Bill c-38 no longer renewing exotic dancer's visas

[daredevil8888 407]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-politics/bill-c-38-strip-foreign-strippers-visas-152010699.html

 

Not sure if the visa change stayed in after voting, but I am wondering if some of my favorites will be leaving.

[fortunateone 156618]

I can see they mentioned trafficking and exploitation, I do think there have been a number of cases where the European ladies come to Canada to work (domestic or similar) and find themselves either in a club or a illegal brothel. I guess if they eliminate the visa, then it can't be used for that reason.

 

I wonder also how much of this is related to the change of laws? If someone is here on an adult entertainment visa, it would be hard to say they can't do sex work in a legal brothel.

 

 

 

 

Canada's 'peeler bars' might just get a little less 'exotic' with the passing of Bill C-38.

The Ottawa Sun is reporting that provisions included in the Conservatives' massive omnibus budget bill will mean the end of work visas for foreign strippers once and for all.

The controversial "stripper visa," which dates back to 1998, allowes hundreds of foreign-born exotic dancers into the country each year. In 2001 for example, 660 foreign dancers -- mostly from Eastern Europe -- were admitted to Canada.

All they had to do was provide a Canadian job offer and prove they were qualified to 'dance.'

While the Tories' essentially axed that program soon after taking office, roughly 100 of those visas have been renewed each year since 2006.

[ Related: Bill C-38: is it time for critics of the Bill to move on? ]

"The problem is, under the current Immigration Act we don't have the legal authority to deny people visas based on the industry they're working in," Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney told the Sun.

"Now we have the power, which we'll begin using as soon as those regulations are done this summer, to deny visas to people who we think ... might have a high chance of trafficking or exploitation."

Under the new regulations, all existing temporary work visas to foreign-born strippers will be cancelled, all new applications will be denied and all "open" work visa holders will be barred from working in the adult entertainment industry.

But, as the Sun notes, the strippers aren't taking these changes lying down.

Tim Lambrinos, president of the Adult Entertainment Association of Canada, is considering mounting a challenge to the legislation, saying it will only drive these women to work underground.

"When I say 'exotic' what do you think of?" he asked the Sun.

"Foreign, right? Non-indigenous. That's the kind of entertainment people want to see."

Depending on your affinity for the exotic adult entertainment industry, maybe Bill C-38 isn't all bad

[PatrickGC 10792]

Oh, how are conservative federal government drives me crazy! Their actions make no logical sense, in that these restrictions will only serve to drive marginalized communities further underground thereby increasing the risk to all.

 

Apologies, I haven't read all the posts and articles on this yet. But this really gets to me, the only ones to profit from this in the long run will be the politicians by way of the short-term media blitz it will create. This will do nothing for those really being trafficked because this does not address the long-term issues of poverty, violence and other factors which make someone vulnerable to abuse. Canceling or not extending visas takes away people's power and dignity to work as they choose. Quite literally driving them toward illegal activities, isolation and straight into harm's way.

 

Also the adult industry is once again in the public's eye lumped together under the catchphrase "trafficking". These are really two vastly different issues.

 

I will try to have something more constructive to say in a while. Right now I think I have to calm down with a nice cup of tea.

 

 

PatrickGC

[JoyfulC 132299]

Well, that settles that! Now all these potentially exploited women will just stay home and have wonderful, happy fulfilling lives and be treated with respect.

 

Something tells me that the most outrageous exploitation in Canada is probably better than what they face at home or elsewhere. This doesn't fix any problem. It just limits opportunity and imposes prejudice on our industry. It smells suspiciously like another pander to the base, along the lines of doing away with the long gun registry.

 

Oh well! Maybe all our terminated scientists and statisticians can get jobs peeling!

[PatrickGC 10792]

Something tells me that the most outrageous exploitation in Canada is probably better than what they face at home or elsewhere. This doesn't fix any problem. It just limits opportunity and imposes prejudice on our industry. It smells suspiciously like another pander to the base, along the lines of doing away with the long gun registry.

 

Christine, you nailed it on the head. It is indeed "pandering to the base". Getting everyone's emotions all revved up so that people stop thinking rationally.

 

Last fall I was lucky enough to attended a presentation by Laura Agustín Author of Sex at the Margins, where she discussed the various perceptions of sex work around the world and how many issues had been deliberately distorted in order to support the growing "rescue industry". What struck me about her talk was her ability to objectively separate the issues. Not dispassionately, but with a critical view.

 

This 24 minute YouTube is an excellent summation of her talk. One word of warning: The last few minutes show an actual police raid of a brothel in India. The authorities swooped in to save the workers -- Who clearly, don't want to be saved.

 

 

In Canada, here we are in the 21st century, and the government is playing the same trick with strip clubs. I must be a bit of an oddball, because the first time I went to one I couldn't believe how well coordinated and powerful these women were. You don't move that fluidly and defy gravity unless one has put in a tremendous amount of time and does so on a continual basis. Then, I noticed how sexy they were. What a gift!

 

PatrickGC