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¹⁰ While there are undoubtedly some women who work as both prostitutes and strippers this research found limited evidence of this overlap. These findings are consistent with industry insider accounts (see Bell; Tracey; Dragu and Harrison, supra note 6). The conflation of the industry with prostitution is, as we will see, a powerful discrediting discourse with little basis in fact. Fleischman is one of the few academic studies that found this overlap. Notably, this research relied on police claims. Perhaps it is not surprising that this researcher found “strippers as a group would not talk to us.” Fleischman, J., Prostitution in Ontario: An Overview (Ottawa: Department of Justice, 1984) at 45.Google Scholar

¹¹ Allen, supra note 3 at 252.

¹² Cario, supra note 9. Notwithstanding that no connection was ever discovered (see Allen, supra note 3 at 256), the District Attorney of Brooklyn confidently maintained that burlesque was “largely responsible for the sex degeneracy and sex crimes of the city”, quoted in Zeidman, I., The American Burlesque Show (New York: Hawthorn 1967) at 229.Google Scholar In 1937 burlesque was banned from New York and the burlesque theatre disappeared, albeit temporarily, from the eastern United States.

¹³ Criminal Code, section 46, now section 174.

¹⁴ Revised to section 163 in 1955 and further revised to section 167 in 1992.

¹⁵ Criminal Code, section 46, now section 167.

¹⁶ R. v. Murphy (1972), 8 CC (2d) 313 (Ont. Prov. Ct (Criminal Division)).

¹⁷ Johnson v. The Queen (1973), 13 CC (2d) 402, [1975] 2 S.C.R. 160.

¹⁸ Ibid.

¹⁹ See A. Cooke, “Stripping: Who Calls the Tune” in Bell, supra note 6 at 94; An Act to Amend the Liquor Licence Act, Statutes of the Province of Ontario, 1973, c. 68, 69.

²⁰ Bentivoglio Holdings Administration, “A Short History of Bentivoglio Holdings”, Submission to City of Ottawa concerning Adult Entertainment Parlours (1991) [unpublished], archived at the Ottawa Public Library, Ottawa Room.Google Scholar

²¹ Hill, B., “Marie finds taking it off a put-on” The Ottawa Citizen (1 August 1979) 1.Google Scholar

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²³ Hill, supra note 21.

²⁴ Tracey supra note 6 at 143.

²⁵ R. v. Szunejko (1981), 61 CC (2d) 359; 6 W.C.B. 326 (Ont. Prov. Ct).

²⁶ Our survey suggests that new clubs did not initially receive a great deal of media attention. The few articles on the industry that appeared between 1974 and 1981 in The Ottawa Citizen were more patronizing than condemning, suggesting that the women had “tattoos and black eyes and … look kind of dirty” and describing the “peeler” act as “the lumbering antics of a dancer whose dimensions far exceed her charm”, in Coic, T. & Maser, P., “Cover up, Ottawa police tell city strippers” The Ottawa Citizen (20 April 1979) 3.Google Scholar The women may have been pitiful and lacking in authentic talent or skill, but they were not constituted as a true social problem and neither were the clubs in which they laboured.

²⁷ Phillips, P., “Labour in the Canadian Political Economy” in Clement, W., ed., Understanding Canada: Building on the New Canadian Political Economy (Montreal: Queen's University Press, 1997) at 73.Google Scholar

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²⁹ The table or stool on which the dancers gyrate beside the patron's table is considered to constitute a mobile stage and is allowed under the Liquor Control Act.

³⁰ T. Atherton, supra note 22.

³¹ Deskilling is a complex process that involves undermining the power of skilled workers by reducing their tasks to the simplest components and reducing their autonomy either through the division of labour or with the introduction of automation. Braverman, H., Labour and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974).Google Scholar

³² A. Cooke, “Sex Trade Workers and Feminists: Myths and Illusions”, in Bell, supra note 6 at 191.

