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." That's a candid quote from Terry Koumoudouros, the strip-club owner who persuaded Ms. 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. "Nine times out of 10, these women have been coerced," says Victor Malarek, a former Globe and Mail journalist (now with CTV's W5) who's written a damning book on the global sex trade, The Natashas.
"They don't come into the country on their own," he says. "They come in under the control of organized crime and pimps." Many are in debt bondage to the pimps and agents who helped them get here. 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. "Society is still prejudiced against strippers," says Tim Lambrinos, executive director of the Adult Entertainment Association of Canada. Such apologists say strippers are no different from fruit pickers, nannies, and Japanese sushi chefs. So long as the demand for workers exceeds the domestic supply, we should import them.
Astoundingly, our own government agrees. Last year, Canada admitted 661 exotic dancers (552 of them from Romania) because, as Ms. Sgro declared last week, the exotic dancing industry "has a need, and we have an obligation to fulfill that need whether I like it or not."
And what is the nature of this need? To put it bluntly, it's to service the sexual desires of men. For once, Jack Layton has it right. "When you get money for helping to get young women to be available for the sexual desires of Canadian men, it's called pimping," he said.
According to Mr. Malarek, Canada is the only Western nation that allows in foreign sex-trade workers legally, through the front door. Thousands of others arrive through the back door, on tourist visas or claiming to be refugees. You can find them in massage parlours as well as peeler bars. Occasionally the police stage a massive bust, but mostly these operations are ignored because nobody complains. Meantime, the women try to marry Canadian men as quickly as possible to get landed status, making them exploiters, too. "Most of these guys are losers," says Mr. Malarek. "As soon as the women get landed status, it's goodbye, Charlie."
Every year, as many as 900,000 girls and women around the world are trafficked for sexual exploitation. Eastern Europe is now among the biggest suppliers of sex workers. If we cut off the supply, warn strip-club owners, their industry will be at risk. "They'll find we need dancers in Canada if this business is to survive," threatened one owner. So here's a question: Why on earth should it? mwente@globeandmail.ca