Toronto’s Student Strippers Want Licensing System Changed

While many of Toronto’s exotic dancers are working to pay their tuition, many of them don’t want their future bosses to know.

Roughly 330 of the city’s dancers presented a six-page petition to the Licensing and Standards Division of The City of Toronto, calling on officials to get rid of a system that leaves an electronic and paper trail that follows dancers to their next job.

The Adult Entertainment Association’s Tim Lambrinos recently told the Toronto Star that as many as 50% of the city’s 1,500 exotic dancers are foreign or Canadian students who dance to pay their college or university tuition.

“These girls are just dancing for the money,” Lambrinos told the Star.

“They work and finish their schooling and are gone to other jobs.”

He added Toronto has approximately 700 student strippers from Canada and countries like the U.S., Mexico, Venezuela, China and other parts of Asia.

“Sometimes when some girls try to cross the border the officers already know what they do for a living,” said Lambrinos. “Some of our dancers go on to become doctors and lawyers.”

Rudi Czekalla, a Toronto Licensing and Standards policy manager, says a recommendation will be presented to a committee on June 29.

“We are looking at what can be done legally and if we can do it,” said Czekalla. “This is not something we do every day.”