SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, December 5, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The city council of Saskatoon has approved a bylaw that eliminates all residential areas and the downtown core as possible locations for new “adult entertainment” businesses and restricts existing strip clubs to the outlying industrial areas.
“We don't have any strip clubs operating in Saskatoon,” city councillor Darren Hill told QMI Agency yesterday, adding there hasn't been a strip club in the city for a “number of years.”
“Far be it from me to legislate anyone’s morality, but we do need to have a bylaw in place by January 1,” city councillor Eric Olauson told the StarPhoenix.
While Saskatoon does not currently have such businesses in the city, the new bylaw came about as a result of a liquor law adjustment by the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority in 2012, which allows striptease and other forms of lewd entertainment in venues that also serve alcohol. It goes into effect January 1, 2014.
When council first discussed the bylaw in September, Councillor Pat Lorje said she believed the province made the liquor law change in a misguided effort to appear to be trendy, but she would really like to see strip tease performances totally banned from Saskatoon.
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“While I appreciate the provincial government wants to be seen as being ‘with it,’ it is something they did without consultation to the cities and is something I believe many citizens in Saskatoon have no appetite for,” Lorje told CKOM Radio.
“We know based on the experience of other cities that sex-orientated businesses do create crime in the immediate areas and in the communities,” Lorje said.
A petition urging the Saskatoon City Council to ban strip clubs points out that Iceland banned strip clubs in 2012 with the argument that women, and people in general, should be seen as equal citizens, not something for sale.
Saskatoon resident Yvonne Hanson, who launched the petition, said that the message strip clubs send is that enjoyment can come from the sale of (usually women’s) bodies for pleasure.
“We need to send a strong message to Saskatoon City Council that we oppose this message,” Hanson stated in her appeal for signatures. “We are not willing to tolerate strip clubs in our neighbourhoods where children live and are affected by this unethical social message about women and body image.”
While Hanson's petition asks that strip clubs be banned from “any vicinity of up to 500 metres (547 feet) around schools, day cares, or child-frequented facilities that may impress upon children stereotyping or negative imaging about nudity in the 'adult entertainment' industry,” Saskatoon's new zoning bylaw stipulates that adult entertainment venues can be located 160 metres from each other, and from schools, parks, and homes.
Contact:
Donald J. Atchison, Mayor
222 Third Avenue North
Saskatoon, SK S7K 0J5
Phone: (306) 975-3202
Fax: (306) 975-3144
E-mail: via website