Petition rallies against strip club
Opposition is mounting against a proposed strip club in Regina.
An online petition had reached more than 350 signatures by the end of Monday.
“I think if there’s any possibility of us stopping it, it would be the best for our city,” said Harold Lutzer, a retiree.
“I think we really need to give our heads a shake and realize that the majority of people are not for this at all.”
The strip club, slated for 1074 Park St. is the first one proposed since provincial legislation changed in January 2014 to allow liquor to be sold where live adult entertainment takes place.
City council will vote on the application on Jan. 26.
The venue has been the subject of discussions at some ministries across town, but the tone of the opposition doesn’t just come down to religion, said Lutzer, who once acted as the director of the Canadian Revival Fellowship.
“We also are approaching it from a social standpoint of, I believe, that something like that would just contribute more to human trafficking and prostitution,” he said.
“I think there’s a real connection between this and the crimes against women,” he later added.
When Regina Apostolic Church senior pastor Rick Parkyn thinks of the proposal, his mind can’t help but turn to his three daughters and how “every lady is the daughter of someone.”
“The greatest issue is to do with treating women properly,” he said.
This weekend, the church passed around a petition to its more than 1,000 congregants and encouraged them to call their councillors about this issue.
“If anybody has any questions or concerns, I will have an open-door policy,” said the applicant, Bryon Gottfredsen, who currently manages a hotel with a strip club near Edmonton. There, he has collaborated with police to prevent crime and plans to do the same in Regina.
As for comments against the nature of strip club work, Gottfredsen said, “It’s freedom of expression for them. They have a job just like everybody else.”
He added that “obviously there’s a demand for it” and reiterated that he hasn’t yet decided what kind of adult entertainment his nightclub will feature. He noted that Saskatchewan legislation does not allow full nudity.
That’s not enough reassurance for Parkyn, who said that, “On this level, to be honest, there’s no room for negotiation.”
Despite the opposition, Gottfredsen is “feeling very upbeat” about the council meeting.
What’s before councillors is a zoning application with respect to a municipal bylaw that permits adult entertainment establishments in industrial areas as long as they are a certain distance from some other land uses, like schools, daycares and religious institutions. Gottfredsen’s application meets all the criteria.
Coun. Shawn Fraser hasn’t yet decided which way he will vote.
“I think a government’s role is to regulate, not to prohibit. So the question for me is not necessarily about, ‘Do we need to prohibit strip clubs?’ ... My question is, ‘Do we have the capacity to regulate?’”
Fraser’s opinion: No, city hall doesn’t.
His primary concern is for the safety of workers, he said. Regina doesn’t have an adult services licensing system like Saskatoon, which regulates who works in the industry.
Fraser also raised alarm bells over Regina’s adult entertainment establishment bylaw. He pointed to massage parlours allegedly offering sexual services, which seem to be operating against the bylaw in his ward.
Meanwhile, Lutzer said that those who oppose the strip club don’t want to stop at getting the application nixed at City Hall.
“I don’t think this should be the last of it. I would hope that we could go to government and make some changes (to the legislation), too,” he said.