³³ We are using the concept of social problems as articulated by Spector and Kitsuse who argue that social issues and processes emerge as problems at particular historical moments and are constructed through claims-making by interest groups. Their claims-making model includes the assertion of an interest group that a condition constitutes a social problem, as well as a recognition by the state of the legitimacy of the claims and (implicitly) of the expertise of the interest group. There may be a third stage – an inquiry/ investigation by the state into the (now) authoritatively defined social problem. Spector, M. & Kitsuse, J., Constructing Social Problems (New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 1987 [1977]) at 147.Google Scholar

³⁴ Here we see echoes of an earlier era. In New York expansion-driven popularity proved burlesque's downfall in its very birthplace. Not only did increasing competition encourage the breaking of moral codes, leaving the theatre open to censorship, but the move to Broadway in 1931 meant that the genre was no longer contained in the anonymity of working class neighbourhoods. See Allen, supra note 3 at 251.

³⁵ Lacombe, D., Blue Politics: Pornography in the Age of Feminism (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁶ Council of the Corporation of the City of Ottawa, City Council Meeting, September 6, 1995 (Ottawa: City of Ottawa, 1995) at 20–255.

³⁷ Adami, H., “Strippers continue to take it off, despite Goulbourn's new by-law” The Ottawa Citizen (3 November 1982) 29.Google Scholar

³⁸ Egan, K., “Stripper proposal blasted” The Ottawa Citizen (21 October 1982) 25Google Scholar; “Goubourn plans crackdown on nude entertainment” The Ottawa Citizen (19 October 1982) 14.

³⁹ Miller, J., “Strip by-law should be axed, says committee” The Ottawa Citizen (15 November 1985) C1.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ See Nelson, E.D. & Fleras, A., Social Problems in Canada: Issues and Challenges (Scarborough: Prentice Hall, 1995).Google Scholar It would appear that rates of crime in strip clubs were not exceptionably high during this period. According to police statistics between the period 1984 and 1991 clubs averaged between seven and ten police reports filed annually. See, City of Ottawa, Adult Entertainment Parlours: Recommendations (Department of Planning and Development: Ottawa, City of Ottawa, 1991) at 21.Google Scholar

⁴¹ See for example Barron, S. & Kessel, J., “Stripping: A good paying job” The Ottawa Citizen (23 December 1982) 19Google Scholar; Barron, S. & Kessel, J., “Costs high in battle to make strippers cover up” The Ottawa Citizen (23 December 1982) 17Google Scholar; Harper, T., “Six days a week of bar brawls, sleazy hotels – and catcalls” The Ottawa Citizen (26 February 1983) 69.Google Scholar

⁴² See for example, City of Ottawa, supra note 40.

⁴³ Cleroux, R., “Swinging Montreal has Galie touch on sex, without strip” Globe and Mail (21 September 1977) 1.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ City councillors threatened a process of harassment that also included building and fire inspections and police identification checks. See Barron and Kessel, 1982 supra note 41.

⁴⁵ Quoted in MacCleod, I., “Nepean cracks down with strip club by-law” The Ottawa Citizen (14 December 1983) B1, 10.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ A similar Ottawa by-law was narrowly defeated in December 1984. “Council declines to impose morals” The Ottawa Citizen (23 November 1984) A8.

⁴⁷ Miller, J., “Ottawa's defenders of morality suffer double wammy in one day” The Ottawa Citizen (22 November 1984) B1.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ M. Johnson, “CABE and Strippers: A Delicate Union” in Bell, supra, note 6.

⁴⁹ Miller, supra note 47; Harris, C., “Club workers picket alderman's home” The Ottawa Citizen (17 September 1984) B3.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Social movements are the result of a complex combination of interests and concerns. In Toronto there was some agitation against table dancing including the presentation of a three hundred name petition to city council (Johnson, supra note 48) however this was a very localized challenge.

⁵¹ Miller, supra note 39.

⁵² Citizen, “Owner of strip clubs warns pushers to stay out” The Ottawa Citizen (22 July 1986) C1.Google Scholar

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⁵⁴ Ottawa's city council, which had taken a much more careful and civil libertarian approach since the “problem” first emerged, did not immediately enact similar restrictions. However, when community groups organized against The Den on Russel Road on the basis of its close proximity to a teen club, an interim zoning restriction was imposed. Ironically, not the strip but the teen club was a source of disruptive behaviour and was obliged to hire off-duty police officers to patrol the parking lot to reduce vandalism and illegal drinking. See Citizen “Teen, strip clubs too close for city's comfort” The Ottawa Citizen (24 November 1987) B16.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Smith, A. quoted in Richardson, M., “Shutting down the strip clubs” The Ottawa Citizen (21 March 1991) C4.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Supt. McCombie, J. quoted in “Police dispute stripper's claims” The Ottawa Citizen (3 November 1987) C3.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ City of Ottawa, supra note 40.

