KITCHENER, CANADA — The city of Kitchener thinks there’s altogether too much touching going on inside of the area’s strip clubs – and it wants it to stop.That means no table dances, no VIP rooms, and neither mud nor jelly wrestling.
“There is no doubt in my mind that the business will crumble,” The Doll House co-owner Bill Popazotos informed the city finance committee on Monday, focusing especially on table dances. “It is the main reason customers visit these establishments.”
City staff wasn’t particularly impressed, given how much trouble it feels the city has had due to club violations of already existing non-touch policies concerning patrons and dancers. Both The Doll House and Roxxanne’s Bar and Grill have been temporarily closed for their transgressions. They are the only clubs authorized to operate within the city.
“I would say our main concern is the amount of contact between patrons and performers,” explained Patricia Harris, the city’s manager of licensing, during the council meeting. Harris insisted that table dancers often include a fair amount of action contact between customers and dancers, putting them in violation of the anti-touch laws already in place.
Although the owner of Roxxanne’s insists that a VIP room table dancing ban could be tolerated and has offered to work with the city, $250,000 of renovations to the bar could well have been for nothing if the dances could not even be conducted outside of the VIP area.
“We are talking about a legitimate business here whose existence is threatened by this bylaw,” Roxxanne’s attorney, Steven McMurray, insisted. “As said by the Ontario Court of Appeal, table dancing is a core activity in adult entertainment parlours.”
“I don’t know of any other city that has banned table dancing,” Popazotos told the press after the council meeting.
It is because of this that both establishments fear they’ll lose their clientele to clubs in neighboring cities, where similar bans are not in existence.
A decision will have to wait for more precise definitions of lap dancing, table dancing, and VIP rooms, however, as the proposed bylaws have been sent back for clarification.
“Words are important, Mayor Carl Zehr explained. “The more definitions and clarity that can be brought into the bylaw, the better.”
Zehr thinks a workable compromise can be reached. “There has to be some leeway there, so we don’t prohibit this activity. Like it or not, this activity occurs.” The ultimate goal for the city it to ensure that patrons and dancers keep a proper distance from one another, something Zehr thinks can go a long way toward being achieved with the removal of VIP rooms.
