popped up around downtown you can frequent if you so choose.

All this still doesn’t take away from the realities of prostitution in the Queen City.

We want to talk about not allowing strippers here, but I ask you to consider the businesses and situations I’ve raised. Have we really won a victory for morality or have we merely exposed our blindside to the problems we’d rather ignore? If we want to speak about protecting our daughters – more need to be done. If we want to speak of respect for the feminine side – our men need to stop looking at them as sex objects. If we want to promote safety for vulnerable women – we all need to be willing to shine a light into the dark corners of our city and protect them.

Otherwise, if we are not willing to go the distance then winning the vote last night was meaningless.