Near-strippers skirt around Saskatchewan ban

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

David Hutton and Andrew Matte report for [I]Postmedia News[/I], 26 Jun 2011:

[url]http://www.montrealgazette.com/Near+strippers+skirt+around+Saskatchewan/5009079/story.html[/url]

[INDENT]SASKATOON â?? Whether she's upside down hanging from a pole or writhing suggestively on the stage, this 25-year-old mother of two makes you think you're at a strip club.

"Ruby Tru," a slim woman with long auburn hair wearing a thong and a matching full-fitting bra, is part of Bare Essentials, a troupe that performs twice weekly at the Gaslight Saloon, a bar on the gritty northern outskirts of Regina's downtown.

Called a burlesque show that features no stripping, but lots of pole dancing, suggestive poses and elaborate stretching exercises, it's meant to meet a demand by those who prefer adult entertainment with their adult beverage.

"What guy doesn't like to drink booze and look at girls?" said Kevin Pattison, who started Bare Essentials after getting laid off as an iron worker in September.

He decided a show that pushed the limits of liquor laws, but didn't break them, would sell in Saskatchewan.

"It doesn't really matter if she's taking off her clothes. As long as she's sexy and doing a good job up there."

A decade ago Saskatchewan's last alcohol-serving strip club closed after the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal against the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority rule that prohibits any "striptease performance" or "wet clothing contest."

The ruling left Saskatchewan as the only place in Canada where stripping is banned where booze is sold, making erotic dancing an endangered species in the province with a lone dry strip club in Regina's industrial district the last remnant.

Since then, at least six bars have been fined or suspended after varying attempts to skirt the stripping prohibition, according to reports obtained under freedom of information laws.

The bars have been hit with fines and suspensions for bringing in travelling shows that have wet T-shirt contests and whipped cream wrestling. In several instances, notices of violations have come after a dancer removed a layer of clothing backstage despite there being no nudity.

Lawyer Ron Dumonceaux, who fought the losing case to strike down the law as unconstitutional 10 years ago, said the regulations are smart from a legal perspective. Saskatchewan avoids the constitutional challenge because stripping itself isn't prohibited. But the ban in bars essentially doesn't make it economical to run a strip club, he said, which can't operate successfully without the profits from liquor.

"They don't directly prohibit exotic dancing â?? they make it uneconomical," he said.

The laws have drawn criticism from a number of bar owners and sparked outrage from online protest groups, who preach civil liberties and argue the ban is antiquated and unevenly enforced. The government defends the laws as necessary for the responsible consumption of alcohol.

Meanwhile, a thriving counter-culture of "everything but" stripping, led by Pattison's group and a flurry of Alberta-based travelling shows, has cropped up at bars across the province where owners bring in shows offering lap dances.

Marty Derbowka, owner of the Yorkton City Limits Inn, brought in a group of Alberta dancers two years ago, persuaded the show was within the rules.

Just before midnight, the blond dancer took the stage wearing two bikinis and leather chaps.

She swayed her hips a few times before tossing the chaps to the side of the dance floor then removing the first bikini layer, documents show.

Three dancers â?? dubbed the Las Vegas Showgirls and employed by an Alberta-based company â?? had spent the night serving liquor shots between their breasts to patrons, giving $20 lap dances, and performing on stage.

There was purposely no nudity, but in the eyes of the SLGA inspector on a covert operation that night in May 2009, the act of throwing the chaps to the side "in a stripping manner" was enough.

At a hearing months later, the bar was dinged with a two-day suspension of its liquor licence, costing the owner thousands in profits. Six other bars have received similar suspensions in the last five years, mainly those bringing in Alberta travelling shows.

Derbowka said now he regrets the decision to put the show on, but feels his bar was targeted.

The showgirls he brought in had been touring rural Saskatchewan for years, he said, and he was told the show was within the regulations. The problem remains the double-standard in the rules, which he said permits contact with patrons but prohibits removing any clothing, even if it's done behind a partition.

"I was pretty disgusted after I saw the whole show," Derbowka said. "What they are doing is worse than the act of stripping itself. There's personal contact with clientele. I can't understand why the Saskatchewan government hasn't come down on this. They can't give you a yes or not as to whether it's legal or illegal."

Careful not to breach a Saskatchewan law that prevents stripping in licensed establishments, the Bare Essentials women are strippers without the stripping. They take turns appearing in shadow behind a backlit curtain before emerging wearing a variety of lingerie and other revealing clothes. They dance provocatively, acrobatically twirl on a stripper's pole before leaving the stage wearing what they had on when they started. Afterward, the women are free to roam the club and earn tips â?? they participate in "body shots" with customers, as well return to the stage for lap dances for patrons who pay extra.

"I thought this town needed it. We have the one strip club in town, but you can't drink. So this is the alternative," Pattison, 30, explained before a weeknight show.

Pattison recruited women using Facebook, online ads and even by approaching strangers in the street. Today, he runs Wednesday and Saturday shows at the Gaslight and also offers real strippers for private gatherings. (The cost is $350 for a show featuring one stripper and $600 for two.)

He said he's surprised the Gaslight shows have become as successful as they are.

"There is a far better response than I thought it would be. I thought I'd get 40 or 50 guys sitting here swilling their beer and staring at the girls. But it's turned into more of a party atmosphere," said Pattison.

