Ontario strip clubs propose licensed brothels, decriminalization, as way to make sex work safer

Some of Canada’s strip club operators think they have a better solution for sex workers than the government — and it involves turning their clubs into licensed brothels.

The Adult Entertainment Association of Canada is proposing an alternative Canadian model for prostitution to the Conservative government’s recently proposed Bill C-36, which criminalizes the purchase of sex.

The group, which represents three dozen exotic clubs across Ontario, believes the world’s oldest profession is best dealt with through the provision of licences to strip clubs that would allow prostitution in separately licensed areas of the clubs. It would not require dancers to sell sex or sex workers to dance.

Turn Strip Clubs Into Brothels

It plans to submit a five-month-long “Enhanced Adult Services Study” to the Ontario and federal governments, as well as each municipality in Ontario in the hopes politicians will consider alternatives before the controversial bill passes.

The five-month-long study released Thursday concludes decriminalization, regulation and licensing of the business would keep sex workers safer. It would also allow governments to collect millions of dollars in tax revenues from “the market for sexual services,” which it estimates to be worth between $870 million and $1.7 billion per year.

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