⁵⁸ Ibid. at 8. A few dancers did, under threat of sanction, procure licences but the by-law quickly fell into disuse. In practice, Ottawa like Nepean in 1984 was ultimately defeated by the very transient, precarious and marginal nature of the industry that rendered licensing too costly and inefficient to police. Scullion, E., “Stripped of their rights?” Ottawa Magazine (May/June 1992) 58Google Scholar; Bindman, S. & Barron, S., “Ottawa strip clubs facing crackdown” The Ottawa Citizen (15 March 1984) B1, 16.Google Scholar In 1999, although by-law number L-241 was still active, it is largely ignored by dancers and the city's by-law officers alike.

⁵⁹ This trend was not embraced uniformly and some area clubs did not install champagne rooms until 1992.

⁶⁰ Phillips, P., «Labour in the New Canadian Political Economy» in Clement, W., ed., Understanding Canada: Building the New Canadian Political Economy (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press 1997) at 64.Google Scholar

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⁶³ A lap dance requires the dancer, clad in a g-string, to sit on the clients lap and gyrate while the patron can, if he wishes, fondle her body.

⁶⁴ The Supreme Court ruled that masturbation in private cubicles, without contact, was consistent with community standards. R. v. Tremblay (1993), 84 C.C.C. (3d) 97 (S.C.C.).

⁶⁵ Chindley, J., “A no to dirty dancing” MacLeans (17 July 1995) 34.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Bhabra, H.S., “Ten dollars a dance” Toronto Life (May 1995)Google Scholar; McGill, N., “More Than a Dance” Ottawa Express (15 February 1996) 9.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ McGill, ibid.

⁶⁸ McGrath, P., “Sylvia Lauzon and many other dancers would welcome a return to the ‘look don't touch’ rule” The Ottawa Citizen (14 February 2000)Google Scholar; Jaimet, K., “It's war on lap dancing” The Ottawa Citizen (14 February 2000) B5Google Scholar; Stevenson, R., “Adrienne L'Ecuyer, 20, a student who works as an exotic dancer” The Ottawa Citizen (2 February, 2000) F5.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Harvey, I., “Lap dance issue touchy; Lawyer argues to uphold by-law” The Toronto Sun (21 September 1995) 44.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Cumming, J., “Lap ban riles dancer” The Toronto Sun (28 August 1995) 44Google Scholar; Fragomeni, C., “Solid Gold threatens court action: If Burlington outlaws lap dancing, strip club would have to lay off up to 20 workers” The Spectator (10 November 1995) T1Google Scholar; Kingston, J., “Lap-dance ban a killer: club owner” The Toronto Sun (27 August 1995).Google Scholar Clubs in Toronto even started charging a five dollar a shift surcharge on dancers to offset the legal costs they were incurring rhetorically in their interests.

⁷¹ Giddens, A., “Brave New World: The New Context of Politics” in Miliband, D., ed., Reinventing the Left (Cambridge: Polity, 1994).Google Scholar

⁷² R. v. Mara 105 C.C.C. (3d) 147, Ontario Court of Appeal (1996) [hereinafter Mara].

⁷³ R. v. Mara, [1997] 2 R.C.S. 630; R. v Butler (1992), 70 C.C.C. 3(d) 129 (S.C.C.). This reasoning was clarified two years later when the Supreme Court ruled in Pelletier that the practice was acceptable provided it occurred in semi-private conditions; R. v Pelletier, [1993] 3 S.C.R. (3d) 863 [hereinafter Pelletier].

⁷⁴ Under the 1868 Hicklin test, reflected in Criminal Code (1955) section 152, a performance was deemed indecent if it was likely to “deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such influences.” R. v. Hicklin (1868), L.R. 3 Q.B. 360. On the limits of community empowerment, see Valverde, supra, note 4.

⁷⁵ Kinsman, supra, note 2.

⁷⁶ Occupational Health and Safety Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.0.1, s. 50 (1); “Lap dancing declared a health hazard” The Ottawa Citizen (3 August 1995) A4.

⁷⁷ Chindley, supra note 65.

⁷⁸ McGill, supra note 66.