The only challenge was interpreting the liquor laws, which he complains are too vague.

"I went over the rules as best I could. No stripping, no touching, no wet T-shirts," he said, adding there's nothing he knows of that makes lap-dancing on the stage illegal.

"It doesn't say anything about contact. So we'll so how it goes on that one . . . I haven't got busted on it."

Pattison believes the success of his shows adds fuel to the argument that strip clubs should be granted liquor licences.

"It's the 'you can't be trusted' law," Pattison said. "You can go and watch naked girls but you can't have a drink and watch naked girls. It's like saying, 'You can't control yourself.' "

Suggestions that strip clubs pose a risk to the safety of women, permit drunkenness or attract crime just aren't true, he said.

"If you get drunk or touch one of the girls, you're out of there. It's not like some of the other bars in town where you see someone drunk in the corner. Strip clubs are usually some of the cleanest bars out there," Pattison said.

In fact, many argue that jobs at dance bars provide the kind of income unavailable to many unskilled women. Many women will register with escort services or turn to prostitution if exotic dancing is unavailable.

"You really just change the conditions of selling sex," said Mindy Bradley-Engen, a University of Arkansas sociologist.

Recent academic studies in neighbourhoods with strip clubs found no adverse secondary effects on crime or property values. People tend to be better behaved at strip clubs than other bars because of the high level of surveillance, she said.

"It's not going to change your crime rate," Bradley-Engen said. "It will change it as much as adding a McDonald's or a Kentucky Fried Chicken. People have this image of this dark little dive bar. It has that emotional reaction, but the reality is just not that. In reality, there are lots of sleazy dives without naked women in them."

"Nikki Starr," whose stage clothes include a black bra, thong, garter belt and knee-high white boots, came to Bare Essentials a month ago and has already performed as a "real" stripper at stag parties.

"I've always wanted to strip. It's just a passion. It's fun and I love attention," the 19-year-old said.

She believes licensed strip clubs would provide legitimate jobs.

"The amount I make at a stag, I make enough to pay my rent within half an hour," she said. "But with stags, they come and go and you can't depend on that. But if I had a strip club to go to, then I could work all the time."

She also feels comfortable working for Pattison.

"I feel safer here than I do working mall jobs," she said.

"Ruby Tru," who at 25 is considered the most experienced member of the Bare Essentials team, said she could see herself returning to Alberta where strip clubs could offer her a more steady income.

"I am making a career out of this as long as I can and as long as my body will allow me," said the 25-year-old, whose children are five and seven years old.

"I've considered leaving because I am not making any money here. I could see myself moving to Alberta because that is where the money is." ...

The rules surrounding stripping aren't going to change any time soon in Saskatchewan.

"This isn't a priority for us," said Tim McMillan, the minister responsible for the SLGA.

It's too politically dangerous for the provincial government to change the law despite its failings, Dumonceaux said....[/INDENT]

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

Ashley Martin reports for[I] Postmedia News[/I], 12 July 2011:

[url]http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/07/12/dancers-protest-saskatchewan-stripper-ban/[/url]

[INDENT]REGINA â?? Performers from the Bare Essentials burlesque show spent Mondayâ??s lunch hour petitioning people about Saskatchewanâ??s stripping laws.

Six women in shorts and tank tops, clipboards in hand, strolled a mall asking people to sign the petition to change a Saskatchewan alcohol control regulation, which prohibits stripping in premises where liquor is sold.

The petition cites safety of women and job creation as reasons to legalize stripping in bars.

Jessica, a performer in the Bare Essentials show which features scantily clad women but no nudity, said they received a mixed response during the almost two hours, from people who support the petition, to people looking for more information, to people absolutely against stripping.

â??I got in a fight with a preacher earlier because he was protesting against me,â? said Jessica, who declined to give her last name.

Norman Brown signed the petition because he disagrees with the law.

â??Iâ??ve been in Alberta, Iâ??ve been in British Columbia, Iâ??ve been in Manitoba and they have strip clubs there where you can buy alcohol, and I donâ??t see any problem with it,â? said Brown, though he doesnâ??t believe the petition will do any good.

Indeed, Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority spokesman David Morris said, â??A review of this regulation, itâ??s not a government priority at this time.SLGA will continue to enforce the prohibition against this type of entertainment in liquor-permitted establishments in the province.â?

Even if the petition is successful, â??I think the minister has been pretty clear on this one,â? said Morris.

The petition is fighting â??for the rights of women and men in a much maligned but vital industry.â? It argues that â??exotic dancing is a viable form of income for men and women who may not have the skills or education for other employment and still feel they have the right to a well-paying, safe and reliable job.â?

Safety is a major issue for Jessica, because a lot of women â??end up resorting to escorting, and thatâ??s really sad.â?

She adds that girls do private shows with only the protection of their bodyguard, and â??how safe is that?â?

Jessica argues that the law assumes people canâ??t control themselves when liquor and strippers are in the same place, and doesnâ??t give women the option of stripping as a profession.

â??Weâ??re going to fight this so that we have the choice to do what we want instead of people deciding for us,â? said Jessica. â??Itâ??s a free country, so why canâ??t we choose to have strip clubs in Saskatchewan? It doesnâ??t make sense.â?

Saskatchewan is the only province that bans stripping in liquor establishments.[/INDENT]