Those Stripper Visas: Eau De Corruption

 

Those Stripper Visas: Eau De Corruption

 

It is a source of wonder to the rest of the world that a nice, preachy country like Canada should offer visas to strippers.  To outsiders it may sound like a cozy arrangement with flesh smuggling gangsters, but Canadians know they must not question immigration policy -- it's a government agency run on tax dollars and utterly immune to criticism.  After the slapstick antics of the Judy Sgro Envelope Licker Scandal, there were hand-on-heart assurances that stripper visas would be abolished.  In fact, they still exist, albeit in less tumescent form: As of last spring, "only 17 exotic dancer permits have been issued since the Conservatives came to power, down from 423 in 2004.  [In 2003, 661 jiggle visas were issued, 552 of them to Romanians.  The declining numbers have not escaped the notice of flesh peddlers.  In April 08, security was tightened around then] Immigration Minister Diane Finley following threats related to Conservative efforts to keep foreign strippers out of Canada.  Numerous threats, of an escalating nature ... are directly linked to Bill C-17, the government's anti-stripper legislation, and hinted at an organized crime connection.  ... Finley introduced the anti-stripper legislation early last year ... as a measure she said would crack down on sexual exploitation and human trafficking."  (CTV, April 23, 2008)

 

 Repulsive as this may be, it can't be entirely unexpected -- coercion and extortion midwived the stripper visa into being: "Intimidation by organized crime and 'bad guys' in the adult entertainment business led Human Resources Development Canada to establish a special fast-track entry programme for foreign exotic dancers [in 1998], according to a senior government official.  Bureaucrats at HRDC and Citizenship and Immigration have known for years that many foreign dancers, mainly from Romania and Eastern Europe, were being trafficked by criminal syndicates and, ... despite evidence from police and reputable organizations that the women were compelled into prostitution, HRDC officials would not shut down the labour-market programme that exempted strip club owners from having to prove a scarcity of native-born dancers.  The insider, speaking on background, said: ... 'Nobody seems to know how it got approved.  Nobody seems to know the origin of the thing.  When [we] pressed them on it, the answer was, well, they didn't want their local people having to deal with the club bookers or the owners or whomever they were having to deal with,' said the official.  'The best answer [we] got is that they wanted to get their people out of dealing with these characters, these guys.'  ... By giving a blanket exemption to foreign strippers, department officials did not have to deal with strip club owners or their representatives on a case-by-case basis, said the official said.  This meant the Immigration Department had little choice but to grant temporary work permits to exotic dancers since HRDC had designated the strip club industry as facing a labour shortage."  (National Post, December 18, 2004)

 

             It just makes you swell with pride to see your country capitulate to the inducements of thugs.  And remember, no criticism!  In reality, there is actually a surfeit of "dancers" in Canada and a shortage of customers staying away in droves from the feral scrum of rapacious "dancers" competing to loot their pockets and max out their cards.  Nice.

 

[This article appears in the  January, 2009 issue of the CANADIAN IMMIGRATION HOTLINE. Published monthly, the CANADIAN IMMIGRATION HOTLINE is available by subscription for $30 per year. You can subscribe by sending a cheque or VISA number and expiry date to CANADIAN IMMIGRATION HOTLINE, P.O. Box 332, Rexdale, ON., M9W 5L3.]