This article was published more than 20 years ago. Some information may no longer be current. The worst revelation of the stripper scandal is not that Judy Sgro fast-tracked certain lucky people into Canada, or that her chief of staff held a meeting in a strip joint.
It's the news that our government is complicit in human trafficking. We give work permits to young Romanian women to do a job Canadian women don't want to do. And this job? It's to gyrate virtually naked in front of aroused men, to simulate sex while sitting in their laps, to put on lesbian sex shows, to whip the patrons' buttocks with belts, and to entice them into private VIP "champagne rooms," where the assignment is to bump and grind and more against them until the men obtain sexual release or run out of money, whichever occurs first.
That's not dancing, folks. It's not entertainment. It's hooking. Strip clubs aren't really in the exotic dancing business. They're in the "ejaculation business. Sgro's chief of staff to drop by to discuss his immigration needs -- after making a handsome donation to the Liberal Party. He claims his own club is blameless. Do not be fooled into thinking that these young women most are in their early 20s enjoy their jobs, or that they are equal partners in this enterprise.
Many had no idea what they were in for. When they found out it was too late. Sure, they make a ton of money -- but most winds up in their exploiters' pockets.
If they object too strongly to the more unsavoury aspects of their jobs, they're likely to get slapped around. But it's unlikely they'll complain to the police -- another reason club owners prefer them to Canadians. The adult-entertainment lobby and the immigration lawyers would have you believe that stripping is just harmless entertainment, that all the strippers have free will, and that nobody is getting hurt. Such apologists say strippers are no different from fruit pickers, nannies, and Japanese sushi chefs.
