Residents upset by swingers clubs, Globe and Mail

Revival of dormant licences skirts new rules and brings sex businesses to west end

JEFF GRAY
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
June 25, 2008 at 5:14 AM EDT

Just weeks after residents of a gradually gentrifying west-end neighbourhood protested against the surprise appearance of a strip club on Toronto's Lake Shore Boulevard, they are now aghast that two so-called swingers clubs have recently set up shop nearby.

Mark Grimes persuaded his fellow councillors to pass a motion yesterday ordering city bureaucrats and police to "act on the mechanisms available" to stop the establishment of swingers clubs, some of which advertise "on-premise" sex.

Mr. Grimes's motion also calls for the city manager to "act on the mechanisms available" to stop the reissue of adult entertainment licences that have not been active for years.

It was this situation that sparked residents' anger in the Lake Shore Boulevard West and Islington Avenue areas last month, after a country-and-western bar used a "grandfathered" adult-entertainment licence that dated from the 1990s to reopen as a strip club called Jay Jay's Inn, despite new rules barring new establishments near schools and residential areas.

Mr. Grimes said he was having trouble getting answers from city bureaucrats about what powers the city has to stop owners of dormant strip-club licences from opening for business once again. He also said the city does not appear to know how many so-called "sleeping" strip-club licences exist.

Now, residents are upset about a swingers club almost across the road from the strip club, called Menage a Quatre. Mr. Grimes's motion, passed by council, said the club is meant "to allow swingers to engage in multi-partner sexual acts."

Another club in the area, called HERS Night Club, advertises itself on its website as a venue for customers, who pay $5 to $60 admission, "to get away from the hypocrisy and double standards of the outside world and come live out sexual dreams and desires." (It also says on its site that it is moving to a new location.)

Local resident Scott Waddell, who started a Web petition to fight the strip club, said he moved to the area with his wife and young son last year before these businesses came to light.

"I wouldn't buy a house around the corner from a swingers club, just because I don't want to raise my kids there," Mr. Waddell said.

Swingers clubs that encourage members to participate in group sex acts have been emboldened in recent years by a 2005 Supreme Court of Canada ruling, and others exist elsewhere in the city.

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