⁷⁹ The health discourse also started to permeate the courts. The crown attorney argued in the Ontario Court of Appeal that lap-dancing was morally problematic, that it objectifies women and exposes workers to fatal diseases and that “the touchstone has to be, for the criminal law, harm.” Butt, D. quoted in McDougall, D., “Lap dancing can be fatal for strippers” The Ottawa Citizen (19 September 1995) A12.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Hum, P., “Councillors try to stop ‘mutation’ of prostitution” The Ottawa Citizen (7 September 1995) B2Google Scholar; Harvey, I., “Lap dancing issue back in court” The Toronto Sun (16 November 1995) 56.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Council of the Corporation of the City of Ottawa, City Council Meeting, March 20, 1996 (Ottawa: City of Ottawa, 1996) at 9–17 to 9–22.Google Scholar

⁸² Ibid. at 9–20.

⁸³ Ibid. The situation in Quebec is different. Aylmer, Hull and Gatineau had, like Ontario communities, enacted by-laws in the early 1980s that were subsequently overturned for jurisdictional reasons. Without the health ruling that Ontario municipalities relied upon to validate their regulations, municipal authorities in Quebec took no action against lap- dancing.

⁸⁴ Giddens, supra note 71.

⁸⁵ Citizen, “Ottawa studies ways to end lap dancing” The Ottawa Citizen (14 December 1995) E8Google Scholar; Citizen, “Tap dance around lap dance” The Ottawa Citizen (14 March 1997) B2.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Chindley, supra note 65.

⁸⁷ Bindman, S., “Court bans lap dancing” The Ottawa Citizen (13 March 1997) A1Google Scholar; Bindman, S., “Judges put end to lap dancing” The Ottawa Citizen (27 June 1997) A1Google Scholar; Jaimet, supra note 68.

⁸⁸ Pelletier partly reversed the Mara decision and allowed lap-dancing under certain conditions (privacy), Pelletier, supra note 73.

⁸⁹ Jaimet, supra note 68; Kay, O., “The act is sick” The Ottawa Citizen (2 February 2000) F5Google Scholar; Morse, D., “Lap dancing destroys women” The Ottawa Citizen (2 February 2000) F5.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ “Lap dogs to the law” The Ottawa Citizen (31 January 2000) D8.

⁹¹ Jones, T., “Free to quit” The Ottawa Citizen (2 February 2000) F5.Google Scholar

⁹² Kay, supra note 89.

⁹³ Pheterson, G., “The Category ‘Prostitute’ in Scientific Inquiry” (1990) 17: 3Journal of Sex Research 146.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ In the past managers were periodically charged, although rarely convicted, of the hybrid offence of “allowing an indecent theatrical performance.” Criminal Code, c.46, s.167(1). As of 1998, bartenders, doormen and managers were charged with the indictable offence of “keeping a common bawdy house”. Criminal Code, c. 46, s. 210(1).

⁹⁵ Perhaps this tactic was necessitated by the structure of the labour site. Lap-dancing may be illegal but municipalities lack the jurisdictional authority and cannot force the dismantling of champagne rooms. Hence the possibility of dirty dancing remains. Since the cubicles are literally hidden from view and figuratively beyond continual surveillance the monitoring of morality must be distributed to both the self and others. The new forms of moral regulation, reinforced by a threat of state sanction, mean that within the strip club the police, doormen, managers, support staff and other dancers all act as disciplinary agents and patrol moral and legal boundaries. The stripper must provide champagne room dances in an apparently private space that is actually under careful surveillance -consequently she must continually regulate her own and manage her customer's behaviour in relation to this surveillance.

⁹⁶ Miller, P. & Rose, N., “Governing Economie Life” (1990) 19:1Economy and Society 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁹⁷ DERA, Mission Statement (Ottawa: Dancers Equal Rights Association of Ottawa Carleton, 2001) [unpublished].Google Scholar

⁹⁸ This paper has attempted to tease out the trajectory of the regulatory context in which strippers labour. There are many other levels that warrant consideration. These include appreciating that the restructuring of the industry has not only facilitated new strategies of exploitation but also opened up the occupation to part-time and occasional workers. The presence of these workers not only challenges our categories and definitions of what constitutes a “stripper” but also has implications for relations to management, strategies of resistance and labour processes.